Finding your site

OK, so now you have your own website. All the files are uploaded to your web server, and Internet users around the world can browse the pages of your site...if the search engines can find them.

When people search the Internet for information or services they input keywords or key phrases in their favorite search engine to find what they are looking for. The search engine will search for indexed pages that contain the particular keyword or key phrase, and present a list to the viewer.

Some of the best known search engines are Google, Yahoo, AOL Search, AltaVista, AlltheWeb and Netscape.
These search engines have robots (called 'bots or spiders) that crawl the Internet 24 hours a day looking for websites and webpages to add to their index.
If your site is about web building and someone search for "web building" in Google they will get more than 3.5 million pages to choose between, and if your site appear on page 297 in this list not many people will see it.

There are several ways to improve your search engine position (or "ranking").

Link exchange
Exchanging links with other sites can greatly improve your ranking, but only if you exchange links with sites that have relevant information. If your site is about webbuilding and you exchange links with someone selling baby food the link exchange will not do you much good!

Search the web for sites containing relevant information, and send emails to the webmasters suggesting a link exchange.

When your website has a decent position in the search engines you will get link exchange requests from other webmasters, but never change links with non-quality sites and sites without relevant information.

Use Meta tags in your site
Using Meta tags in your site can improve your ranking. Not all search engines use Meta tags, but some do, and it's still worth inserting meta tags in your pages.

To insert Meta tags you have to look at the HTML code in your web pages, and we'll explain exactly how to do it on the Meta tags page.

Other ways to get visitors to your site
When you send emails you can include your website's address as part of the standard setup.
Be sure to include your site's address on business cards and letterheads.

If you visit online forums always mention your website when you write a message.

You can probably think of several other ways to let people know about your website!

The eBook "Search Engine Optimization" is yours for free when you join our mailing list.

-o-o-o-

Let's have a look at the Meta tags you should use...