Websites

[Shaun]

i have never tried to get a website ranked highly on a search engine like yahoo can anyone give me advice on how to do that.

Shaun

[jonneebee]

I noticed a thread in the small business news section on this topic that I found intriguing (I am in the same boat as you).

http://www.small-business-forum.com/...hread.php?t=17

Hope this helps,

John Brandenburg

http://www.acmelogo.com/
866-EZ-LOGOS (6467)
3 Drafts / 2 Days / $3 Down!

[Peter T Davis]

Right now, Yahoo gives Google results, so to rank highly in Yahoo's search you need to rank highly in Google. So, focus on Google.

[jonneebee]

Peter, can you or anyone else point us to any information on the web that is current about optimizing our sites for google? I found a book called "the Unfair Advantage to Winning the Search Engine Wars" and was wondering if it was as credible as their site claims. www.searchenginehelp.com/info/ Have you heard of it? Is there anything else like this that you know of? Are there any sites with an abundance of free info out there.

John Brandenburg

http://www.acmelogo.com/
866-EZ-LOGOS (6467)
3 Drafts / 2 Days / $3 Down!

[Peter T Davis]

It's really easier than that. There are four keys to Google.

1. PageRank
2. Anchor Text
3. Title and Header Tags
4. Keyword Density

To get PageRank, you need links from other sites, coming to yours, and/or lots of content on your site. A combination of both works best. Anchor text is simply the text used in the link to you from other sites, or internal link text on your site. Title and header tags are important too, just make sure the title of your page is the keyword you want, and use header tags well. Keyword density is very flexible, just make sure you mention your keyword a few times on a page without seeming out of place. You'll put the most work into building PageRank. Just start by exchanging links with other sites that are complimentary to your own. Or, you can start by purchasing link ads on other sites. Buying is more expensive but better because you don't have to link back.

[I, Brian]

Of course, Yahoo now owns Inktomi, so there should be an emphasis on meta-usage in addition to the above.

However, please note that content is everything - you are optimising content at the end of the day.

[Janet Dice]

Hello

So This I have been studying the past week. A site I found helpful was SearchEngineWatch.com. They have all kinds of helpful advice....and most of it is free...everything you would really want to know is there...you don't have to become a member. Important to getting a site off the ground or ranked higher according to SearchEngineWatch.com is:
1. Location& Frequency
2.How Pages Link Together
3. Good Links Pointing To Site
4. Keywords should be 2 or 3 words long

They also wrote...which I found interesting...a great way to be picked up by Google is to Pay Yahoo $300/year to advertise in their directory & have a link attached to your site to Yahoo. Google would pick up on this(your site being attached to Yahoo) and most likely give you good ranking. You should probably go to SearchEngineWatch.com and look it up yourself though... before spending $300. But you never know...Google could rank you high based on your keywords & links to your site alone without spending a hefty $300 to Yahoo. I'm waiting before I spend $300 for anything and slowly putting links on my site. I have designated one page of my site to Links only...so my home page isn't covered with links to other sites. I have picked up alot of links from other sites similar to mine and aren't competitive in nature from Linkpartners.com . I have also found a couple free directories & search engines to place my site in at Linkpartners.com. It takes Google a couple months before they even get to your site once you submit to them...so I would submit & take the next month building links to your site & making sure your site links together properly(meaning...it is easy to get around your website). Plus at the top of each webpage...I have made sure to mention my keywords without being obvious or repetitive.
If you find a 3rd party to list/submit your site to search engines, directories & classified ads you know is good...let me know. Alot offer to do it all for a small fee of $60-$120 but can't guarantee ranking or that you won't be denied altogether from major search engines. So...I guess I'm just as lost as you at some things. But I have already submitted to Google. I hope they pick me up.

Signed,
Janet
dicemoon@aol.com
http://www.lastminutemall.com/everythingwholesale

[Janet Dice]

oh, I am such a goof. Trafficzap.com & Position-it.com can help with metatags...but as I have learned...alot of search engines don't use those anymore to rank your site. The help links are:
http://www.trafficzap/metagenerator.php
http://www.position-it.com/quicksubmit.htm
http://www.linkpartners.com
http://searchenginewatch.com

Signed,
Janet
http://www.lastminutemall.com/everythingwholesale

[Josh Freedman]

As others have noted, there is a lot of material online about optimizing your site for higher search engine rankings. (Search Engine Watch has some good links.) There's also a lot of bad material. One good way to sniff this out is if they guarantee you a specific placement. Nobody can, unless they do paid ads like those on the right side of the screen on Google, and even then your location is subject to your bid relative to competition. Also avoid anyone who is just going to submit your site.

Other factors:

• The biggest factor (and one of the few things folks at search engines like Google will divulge about the process) is how many pages link to yours. Not just how many, but how important they are. A link from this site carries much less weight than does one from a site like CNN or Yahoo.
• Meta tags are virtually meaningless.
• Work hard on your copy. If you aren't a good writer, hire one. It's worth it. If your writing doesn't sound professional, and most people are not very good writers, you'll scare off the customers that do actually find your site. It's also good to find a copywriter who understands the needs of search engine optimization as your search terms should be used frequently (yet your text should still read normally).
• Research your keywords. Optimizing for your tagline is silly if nobody knows what it is. Find out what people are really searching for, then optimize for that. This often requires adding content.
• To get found, see if someone you know who already has a site can include a link to yours. If their site has been "Googled", eventually yours will be too. This is not necessarily the case for Inktomi and the Ask Jeeves, Teoma, etc. family. They don't take free submissions, and often don't add things just because they're linked to.
• Be patient. It takes a long time both for your site to get listed and for updates to be reflected in search engine databases. We're talking months, not days or weeks.

Hope this helps.

[Daniel]

I´d be happy to help you guys out, just mail me. You can also read an article I wrote about this from my website at www.dmbonline.net - I wrote it about 6 months ago, so I got some more goodies at store which I´ve found out since then.