Trading Standards Division - Business Advice

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Web Site Promotion¹

The following information has been taken from a leaflet produced by Halton Borough Council's Regeneration Unit.

What are the best search engines to be listed in?

The "Major 7" search engines are considered to be far more important than the other 800+ search engines when deciding what search engines you want to list your website as they conduct over 92% of all the searches performed on-line. The "Major 7" in alphabetical order includes AltaVista, Excite!, HotBot, Infoseek, Lycos, WebCrawler and Yahoo!

What is "spanning the search engines" and should I do this?

Spamming the search engines includes techniques of using keywords not associated with your website in META TAGS, listing your website under irrelevant categories to get more volume, listing your website in more categories than appropriate, submitting your website constantly to be indexed or spidered by a particular search engine or directory and so on.

Perhaps you have come across websites that contain a lot of repetitive words at the top or most likely near the bottom of the web page. These words are used to "spam the search engines" by getting their website listed higher in search results of the keywords they listed. Keep in mind that many search engines now have the ability to filter out websites that use this sort of deceptive strategy and websites will be forever banned from being listed at all. In short, do not try any deceptive strategies in order to get your website listed higher than what it normally should be. While there may be websites on the first search results page using these strategies, they will not be listed there for long.

Should I pay someone else to handle my website promotion?

There are a large number of companies who offer you more than they can deliver. Services might promise you that your website will be listed at the top of the first page, or even that your website will be listed in the major search engines if you pay them a fee. For the most part, you are throwing your money away to pay someone else to do this. They have no way of putting your website in these search engines magically, because there is no magic to it. Some of these services will resort to spamming practices in order to fulfil their promise. There is good software available that can register your website to over 800 Internet search engines and directories, but remember that 92% of all searches are conducted on the "Major 7" search engines and directories.

The best way to ensure your website gets into the search engines is to submit your website to each search engine yourself. Remember, there is nothing they are doing that you cannot already do yourself.

How do I promote my own site in the search engines?

All search engines have an "Add URL" hyperlink on their main page, but some make it in a small font, so be sure to look closely. From this page, all you need to do is follow their instructions for adding your website to their search directory, which usually includes only submitting your website address. With the exception of Yahoo! the "Major 7" search engines only require this one piece of information in order to submit your website to their directory. Yahoo! is a directory, so you get to choose two different categories your website belongs in and submit the information along with a description of your website and relevant keywords.

What are META tags and should I use them on my website?

Meta tags are HTML tags that should be in-between the <head><head> tags toward the top of web pages. Some search engines use these tags to extract keywords relevant to that particular page. Meta tags include a description of the content on the page, keywords relevant to that page, what HTML editor was made for the page, what day the page expires, and a number of others. For promotional purposes, we will only look at Meta tags for keywords and description. However, due to the fact that more and more people are abusing meta tags, fewer and fewer search engines and spiders are recognising Meta tags as a reliable source of the web page content.

How long does it take before I begin to get more visitors from search engines to my website?

Some search engines, such as AltaVista, Lycos and Excite! automatically spider your website and add it to their search directories anywhere from a few minutes to a few weeks. Yahoo! tends to be the slowest of the "Major 7", and their method for adding websites to their directory is quite different than any other search directory.

Yahoo! is the only directory which has actual people review each website submitted for addition to their directory. Yahoo! is also the only company which periodically denies site due to poor design, missing links from their website, or other reasons. Yahoo! tries to keep their directory full of a diverse, well maintained group of websites.

So remember, when you submit your site to Yahoo! make sure all of your links work properly, there are no broken images, and your site is "attractive". With Yahoo! you could be added no sooner than a week, no later than usually eight weeks if you are accepted into their directory.

You should begin to see an increase in traffic a few weeks after your website has been added to these search engines.

Should I resubmit my website to search engines, and, if so, how often?

If your website has been redesigned and contains more or different web pages you should resubmit it to search engines. You should not resubmit your website more than once every two months to avoid being considered as spamming the search engines.

Strategies for being listed at the top of the search engines!

Consider the following list of ideas when designing your website. The strategy outlined below is free and probably a better strategy than any fee-based service can offer you.

Try to have your keywords not only appear in your meta tag, but in the title of your website (between the <title><title> tags). Also have keywords throughout your website, this is not spamming, it is smart. However, these keywords should go with the flow of the website.
Name your HTML documents something similar to the content.

Submit your website to all of the "Major 7" search engines all at one time. Do a "check up" four weeks later, many search engines will have a feature where you can search and see if your website already exists in their search directory. If this feature is unavailable, then try to search for your URL or just your domain name.

See how many search directories you have been added to, take note of those that have not added you. Now resubmit your URL but only after reviewing their criteria to be added to their search engine. Perhaps not enough time has gone by, especially if it is Yahoo! do you have missing links on your website?

Continue this process every four weeks, only add your website to directories that currently do not list your website unless you create a new website. For those search directories that do carry your website but you are not listed where you would like to be, consider adding more keywords to your website without spamming. If you have prices listed on your website in text format, ie the price is not a graphic, remove it. Some search engines lower your rating if you have prices listed on your website.

Most of the "Major 7" search engines publish a recommendation list outlining how you can improve your listing in their search directory. The information is there but very few people read it. So if you are listed in all but one or two search directories after eight weeks, look into this information.

"12 Off-line Ways of Promoting your URL" by *Nikki Pilkington

*Nikki Pilkington is MD of Severina Publications, a UK based Internet Marketing Consultancy specialising in all aspects of on and off-line promotion for websites. http://www.severina.co.uk, email:info12@severina.co.uk (c) 1999 Severina Publications

Here are 12 extra ways to promote your website without even turning your browser on:

Make sure that all of your staff know your website address. They know your telephone and fax numbers, they know your postal address - they should ALL know your website address too. Make sure that any new staff have this information along with the usual contact details.

Print your URL and email address on all letterheads, business cards and compliment slips, in the format http://www.yourcompany.co.uk. This way everyone that you ever come into contact with has your web address.

Business closed for the day? Why not put up a sign - "Open 24 hours a day on the WWW - www.yourcompany.co.uk".

Include your URL in your answerphone, or line holding message. Let people know that they can find information/buy products/enquire about services via the World Wide Web.

Type your URL into your screensaver to remind staff of the address while they are on the telephone. This way even temping staff know the address.

When potential clients call for information about your company, ask them if they have Internet access and send them to your website. This means they can have the information immediately, without waiting for the postal system, and may help cut down on your postage bills.

Why not swap leaflets with one of your clients and reach a whole new potential audience? Every brochure we send out features a leaflet/business card from one of our clients - a favour, which they reciprocate.

Magnetic car stickers featuring just your company name and URL help get you seen while you are out and about and can be a great conversation starter!

Have t-shirts printed with you web address and logo - then give them out as prizes or promotional items.

If you are in a restaurant or hotel with a guest book - sign it! And don't forget to leave your web address. These guest books are left in receptions all year round and people tend to browse through them while waiting.

Make sure that any newspaper and other off-line ads feature your URL prominently - don't hide it away in the small print!

Trading Standards Division, 3rd Floor, Wallasey Town Hall, Brighton Street, Wallasey, Wirral CH44 8ED
Telephone: (0151) 691 8020 Fax: (0151) 691 8098
Internet World Wide Web http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/wirral/
Electronic Mail: tradingstandards@wirral.gov.uk