Introduction
Assuming a visitor looking for your site does not have your web address, being listed in the Search Engines is absolutely fundamental to your site being found on the World Wide Web. The likelihood of your site being automatically indexed by the Search Engines is very slim indeed, it is therefore imperative that you actively submit your site to the Search Engines for indexing.
Unfortunately, getting listed in the Search Engines is far from an exact science. It's impossible for us (or any one else for that matter ) to guarantee a method to get 'first page' or 'top ten' Search Engine placings without resorting to pay-per-click advertising. For this reason, Recipero do not currently offer a service whereby we submit your site to the Search Engines on your behalf.
There are a few pointers to bear in mind before you start. Firstly, the Search Engines themselves offer absolutely no guarantee that your site will be indexed at all. Secondly, it may take up to six weeks (possibly longer) for the Search Engine to index your site so don't expect immediate results. Finally, it takes thought and effort to boost your rankings. Don't expect to submit your site, sit back and watch the visitors roll in!
Optimising Your Meta Information
The first thing to do is set up your site so that it offers as much relevant information to the Search Engine as possible. To do this, log in and go to Site Settings then Technical Settings. Scroll down until you reach the field called 'Website Title'. This field is the text that appears in the very top of Internet Explorer's Window in the blue space directly above the menu bar. This field should contain the title of your website, but try to make it as keyword-rich as possible at the same time. Do not put more than 10 or so words here.
Examples:
Bad: Barfield Ltd
Good: Barfield Brick Company - High Quality Bricks
The next field is 'Site Description'. This field is a short description in plain English explaining what your site is about. Keep this field under 30 words and again, try and maximise the number of keywords in there whilst maintaining its readability as a sentence or paragraph.
Examples:
Bad: We make bricks and other things
Good: The Barfield Brick Company offer a wide range of high quality bricks and other building materials directly from our factory in Accrington, Lancashire. For quality, choice and guaranteed satisfaction contact us today.
The final field is 'Keywords'. This field should contain a list of words which you believe people will use in their searches to try and find your organisation or the products and services you offer. Some Search Engines only look at the first 10 keywords, others will take the first 50, so it's imperative that what you deem as your most important keywords go first in the list. The golden rule here is not to repeat entries.
Variations on words are fine (eg : land, landing, landed), and you can have repeat words within different entries. You can also use phrases if a common phrase describes your site. All entries must be separated with a comma and a space. Remember : What you are trying to do throughout this whole process is second-guess what keywords and phrases visitors to your site will use in a search and apply those keywords and phrases to your site as effectively as possible.
Examples:
Bad: Barfield, Bricks, Barfield, Brick, Company, Barfield, Building, Bricks
Good: Barfield, Bricks, Barfield Bricks, Building Materials, Accrington, Lancashire, Quality, Guaranteed, Wide Range etc etc
Please bear in mind however that using the term 'bricks' will not get you listed at the top of the searches. There may be millions of other websites using this term as well, so choose terms that are relavant to you, and used in the content of your page. It is also important to understand that simply listing keywords will not get you ranked highly. This is only one of the steps to getting your website listed.
Gaining Reciprocal Links
The next step is quite possibly the most critical step of the whole process bar the submission itself. Obtaining reciprocal links with other websites. Your site's position in the results ( assuming is has been indexed ) is governed by PageRank, a technology unique to Google that determines how authoritative your site is and modifies it's position to suit. Google ascertains how many other sites within its index link you your site. If there are not many, then your site is considered less important hence your rank slips. If Google finds many sites linking to your site, your ranking is increased. Yes, there are other Search Engines out there but Google is the biggest and best and hence and ideal place to start your submissions.
It's therefore obvious that the way to boost the ranking is to have more sites link to your site. Usually the way to do this is to get reciprocal links with other sites - a case of "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours". In case you were wondering, a reciprocal link merely means that a link from your site to the third party site exists as does a link from the third party site back to yours. Get as many reciprocal links with other sites set up as you can. Contact other local organisations and businesses or set up links-trades with friends and relatives. Contact your professional body and request a link from them or perhaps your suppliers or satisfied customers.
Remember however that Google also looks at the quality of websites linking to you. You should not use free link websites, banner exchanges or sites with dubious content. This will only hurt your ranking with Google. While it will be very unlikely that you can get your website linked to, for example the BBC, big important websites such as this will dramatically improve your ranking compared to small unknown websites.
Submitting Your Website
Once you have started collating and adding these reciprocal links, you can submit yourself to the Search Engines. To do this, visit the Search Engines individually and find the submission form. This form will invariably be squirreled away somewhere. Look for links like 'Add URL', 'Suggest a Site' and 'Add your site'. In the case of Google, the form can be found at :
http://www.google.com/addurl
Once you have submitted, don't stop. Keep setting up those reciprocal links - every one will help. There are literally thousands of Search Engines, but the small ones are either worthless or share the indexes of the larger ones. Submitting to Google, MSN, Altavista, Lycos, Yahoo and DMOZ is a very good start. Depending on the category you fit into, some Search Engines will request a fee (Yahoo may well if you are a commercial organisation for example).
After a couple of weeks, try to find your site on the Search Engines you have submitted to and using the keywords you used. See what's effective and what isn't. If you're not coming up top, see what sites are. Look at their site title, descriptions and keywords and see how you can use their ideas to advance your site up the rankings.
If you don't appear, every three-six months or so, spend some time re-submitting your site to the Search Engines after fine-tuning and modifying the three relevant fields in technical settings are of your site. Keep trying to second guess visitor searches and keep on setting up reciprocal links, we can't stress how important that last part is. Without reciprocal links, the chances are you'll be nowhere in the rankings. Don't submit too often though, otherwise you may be seen as trying to spam the index. The suggested three-six month period should be fine. Remember to take your time and research and apply the results that are coming back from your searches to your site and you're on the way to a great ranking.
Other Methods
A tool that many people find useful particularly when wanting to drive traffic to their website are advertising programs such as Google Adwords. This (and other similar programs) are cost effective ways to direct traffic to a website without having to rely on natural search engine rankings.
You should also not just be relying on search engine traffic. Put your website address (URL) on all your stationery, include it as a signature in your emails, and add it your business cards (if you have any). If you include this in all correspondence it helps to get your site more easily recognised in the 'offline' world.
