Search Engines

[bellringr]

Question - I have a casual site that's mainly there for family and friends, so I've never been terribly concerned about proper structure, layout, etc. I just build a page however the mood strikes me.

 

Still, I think it would be nice for the site to come up in a search when someone puts in "gryfalia" or our names (even though there are ten million Ken Roths in this world). I did a search engine submit when I first uploaded my site, but is there anything else I should do? Do I need meta tag keywords on EACH page for the search engines to pick me up?

[ThumpAZ]

Mainly, you will want to guide folks to the main page. cached pages below that can confuse searchers.

Some engines sort based on how many times the term is repeated in the page (or meta tags), while others will pop it up based on the location of the search criteria in the list of meta tags you have. This means that the engine will put you at a higher "hit" for having the word gryfalia first in your list of tags, while it will place a lower hit if Roth is later in the stream of tags.

 

The best bet is to try and optimize for one of the more popular search engines like Google, dogpile or metacrawler. There is typically information, even though it can be cryptic, on how to optimize for their engine located on the company's site.

Another good way to position is alt text for your images. Place the search tags there for the engines that look fdor word count in the html body instead of in the meta info in the head of the doc. I have used that several times to bump up sites. The drawback to this is when someone hovers over the image, imagine the blob of text they are going to get

 

I would NOT advise you to subscribe to a search optimizer software or service unless you are running a business and nee to truly be at the top of the search.

 

Good Luck.

-GG

[SEO]

I would reccomend reading the following:

 

Search Engine Optimization - An Overview (follow all links)

 

Web Site Promotion Tutorials

 

And have you submitted your site to our family members page?

 

Add Me to the Family -> How To Add Your Site

 

 

P.S. I moved this to the more appropriate forum Web Site Promotion

[bellringr]

Yikes Those formulas are enough to give me brain cramps. I'll have to go through my site and check links and meta tags. From what I read, having my index page be an intro page with almost no text is going to hurt me, right?

 

If it gets into Google at all I'll be happy since the ONLY things that ever comes up when you do a search on "gryfalia" are pages involving my hubby. He's had that nick for probably 14 years.

 

Thanks for the pointers - I'll do some work and then post to get it added to the family pages.

[SEO]

From what I read, having my index page be an intro page with almost no text is going to hurt me, right?

Correct.

 

If it gets into Google at all I'll be happy since the ONLY things that ever comes up when you do a search on "gryfalia" are pages involving my hubby. He's had that nick for probably 14 years.

If you add your site to our family members page (as suggested above) you will definitely be included in the Google index. The best way to be spidered by Google is for them to follow a link to you from another site (and Google likes to frequent our site)

 

In addition, you can ask for a Rank Evaluation and we may be able to give you a few pointers.

 

Do I need meta tag keywords on EACH page for the search engines to pick me up?

No you do not. But I would