Lesson 5 in the Simple Tiger SEO Training Course
Simply optimizing websites for search engine rankings is not nearly enough to actually start generating traffic. Your site must be found in order to be indexed by a search engine. It may seem like all you have to do is tell a search engine about your site, they’ll come and index it, and you’re done. This is wrong. If you do what so many people do and submit your site to the search engines, they may look at it sometime in the next 3-6 months. I do not recommend submitting a site to a search engine through the URL methods listed below:
The reason I listed these lame methods is because some people like the added assurance of going up to the desk and asking for an appointment to be indexed. The receptionist may be nice and tell you that your site will be indexed shortly, but you will sit there in the waiting room for over a month.
If you want your site to be indexed by a search engine like today, while there are no guarantees there are methods that work very well.
One of my favorite methods is to submit your site through an XML Sitemap. You learned how to make an XML Sitemap earlier.
The process is very simple and very effective. First go to Google and setup a Webmaster Tools account. This account is free and will help you beyond your wildest dreams.
Then go back to an XML Sitemap Generator like this one, and enter in your URL. Save the XML Sitemap as a file called “sitemap.xml” (easy enough) and upload it to the root directory of your server.
Go back over to your Google Webmaster Tools account and click “Sitemaps” and “Submit Sitemap”. It may ask you to verify your site and your sitemap. After you do this, it may be sometime in the next couple of days before your site gets indexed. I did it for a client one time and it was indexed by late that afternoon.
Submit a new sitemap and inform Google through your Webmaster Tools account every time you make a change on your website. This will help them index new pages and rescan your website.
Tip: If you are using a blog platform like WordPress, there is an XML Sitemap Plugin that I swear by. You can be indexed by Google, Yahoo!, and MSN within a few hours, and it submits a new sitemap any time you do anything on your blog.
There are several other methods you can use to get your website indexed as well. Some methods cost money, and some methods take a long time but work very well. A poor mans way to get indexed through directories will also results in several inbound deep links to your website which are very helpful in ranking for keyword terms.
A directory is a website with a list of trusted companies, websites, and URLs. As you remember from Lesson 1 search engines usually start their indexing with directories and then move on from there. Try to get your website listed in directories like DMOZ, Yahoo!, and any other directory that is related to your niche.
The best way to find websites that will list you in their directory is by running a search with the “all in title:” operator:
all in title: atv + “submit url”
This search yielded over 3,000 websites I can submit my URL to for my ATV company. If they approve immediately, then the next time Google crawls their site, they will crawl yours too! You can change it to meet any niche like “cars”. The search would look like:
all in title: cars + “submit url”
This is a very effective method and later we will discuss why it is so powerful in search engine optimization, especially for link PageRank. Getting indexed by DMOZ or Yahoo! takes a lot of work and can take a long time, I recommend studying up on directory submissions really well before you submit a listing to either.
Another effective method to get indexed is through a text link ad on a popular related website. Lets say I sell cars, and one of my competitors or a popular car website allows advertising on their site. I can buy a link on their site, and if there isn’t a <no follow> attribute, my site will be indexed in a flash. Either way, this is a great way to get some quality traffic. A <no follow> tag simply tells a search engine not to follow the link, in return, your site will not get indexed through this link. We will discuss <no follow> and link PageRank later.
Buying a text link ad can be very expensive depending on the industry and site you buy it from, only use this method if you know you will receive a spider through the link and if it is truly worth the money to you.
The next lesson “Website Maintenance - Like changing the oil, this is just as important” explains the importance of keeping the file structure clean, and ensuring good links and content.
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January 23rd, 2008 at 3:48 am
One Of all the Best Of blog posts making the rounds, this was my favorite - Best Internet Marketing Blog.Good luck world !!!
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:05 am
[...] Website Submission - Let ‘em know what you’ve done [...]
March 24th, 2008 at 12:05 am
Yes In order to give SEO training it is must to include the training about directory submissions as it is an important part of SEO.