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Promoting your Site.

Search Engines - Getting ready.

The goal in this lesson is to get everything in place to make it easier to add your website.

Get your information together-

When we are talking about promoting to the major search engines, they usually only index the main (index page) and will then use their spyders to find the other pages within your site. Each site is slightly different on their submission pages but if you collect the following information it will make your life easier.

Title- Use the keyword rich title from the previous lesson.
Description- again use the keyword rich title from the last lesson.

Name- duh
Email address. Usually one with your website in the email works the best. Especially from the major search engines.
Address-
Phone-
Fax-

Making it easy to post your information.

Aldos Macro recorder will make your life easier. You can record keystrokes and then click a button and it will paste them. It makes life much easier for you, instead of typing things over and over again. You can find this free tool here:

http://www.aldostools.com/macro.html

Optionally you can post all your information to a text file and then cut/copy/paste.

----> General Tips

Before we submit to any site, we need a way of tracking our progress. After all we want to be organized so that we don't have to keep doing things over and over again.
On a spreadsheet, word processing document or a sheet of paper, list the following across the top-

Search Engine - Date Submitted - Follow up - Retry

There is a lot of information here. Take one engine at a time. Do it and move on to the next.

First when submitting to the directories one of the crucial decisions you will make is in what portion of the directory to submit your site. Put your site in the wrong place and you may have a difficult time being found. Put yourself in the right place and your traffic will increase substantially. So how do you pick the right category?

Using the main search box of the directory type in a good keyword phrase for your site (which you already have from your keywords lesson). Depending on which directory you are searching this will give you a list of results. Within the list do a bit of exploring. Find sites that are compatible with yours and keep notes as to which categories they are in. Also pay close attention to which categories are listed first- these will be the categories that you want your website listed in.

--->Snap/NBCi

http://www.nbci.com/

Snap is one of the easiest search engines to get listed in. They are fast, usually getting your site listed within a couple of hours.

How to-
1. Find the correct category for your site.
2. For directory submissions follow the Listed in NBCi categories: Near the bottom of the search page will be a link - 'submit a site to this category'.
3. To list your site you must be a member. This again only takes a few minutes.
4. The submit page is simple- use your keyword title, keyword description, then list your top ten keywords/phrases.
5. They will email you when your site is listed, this usually takes less than a day.

--->DMOZ/ODP/Open Directory project/NewHoo

http://www.dmoz.org

Again DMOZ is easy to submit your site to. It does take a while (my experience has been around a month) to get listed.

How to-
1. Find the category. Pay careful attention to submit your site to one of the categories that pop up first when doing your search, otherwise you will get buried in the results.
2. After you have found the category. Play around with the engine a bit. Pay close attention to keywords in the title, description, and in the url. All play a factor in how you are listed in ODP.
3. After researching a bit, find your way to the correct category. At the top of the page click on add your site.
4. Fill out the information using your research (both from the results and your previous lessons).
5. Although not as picky about the sites they put in the directory as Yahoo, check out some of the Yahoo tips for getting listed below. Make sure your site is up to snuff and you should have no trouble getting in this directory.
6. Check your listing in a month. If not in check again in 2 weeks and again in two more. If still not listed resubmit - try a different category, different words.

--->Yahoo

http://www.yahoo.com/

The big daddy of search engines. It is no longer free to get listed here if you sell something on your site. The fee to get listed is $199.00. There are NO guarantees that you will be listed but they give you a month's grace period to correct your site and resubmit again.

++++++++
For Penny Pinchers only-
You can get in through a back door. Yahoo for some reason doesn't like my wife's site. I know a couple of the reasons why, but I know that she won't even bother doing them so I have quit trying to get her listed. What she does do though is have several backdoors that brings her traffic from Yahoo in a round-a-bout way.
Example-
Search for crochet- in the crochet category she is linked to over 75% of the sites that are listed. Will that bring her as much traffic as being listed- no, but it does help.
+++++++++

Before you spend the $199.00 make sure that your site passes the following checklist, otherwise you will just be wasting your money.

1. Make sure it isn't 'Under Construction'.
2. Make sure all your links work and your pages load fast.
3. Make sure your site has at least 7-8 pages.
4. Take a moment and review your competition. Make sure that your site has something different and makes it unique. Good content and/or a unique product will get you listed. If it isn't unique it won't be listed.
5. Too many banners, webrings will make it hard to get listed.
6. Make sure your contact information (business name, address, email, phone, fax numbers) is listed on all your pages.
7. Make sure that your site looks good (professional, grammar, spelling, easy to read) and loads fast in all the major browsers.
8. Make sure all your graphics load.
9. Make sure your site has a clean, easy to use navigation system.
10. Although not required having your own domain name helps quite a bit.
11. Your site must be open 24/7.
12. Make sure you have a privacy policy on your site.

Now that your site is ready and before you decide to submit do some research to find the correct categories to list your site. You can choose two, so choose them wisely.

First pay attention to how the main list of results come up when searching using your keywords. Again pay attention to how these words are listed within the title, URL, and description. Take notes. Spend at least an hour searching and learning how it works, I highly suggest searching using at least the top twenty of your keywords and phrases. Also pay attention to the categories that show at the top of the results. These categories are the one you want listed on. Pick two of the categories, save the URLs for these in a text file.

How to:
1. Go to your top pick of categories. Click on suggest a site.
2. Pay your money. Also you are required to check off a list, many of which we listed above.
3. Fill out all the information on each page. Although Yahoo can edit the title and descriptions use your keywords research from searching to optimize it to the best of your ability.
4. Wait seven days. You will get a letter, either telling you that you are listed or telling you that you aren't, with a reason why. Note- one of the biggest reasons for not listing your site is 'no unique content', so be warned.

--->Looksmart

Another pay to play search engine. Much easier to get in than Yahoo.
http://www.looksmart.com/
You can choose express submit- 2 business days evaluation - $199.00
Basic submit- review within 8 weeks - $99.00

When you submit here you don't get a choice of where your site is listed, an editor does. Make sure to click on the link about
a. Submit a site guidelines.
b. Terms of service.
c. Read their tips near the comments section. The comments section is where you will actually put your description for your website.

Again a little research is necessary (no one said this was going to be easy). Search their site for your keywords. Again pay attention to how the words you are searching for are reflected in the Title and description.

How to-
1. Click on any of the Submit a site links.
2. Pick your poison- express or basic.
3. Use your research to put in a good site title and comments (description).
4. Submit your payment.

Click here to learn how to submit to the other search engines.