Getting a web site noticed although its the last page on this web site, it is certainly not the last thing you do! It should be in your mind as you write and organise the web site.
- organising your material is important. Splitting your subject material logically by topic will make each page relevant to a that topic and naturally rank well.
- If you have commonly used search phrases as key words on a page and they are relevant to that page. The page is much more likely to get visitors from search engines. Use the tools to compare search phrases, this gives some idea of the popularity of a search term or phrase.
- Don't stuff the page with your key words, that's bad for both human visitors and the robots used by search engines!
- If in doubt hedge your bets and use two terms, use both 'neuropathy' and 'nerve damage' for instance.
- Make sure the html 'Title' tag is relevant to your main page topic and spelt correctly.
generally: -
- Get the site finished before you put it online.
- Don't use or show at all 'under construction' pages.
- If you want to tell people what's coming, have a page for it or a section on the home page.
Site Name and Page Names
Your site name is used by the search engines in positioning the pages on your site as are your page names. If your site (or page) name includes words that people commonly search for, your site will be better placed in the search results than if it doesn't.Site names especially can give a site a boost in the search engine rankings if a word, or better two/three words in the site name matches a potential visitors search.
Lengthy lists of words used for a site or page name can be consider unnatural and there use may be penalised by the Search Engines. Short descriptive names are best but are likely to be already taken. For a site name try to use no more than a two or three word combination.
To some extent you can get around if the best site name is taken. If you consider a plumber's site based in Bristol, their most important key phrase is likely to be 'Bristol Plumber'. Some of the site names to consider would be:-
- bristolplumber.co.uk
- plumberbristol.co.uk
- bristol-plumber.co.uk
- plumber-bristol.co.uk
Or slight variations of these:
- bristolplumbers.co.uk
- bristolplumbing.co.uk
- bristol-plumbers.co.uk and so on ...
or the other domain types:
- bristolplumber.com - More expensive to register but can be used for a UK site. Make sure that the server running the site is physically in the UK or you could get Bristol, Rhode Island plumbing enquiries!
- bristolplumber.org.uk - Usually more expensive to register than .co.uk sites.
- bristolplumber.me.uk - I have yet to try a 'me' or 'biz' domain type, they maybe less effective.
While these give an impression to a visitor about your site they are all available for any use.
Many hosting companies offer search facilities to find what site names are already taken. Search for web hosting and most sites offering this will allow you to search for available site names, they may refer to them as domain names.
Page Names: will generally be in your control so choose a meaningful one or two word name. Avoid repeating words already in the site name, in the page name.
Submitting your Site to Search Engines.
In brief don't submit your site to any of the search engines!Particularly avoid any mass submission software or web pages offering that service. Most search engines and directories consider this spam and may penalise your site for doing this.
The search engines will find you by sites that link to you, they are very good at that. Some even prefer to find you via a link to you, rather than a direct submission.
Below are guidelines for the big three search engines, Google by the way almost has a strangle hold on the UK search market: -
- Google: Technical, webmaster and quality guidelines.
- Yahoo: Search engine quality guidelines.
- Microsoft (MSN): Guidelines for successful indexing.
Links
Directories are organised tables of web sites. You can use them to get links to your site, some are free and some charge. To get you started have a look at these -- The Open Directory Project not a commercial directory but they include commercial sites - recommended. Google's directory mainly comes from the Open Directory too.
- Yahoo Directory - free for non commercial sites.
- Local Directories - use a search engine or the Open Directory above to find a list of these. The Bristol, England, guides and directories for example.
- Professional Directories - this is the UK, Health, Nursing list for example, again from the open directory project.
- For other related quality web sites - suggest a cross link, you link to them and they link to you.
Most directories will have a site submission option. Find the page where you think your site should be on. Then submit your site.
On the free directories be patient generally don't re-submit. The open directory merely puts you at the bottom of the review list every time you re-submit.
It can take a long time and there is no guarantee that you will be accepted in some directories too. Having unique or interesting information on your site makes it easier.
Warning: Some of the less legitimate directories, have been known to sell email addresses supplied during registration. Ideally use a throwaway email address if you must give an e-mail address to get your link.
Web 2.0 Links
Web 2.0 websites according to Wikipedia 'aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing'. They are basically interactive websites where visitors supply the content like:- facebook, vox, myspace, youtube, blogger ...This sort of website often allows you to add one or more links to a site or several sites.
- Youtube for example - sorry the video quality is not the finest here.