The Difference between Search Engines
Search engines are all different. The work by different mechanics, they look for different things, and they have different philosophies of what their search engine does best. They also have some similarities. They don’t care for heavy key word usage, which might actually work against a page as it gets labeled as spam. Hidden text is also a no no.
You can submit your site to search engines yourself, but before doing so be sure to real their policies and make sure your pages agree to their terms. We’ll tackle Google separately, but here are some tips on how to optimize for some other popular search engines and check if you are indexed in them:
Alta Vista looks at all of your html except comments. Use META tags, as Alta Vista will use the description and keywords as their summary. If they don’t exist for your page, the first few words will be used as a summary. To see if your page is indexed type “+URL: yourcompany.com/yourpage.htm” in the search box. To see how many pages link to your site type “link:yourcompany.com”.
Excite looks for and identifies a dominant theme in your html in order to index your page. It completely ignores META tags in doing so. You can force Excite to use your own summary paragraph by entering it multiple times within a comment tag. To see if your page in indexed, type the full URL in the search box.
HotBot looks for both description and keyword META tabs, so these should be used not only on your home page, but all other pages as well. You want all content pages indexed. To see if your page is indexed first choose the advanced search options, and then enter your URL. To see how many pages link to your site type “linkdomain:yourcompany.com”. Choose the ‘links to this URL’ option to find the links to a particular page.
Infoseek uses META tags almost exclusively. Of course, many websites still do not use them (but should!!), so when their spiders run into this situation, they will look at the first 250 characters on the page. You’ll want to have your best keywords in this area and in your META tags. To see if your page is indexed type “URL: http://www.yourcompany.com/page.htm” in the search box. To see how many pages link to your site type “link:yourcompany.com”.
Lycos’ spider finds its own keywords on your page. However using META tags will force Lycos to use at least part of your description and keywords.
Web Crawler relies exclusively on your META tags.
Yahoo!, contrary to popular belief, is not really a search engine. It is a directory or index. They index what you tell them to. It does not use spiders or look at your html in any way. Yahoo! Is the largest directory on the Internet and will make a big difference in your traffic when used correctly. Be sure to choose an appropriate category and submit a well-written description. Most web masters are excited to get on Yahoo! Here’s a no-hassle place to do it: http://www.smart-web-promotion.com/Yahoolisting.htm
Conclusion
Obviously META tags are important. If you don’t have them in your html yet, you need to do so. Visit here to all the info you need on how to create META tags. They also have a great META tool. You can find a directory submission service and free ads there too. These are all free tools for your use.
So start submitting your site! You need to keep on top of it and make sure you are still indexed every month. You can submit many times, but just don’t do it too soon or you’ll be considered a spammer. Make sure you don’t submit until at least six weeks have passed since your last submission.
