Here are five things every web site has to have completed to be ready to submit to search engines like Google, Yahoo! and MSN.
SEO is a major industry. There are hundreds of very skilled programmers around the world working on educated guesses about search engine algorithms. The truth of the matter is that only Google knows Google algorithm. Only Yahoo! knows what keyword densities will bring you to the top of their search results.
They keep these things secret because if they let everyone know what they should do to get to the top, everyone would do it and then they'd have to start over.
Here are some basic rules of thumb to prepare your web site for search engine inclusion:
1. Even though they're not as important as they used to be, your site should have meta tags on every page. The keyword meta tag is discounted almost to zero, but the description meta tag is still used by almost all the major engines in some capacity. Google uses the description meta tag for its search results by default.
2. Build your site around the content, not the other way around. There isn't a search engine worth its salt that isn't more interested in your content than it is in how you present it. Yes, Google and Yahoo!'s bots take page layout into account when spidering your site, but what they're looking for is CONTENT. The content on your web site should be your highest priority.
3. Unique Title Tags on Absolutely Every Page. That string of text at the top of your browser is a LOT more important than most people think. That's the text that Google uses to link your site from their results pages. This is some of the first text that any visitor will see when they visit your site. Pay attention to it. Write interesting title lines and don't just gloss over them.
4. Site Maps. A well documented site map is a crawlers best friend. It will show the spiders exactly where to look on your site. Build a site map (just a simple list of pages on your site) and link it from your home page. The spiders will crawl your home page and follow your site map link straight to every page on your site.
5. Update update update. If your web page hasn't been updated in 6 months or more, you need to update it. Out of date content is almost worse than no content at all. Keep your content up to date a fresh.
Follow these simple steps and your site will be ready for the search engines to come crawling.
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