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Search Engine Submission Tips, Keywords & Meta Tags

General Information:

Before submitting, review the search engine's guidelines for submissions but some say the best strategy is to ignore search engine submission completely. I say do it if you have the patience for it otherwise a better get is to get a link on a site that is already indexed, and the search engines will find you.

Meta Tags:

The use of Meta Tags can be very beneficial to your submittal, but they will not guarantee a listing or high placement. They can be used for both the keywords and description meta tags.

The Keyword Meta Tag is located in the header of your webpage file's HTML source code. The keywords should be words people searching for a site like yours would use. Try to think of any words and combination of words that would be used to find the information contained on your page. Most search engines limit for keyword Meta Tags to 1000 characters.

The Description Meta Tag is also in the header of your webpage file's HTML source code. The description should convince the searcher to visit your site and can be a maximum of 250 characters but put the most important keyword phrases in the first 120 characters. You can repeat a keyword with other keywords to form phrases, but I wouldn't repeat a word more than 3 times to be safe.

Keyword Placement Suggestions:

Use targeted keyword phrases throughout your site.

Position your keyword phrases high up and in the headline of page, as well as in the first few lines of text.

Place your most important keyword phrase at the beginning of the title.

The frequency of targeted keywords throughout the page can affect ranking positively. Search engines see sites with keywords used often as more relevant to the topic then those who use the keywords less frequently. Never the less, write for your human visitor and just keep the frequency in mind. You don't want it to sound spammy.

Using tables at the top of the page can push keywords further down the page, making a site look less relevant. The search engines read text first, which makes it look like the text is placed lower on the site. Try using layers unless your target audience is using MAC computers. MAC computers sometimes have trouble reading layers correctly.

Have HTML text on the page relevant to the topic of the site. Search engines don't read graphical images.

Don't try to trick the search engines by repeating keywords hundreds of times in smaller text or in text the same color as the background. It's been done and the search engines are savvy to it.

Submitting All Pages:

You do not always need to submit all of the pages in your site. There are ways to increase the probability that the search engine will follow all of the links and list all of the ages without you submitting them. Take a look at this article on building link popularity.

One of the best options is to submit your site to as many free directories as you can. This will ensure that your site eventually gets indexed in a timely manner. Search Engines have software programs often called spiders or robots, that will crawl or surf the web, following links and indexing website url's and information about those websites. If they find your site without you having submitted it, some say they will rank you higher. Others say submit regularly and all say never too often or too many pages at a time. Develop a rotating schedule if you are going to do that.

Using only image map links to get from one page to the other will not be followed as effectively by the search engines. Add some HTML hyperlinks to the home page that lead to major inside pages. Be sure the internal linking of your pages is done correctly. By naturally pointing to the various pages of your site from within it, the search engines will have a better chance of following those links.

Avoide emails & sites that claim to submit your site to "500+ search engines and directories" for free, or $39.95. Whatever the price, it will still be money out of pocket and little or no results. These companies usually use automated submission techniques and boast guarantees they can not deliver on. The problem with an automated process (non-organic) is that the search engines do not like automated processes accessing their databases and it is believed to factor negatively in their algorithms. Plus, as we described above, submitting to search engines is a waste of time, since they will eventually crawl your site if you have good inbound links. Adding, updating and changing content regularly also helps. Remember, content is "king"!

Links from other Sites:

Major search engines use link analysis as part of their ranking structure. Get good links from good sites that are relevant to your topic. This can be beneficial not only in the search engine listings, but it also gets your site seen by the people visiting those sites.

To find good sites to link with, take a look at this link building article.

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