Search Engine Submission Tips

The following search engine optimization tips are the most important ones to use for a long-term search engine strategy:

1. Content
   Write great content using your most important keywords prominently throughout your web site. Visitors who read great content will link to your web site and recommend it to others.
   Note:  This is the most important tip.   The search engines index text... the better your text and content, the better your ranking.  The search engines want to list quality sites.  And remember, the more text on your site, the more words that can be indexed by the search engines, increasing your chances of ranking higher.
2. Keyword planning
   Always do keyword planning on both the search engines and directories to determine the best set of keywords and keyword phrases your target audience is using. Look for "related searches" in search results for ideas.  Google has a Keyword Suggestion Tool here: Click here.
   1. Choose keywords that people will associate with your Web site.
   2. Make sure your Web content mentions those keywords near the top of the page. For instance, place the keywords in the headline or in the first paragraph on the page.
   3. Mention keywords more than once within your Web page.
   4. Include the keywords in the TITLE, DESCRIPTION and KEYWORDS meta-tags in the HTML coding of your Web page.
3. Unique titles
   Place a unique title on every page of your web site using your top keywords. Keep it short and include those keywords you most value.  Note also that the 'title' of the page usually shows in the search engine results, so if it only says 'Home Page' or 'content.html' or 'untitled', then that doesn't prompt a user to click on it, does it?
4. Meta tags
   Use the meta-tag description and meta-tag keywords attribute on every page of your site that you want the search engines to index. If you don't want a page indexed, then try the robots exclusion tag. The robots.txt exclusion protocol has more support with spiders.
5. Link development
   Develop a solid link development strategy obtaining listings in the top directories and industry-related sites. Search engines measure both link popularity and click-through popularity as part of their search engine algorithms.  If you sell Widgets, and there is a Widget specific directory, it is certainly beneficial to be listed with them.  Your marketing people should know industry-related sites.  This is a specific task that can best be done internally.
6. Site statistics software
   Use site statistics software to measure your results. If your statistics show that your site's visitors are typing in a set of keywords to find your site, readjust the HTML tags for them.
7. Alternative text
   Put alternative text in your graphic images that clearly describe the graphic image and using your keywords whenever possible. Do not put text in a graphic image that has nothing to do with your web page.
8. Text is more important than Graphics
   A picture may be worth a thousand words, but not to Search Engines.  The search engines index text, not images.  If you use graphics to show off fancy text, that text will NOT get indexed.  So if you want your message read by the search engines, be sure it is in text format. Of course, you need images on your site, but just don't sacrifice text for images.
9. No FLASH content
   Sure, Flash presentations are great and useful for getting out your message.  But don't create your whole site using it.  Search Engines can't index it.  So, you might have the best looking, interactive website, but no one will find it through search engines.   Another weakness of Flash sites is that you can't link directly to a specific product page.  If someone is looking for a specific Custom 3x7 Widget, they want to go directly to the product they are looking for.  They don't want to have to go to your home page, and then waste time searching the item.  They already did the search on the search engine, don't make the search again.
   Keep Flash to a minimum.