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The sharewarist’s central
Resources, tools, tips for the independent developer
(trialware, shareware, freeware, commercial software)
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WEBSITE SEARCH ENGINE RANKING
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The placement of your Web site in search engines is important. Here we collect a lot of useful resources for submitting and tracking your Web site position in the engines. First of all you can read the following ten tips for improving your ranking, courtesy of Dave Collins, President, Shareware Promotions.
1) WATCH YOUR HEAD - pay careful attention to the contents of your document HEAD. The META TAGS are important, and so is your <TITLE>. Make sure the <TITLE> is the first thing in the head - many WYSIWYG editors like to put it at the end..
2) TAG THOSE IMAGES - make sure that every single graphic image on the page has an ALT tag, and that the text is search-engine friendly. Some engines pay attention to these - don't let them down!
3) REGULAR MAINTENANCE - keep your site clean, and sweep away those dead links. Update the content from time to time - a stale site impresses no one. Search-engines included.
4) CONTENT IS KING - avoid the "tricks" and go for legitimate content. Set your page up correctly and a few hundred words of solid content will do more than any secret techniques. Leave the tricks to the magicians.
5) BE GOOD - don't resubmit your Web site every 2 days, and don't use "clever" keywords like Britney to bring traffic to your site. Unless of course your site is in fact a Britney site...
6) KNOW YOUR RULES - each search engine has an explanation of how and what to submit; it's in your interest to find this info. Some sites only need your root page, while others need more of a helping hand. It's all there.
7) SET TIME ASIDE - there isn't a Web site out there that can't benefit from doing better on the search engines. Set aside at least an hour a week to polish your site and submit to the engines. No such thing as wasted time here.
8) NO SHORTCUTS - don't leave the submissions to a $15-for-a-zillion-sites "business"; it's worth doing properly, by hand. Ever heard of a 100% efficient automated machine?
9) STAY IN TOUCH - the rules and routines for the engines change from time to time, and keeping on top of the latest news is a good idea. When a site announces that from a certain date they'll be charging for new submissions, don't you want to know about it? If the engines have a newsletter - join it. Good, useful and free information is the nicest of all....
10) DO IT NOW - search engine work is one of those things that most people "mean to get round to" some day. If you can increase the number of visitors to your site by 200 people each day, and 1% of these will buy your software, then what are you waiting for?
Tips: (C) 2000 Dave Collins
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