Getting in with search engines and searchers

When our websites are ready for the public, we of course want the public to find them. That means that we want search engines to index them and to list them in search results.

Perhaps search engines have indexed our sites, but they aren’t ranked very high in search results yet. Or — the horror we don’t want to think about — a site has been banned from a search engine for some reason.

Beyond advertising, how do we increase the chances of people finding our sites in online searches?

Get inbound links to the sites

It isn’t necessary any more to submit sites to search engines if external links lead to the sites. As long as the sites that link to them are indexed and allow links to be followed, bots will find the new sites. Exceptions may be search engines for specific countries or content areas.

Links help search engines (and not just the big ones) find new sites, and quality links help improve a site’s position in search results. If a particular search engine has banned a site, inbound links won’t change that situation. But they will increase the opportunities for people to find that site.

Link farms are to be avoided. Google (and perhaps other search engines) is able to distinguish between natural and unnatural links.

How can we acquire quality inbound links?

• Reciprocal links work well with websites that have related but non-competing content. Webmasters are often happy to exchange links to benefit their sites.
• Many (but not all) directory links are free. If there are a lot of websites about a particular topic, chances are that there are directories about that topic. Those are in addition to global directories such as DMOZ. Also look for local directories.
• If you post in forums, links to your websites in your forum signature can be a way to get those links indexed and seen. However, people who post in forums just to get their signatures noticed may be viewed as spammers. The association with your sites will be better if you contribute to the forum when you post. Some forum software can disallow bots from following signature links, though.
• You can submit articles to article directories that distribute articles for free with the condition that a link to the author’s site must remain with the article.
• Online press releases about new products or other company updates add more links and exposure.

Pay to have sites or products listed

When we need a site to be listed now, paid submissions sometimes help us achieve that goal.

• Yahoo! Directory Submit charges a hefty review fee, and in return, reviews the site within seven business days. If it’s accepted, an annual fee applies to keep the site listed in the directory. However, payment of the review fee does not guarantee acceptance.
• With Yahoo! Product Submit, products are displayed in Yahoo! Shopping and Yahoo! Product Search.

Submit the sites to other search engine listings

• Start a blog about your site, and submit the blog to blog indexing services such as Ping-O-Matic. Some blog software does this automatically whenever the blog has a new post.
• Submit business sites offering local services to Google Local Business Center. This service is currently available for the US, Canada, the UK, Japan, and China.
• Post a variety of content types at Google Base.

Submit specific formats

• Submit sites for mobile phones (xHTML, WML, or cHTML format) to Yahoo! Search for mobile phones.
• Create a video about what your website offers, and upload it at Google Video.

More information

We’ve covered just some of the possibilities here. For more possibilities, see these articles:

• 8 Ways to Submit Your Site to Yahoo
• Alternative Ways to Get Into Google