9 I. Put It Online

Don’t go with virtual hosting; go with a standalone IP address.

Make sure the site is “crawlable” by a spider. All pages should be linked to more than one other page on your site, and not more than two levels deep from the top directory. Link the topic vertically as much as possible back to the top directory. A menu that is present on every page should link to your site’s main “topic index” pages (the doorways and logical navigation system down into real content). Don’t put it online before you have a quality site to put online. It’s worse to put a “nothing” site online than no site at all. You want it fleshed out from the start.

Go for a listing in the ODP

Getting accepted to the Open Directory project will probably get your pages listed in the Google Directory.

10 J. Submit

if you want to your website indexed,Submit your main URL to: Google, FAST, AltaVista, WiseNut, Teoma, DirectHit, and Hotbot. Now comes the hard part: forget about submissions for the next six months. That’s right, submit and forget. on that way your online money maker is indexed by the search engine

11 K. Logging and Tracking

Get a quality logger/tracker that can do justice to inbound referrals based on log files. Don’t use a graphic counter; you need a program that’s going to provide much more information than that. If your host doesn’t support referrers, back up and get a new host. You can’t run a modern site without full referrals available 24/7/365 in real time.

12 L. Spiderings

Watch for spiders from search engines—one reason you need a good logger and tracker! Make sure those that are crawling the full site can do so easily. If not, double-check your linking system to make sure the spider found its way throughout the site. Don’t fret if it takes two spiderings to get your whole site done by Google or FAST. Other search engines are pot luck; with them, it’s doubtful that you will be added at all if you haven’t been added within 6 months.

13 M. Topic Directories

Almost every keyword sector has an authority hub on it’s topic. Find it (Google Directory can be very helpful here, because you can view sites based on how popular they are) and submit within the guidelines.

14 N. Links

next step for search engine tips is to Look around your keyword section in the Google Directory; this is best done after getting an Open Directory Project listing—or two. Find sites that have link pages or freely exchange links. Simply request a swap. Put a page of on-topic, in-context links up on your site as a collection spot. Don’t worry if you can’t get people to swap links—move on. Try to swap links with one fresh site a day. A simple personal email is enough. Stay low key about it and don’t worry if site Z won’t link to you. Eventually they will.

15 O. Content

Add one page of quality content per day. Timely, topical articles are always the best. Try to stay away from too much weblogging personal materials and look more for “article” topics that a general audience will like. Hone your writing skills and read up on the right style of “web speak” that tends to work with the fast and furious web crowd: lots of text breaks—short sentences—lots of dashes—something that reads quickly.

Most web users don’t actually read, they scan. This is why it is so important to keep key pages to a minimum. If people see a huge overblown page, a portion of them will hit the back button before trying to decipher it. They’ve got better things to do than waste 15 seconds (a stretch) at understanding your whizbang menu system. Because some big support site can run Flash-heavy pages is no indication that you can. You don’t have the pull factor they do.

Use headers and bold standout text liberally on your pages as logical separators. I call them scanner stoppers where the eye will logically come to rest on the page.

16 P. Gimmicks

Stay far away from any “fades of the day” or anything that appears spammy, unethical, or tricky. Plant yourself firmly on the high ground in the middle of the road.

17 Q. Linkbacks

When you receive requests for links, check sites out before linking back to them. Check them through Google for their PageRank value. Look for directory listings. Don’t link back to junk just because they asked. Make sure it is a site similar to yours and on topic. Linking to “bad neighborhoods,” as Google calls them, can actually cost you PageRank points.

18 R. Rounding Out Your Offerings

Use options such as “email a friend,” forums, and mailing lists to round out your site’s offerings. Hit the top forums in your market and read, read, read until your eyes hurt. Stay away from “affiliate fades” that insert content on to your site like banners and pop-up windows.

19 S. Beware of Flyer and Brochure Syndrome

If you have an economical site or online version of bricks and mortar, be careful not to turn your site into a brochure. These don’t work at all. Think about what people want. They aren’t coming to your site to view “your content,” they are coming to your site looking for “their content.” Talk as little about your products and yourself as possible in articles (sounds counterintuitive, doesn’t it?)

Continued to search engine tips part 3