…it will take time and research, and no single source can provide all information necessary for your site to be successful [in search engines].

Let it first be said that no 300-word article can explain ALL aspects of getting your website listed in search engines, so to get indexed (be listed in possible results) and rank in search engines, it will take time and research, and no single source can provide all information necessary for your site to be successful. That being said, this article should explain the basics and at least get your site indexed if not ranking for select terms.

Myths:

Quite frequently, I have my clients approach me with a list of needs for their web presence, and while most of the items on such a list are accurate and necessary, sometimes I have to correct a few items and clear up some items that are many times cryptic. The following is a short list of examples of myths my clients have presented to me.

1. Submission to Search Engines
   My clients always make a big deal about making sure I submit their sites to search engines. This is thought by many to be a necessary step in creating a successful website, but in fact it is NOT. A well-placed external link (from another site) will get you indexed in usually about a week, sometimes less. Anyone who has submitted their website to a search engine has experienced issues getting indexed immediately, not as a result of submitting, but because in recent years, search engines have stopped trusting submissions (for reasons that include spammers and bots I would assume) and put more emphasis on links. If your site is connected by a link to another site, it will get indexed and
2. Rank me for a difficult search keyword
   Contrary to popular belief, there is no way to guarantee that a website ranks on the first position (or first page for that matter) on a search results page for a specific keyword. While there are more unpopular terms that are very simple to rank for, many competitive keywords are very difficult to obtain rankings for. To rank for such terms, there is much more involved than many think. Not only does your website have to be coded well and linked to, but your content has to be considered valuable by search engines. Search engines like Google are paying more and more attention to content, as that is why people search - to get meaningful information. If you have no content and great links, you wont necessarily rank as well as a site that has half the links and better content.

Page Creation Guidelines

If a search crawler (program that explores the web indexing pages for a search engine) can’t read your site, how do you ever expect to be indexed or rank? Make sure you know what to ask the designer for in order to accomplish this. Follow these simple guidelines when instructing your designer:

• Table-free design: If a site is made completely out of div tags and span tags instead of table tags, search engines have an easier time getting to the content since there will be less code in the page to read through. It’s also generally helpful to follow up-to-date coding standards.
• Text links: Make sure all pages are accessible by a text link. If you have a menu that has images in it, make sure the designer puts in a small text menu on the bottom of the page. Search bots can read images, so you are MUCH more likely to rank for terms if you use text links for pages on your site.
• URL Parameters: if there are too many parameters in your website, search engines often have issues with indexing the pages.
• Robots.txt: Use a robots.txt file to direct the bots on where they can and can’t go when they get to your site.
• No Duplication: Make sure you do a quick check over your site when completed to ensure that there isn’t any duplicate content. Engines have a difficult time figuring out which one is the original and one or the other of the pages will likely be removed from the index as a result.

Note: Part 2 of 3 in series ‘Making Your Website Great’.

Posted Friday, February 15th, 2008 at 12:00 pm in Web Design.