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"Web Site Announcing and Search Engine Placements"

In the first article I broke my "Web Site Promotion Plan" down into four categories. The first on the list was Announcing and Search Engines. It varies from site to site depending on the type of content on your site but it's safe to say that in most cases announcements and search engines are the most common way that users will find your site.

To do this properly will consume much of the time you allowed for promotion in your plan. You do have a "Web site Promotion Plan" don't you? The first step is finding the resources to use. I have tried many resources for "Announcing" a site and most are a complete waste of time! I am referring to the multi-submit types of resources.

Overview of Search Engines Announcing and Submission

The best way to submit to search engines is one at a time by hand. I feel this way because after using quite a few of these resources I got limited traffic from my submissions and found that the major search engines quite often don't respond to submissions done by multi-submits. Results may vary from site to site but overall this has been my experience and others that I have seen post in the many lists and newsletters I receive.

The biggest response I got was a huge increase in spam in my e-mail requiring a great deal of time to filter and delete. This confirms a feeling I had from the outset which was that the only real users of the sites multi-submit services list you with are the agents submitting sites and spammers looking for e-mail addresses.

Seriously, if you're looking for info on anything would you go to "Joe's Favorite Links Page" or one of the major search engines? Unfortunately, a large portion of the sites that either the free or paid services submit to are of this type or classified ads sites (an even bigger waste of time and producer of spam!).

I've outlined the best method for submission but where do you and how do you submit? I could go on and on about the submission procedure and how to prepare yourself but that is an article in and of itself. Of course this has been covered in detail in the "WoD" in the Submission Tips article.
Three quick tips would be:

  1. Don't submit while under construction
  2. Have your personal information, urls, keywords, descriptions (in three formats, 15 word, 25 word and 50 words) in a text file ready to insert into the fields on the submit page
  3. Only submit new and updated pages to search engines

I have listed the most important directories and search engines here. These are the ones I refer to as the must submit to class. After you have done these look for another group of directories or search engines that are specific to your topic or business.

You may want to consider the reciprocal links pages that many sites specific to a topic use for listing or indexing resources. Try to arrange links on these sites. These are an excellent source of traffic. Keep in mind that part of the criteria should be that they aren't taking all requests but are reviewed links.

You can find plenty of indexes or directories by going to a search engine and doing a search for directories and indexes in your category. Narrow your search as much as possible by querying the engine looking for a specific type of index or directory.

For instance "Toronto real estate indexes or directories". If this doesn't produce enough resources broaden your search like this "Ontario real estate indexes or directories". Each time broaden your search by geography or category within a topic until you reach the amount of links and listings you require to get the amount of traffic you desire.

Also note the search query is contained within " ". This varies from engine to engine but in most cases will mean that the results must have all the words grouped as you specified. Check the engine you are querying for specific instructions for that search engine.

Once you have made your submissions it is important to monitor your listings. First of all, to be sure you are listed and where possible increase visibility or as we say in the biz "achieve higher placement or position". I could write several articles on this as well and have in the Search Engine Placement Index

Improve Search Engine Placements or Positions

The above resource lists all the free and paid listing management sites and software with evaluations and comments. Once you have been listed monitor or check your listings at least monthly but weekly is better.
Basically you can improve your placement 3 ways:

  1. Improve title by including several keywords
  2. Improve keywords in the meta tags (a few engines don't use them for relevancy namely Lycos and Excite)
  3. Use keywords and phrases frequently in first paragraph

At the url above you will find several tutorials and sites that will assist you in this endeavor. Just being listed is not enough. Work on your site until it is in at least the top 20 for your keywords. Why? When was the last time you went much deeper in a list of sites produced for a keyword query?

Email Resources for Announcing Web Sites

There is one other method I use to "Announce" the "WoD" and updates made to it. E-mail will be discussed in detail at a later date but I will add to this article, IMHO, the "Mother of All Announcement Newsletters". "Net Announce!" is published by erspros.Com.

Update
Unfortunately this newsletter seems to have ceased to exist. Many of the old resources like this one have either succumbed due to the owner growing beyond the need for it (too busy) or the owner has closed shop. I will be trying to find new ones but these types of newsletters seem to be moving targets.

Submissions to this newsletter have resulted in a lot of traffic to the "WoD". When I listed the newsletters several weeks ago I received several subscribers immediately and still receive subs from the archived listings. This demonstrates that the newsletter and archives are being used for finding high quality resources. You'll also find a large list of topical indexes, directories and search engines on the site where you submit to "Net Happenings".

I also use some of the Usenet groups and private lists but by far "Net Announce!" produces the best results time after time. Be sure when you post to newsgroups and lists that you are on topic and have a good sig file describing your site and any free resources you provide.

Most important is that your sig not seem like an ad! This will burn your mailbox every time, if you know what I mean. If you don't know what that means you aren't ready for this type of promotion and should examine closely how to use this method of promotion before trying it.

You'll find all of the resources I've tried and those I use on a regular basis on the Mega List Site.

Use them wisely keeping in mind what I discussed in regards to multi-submit sites.

May the Java Gods Smile on Each and Every One of You and the Demon Viruses be Few and Very, Very Far Between!!!

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