Smiley
What you see here is me taking some advantage of Morsa. I'm hopeful that someone in her vast net of friends will provide me with some technical assistance.
So I'll get right to it. Here is the question. How do I get my website to rise to the top of the list when I google the name of my delightful little city?
Friday, February 04, 2005
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5 comments:
are you talking about your blog or gbae.org?
I'm talking about the gbae site...thanks.
Hmm, that is a complicated question. It has been a while since I
studied this stuff in detail but here are some things you can do.
Doing just these may not get yours to the coveted #1 but it should
definatly help. (ps, im not a spell checking kinda guy)
1-3 will help search engines understand what your site is about and bump you up but #4 is the most important because it will make sure they see your site adn understand that it is important.
--------------------------------
1. Meta tags - These are part of an html page that are not seen by
visitors but are looked at by search engines. There are a few kinds
but the ones we are interested in are the Meta description and the Meta
keywords. I have never added these using Frontpage but here is a page
with instructions that I hope will help:
http://www.wright.edu/cats/docs/docroom/pc/fp02/#meta
That will tell you how to add it, as far as what to write you will want
to write a 1 or 2 sentance description of the site, using as many
relevant search terms as possible. And for the keywords 1-3 lines of
words and phrases that people might be searching by.
2. Alt Tags - Search engines also look at the alt tags behind images
(this is when you hover over an image and you see a description pop up)
I wont bore you with the code since Frontpage can do it automatically:
a. Select the picture and right click
b. Choose Picture Properties from the shortcut menu that appears
c. In the Picture Properties dialog box, click the General tab and
enter a description of the graphic in the Text box area
Again, just try to work in words people will be searching by. SO you
mihgt change the alt tag for the Welcome graphic from "Welcome" to
"Welcome to Winnemucca" and make one for the Foghorn graphic read
"Foghorn performing in Winnemucca"
3. Use words people may search by in titles, headings etc. whenever
appropriate - Search engines these days look not only at the words in
your site but where those words are so you wnat to make sure that the
words you think people will be searching by are in important places.
gbae.org looks pretty good for this one. The one suggestion I might
make is to change the title of the page from "Welcome" to "Great Basin
Arts and Entertainment in Winnemucca" or even better "Winnemucca Great
Basin Arts and Entertainment". The later is even better because
Winnemucca is at the beginning, but it may not exactly fit for your
organization so the former may be the best choice for you.
Either way the title is important. For example, for my store if you go
to it you will notice that the title is "Your source for Elixir,
D'addario, John Pearse, & more!" even though my store is
http://www.greatstrings.com. I know that people arent searching for
Greatstrings, they are searching for their favorite string brands so I
make that my title.
4. Get people to link to you - This is the hardest to work on because
its not directly under your control but it is also by far the most
helpful thing you can look at. I would guess this is 70% of what will
help get your site listed high.
Ok, the basic idea is, the more sites that link to you, the more
important search engines see your site as. Before we begin a couple
cool research tips:
-----------------
** You can see who is linking to you by going to google and searching
for:
link:http://sitename.com (note: the "http://" is optional)
ex: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=link%3Abungalowbill.blogspot.com&btnG=Google+Search
In doing this you see that there is a link to your blog from Morsa.
Her's in turn has some from another blog:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=link%3Amorsabjones.blogspot.com
(so we are already seeing, that
your blog is a good place to put a link to your site and encorage your
friends to ;)
** If you have the Google toolbar installed you can turn on the
Pagerank viewer. It is a super cool feature that lets you see how
important Google sees a site as (and the only reason I use the Google
toolbar). If you have the toolbar installed click: Google > Options >
Checkbox next to Pagerank
----------------
Any links are good but the higher the pagerank of a site the better it
is for your pagerank if they have a link to you. Google basically
figures "They are important, and if they think your important, well
than it must be true!" (Trivia: This idea is the basis of the
Google founders Stanford thesis and one of the most important ideas
that makes Google so badass.)
3 tips for where to look for links:
4a. Relevant Keyword result sites - Do a search for the keywords you
think people will search for. Often times these sites might be related
to you and be interested in linking to your site. They are important
because since you know they show up high you know that the search
engines already see them as important for your keywords.
4b. Blogs, Bands, Friends, & Family - So, to get more links you might
just try to get some of the other community sites in the Mucc' to link
to you, maybe some of the bands that have played, and anyone else you
can think of that might be interested in having a link to your page. (a
huge tip on this one is reciprocal links. People are much more likely
to link to you if you say you will be putting a link to their site. Or
even better if you show them that you already have in the email you
write to them).
4c. Submit yourself to the DMOZ - http://dmoz.org one of the holy
trinity of most important places to get your site listed (Yahoo! and
Looksmart are the other 2 but they are both fee based). It is a
directory like Yahoo! but is free and run by individuals. Their page
rank is so high that getting listed here will go a long way in getting you high in the results (I think they are a 9 or maybe even a 10 in
pagerank but cant remember)
-------------
Well there is a quick and dirty set of tips for you. Hope it helped. If you have any questions let me know. Also, if you want more info you might check out searchenginewatch.com. Its the best site for search engine optimization tips.
Z
Wow, that was an ugly comment. Lets try that again with better formatting and pretty links while I sit here and wish it was possible to unpost anonymous comments...
-----------------------
Hmm, that is a complicated question. It has been a while since I studied this stuff in detail but here are some things you can do. Doing just these may not get yours to the coveted #1 but it should definatly help. (ps, im not a spell checking kinda guy)
1-3 will help search engines understand what your site is about and bump you up but #4 is the most important because it will make sure they see your site adn understand that it is important.
--------------------------------
1. Meta tags - These are part of an html page that are not seen by visitors but are looked at by search engines. There are a few kinds but the ones we are interested in are the Meta description and the Meta keywords. I have never added these using Frontpage but here is a page with instructions that I hope will help:
http://www.wright.edu/cats/docs/docroom/pc/fp02/#metaThat will tell you how to add it, as far as what to write you will want to write a 1 or 2 sentance description of the site, using as many relevant search terms as possible. And for the keywords 1-3 lines of words and phrases that people might be searching by.
2. Alt Tags - Search engines also look at the alt tags behind images (this is when you hover over an image and you see a description pop up) I wont bore you with the code since Frontpage can do it automatically:
a. Select the picture and right click
b. Choose Picture Properties from the shortcut menu that appears
c. In the Picture Properties dialog box, click the General tab and enter a description of the graphic in the Text box area
Again, just try to work in words people will be searching by. SO you mihgt change the alt tag for the Welcome graphic from "Welcome" to "Welcome to Winnemucca" and make one for the Foghorn graphic read "Foghorn performing in Winnemucca"
3. Use words people may search by in titles, headings etc. whenever appropriate - Search engines these days look not only at the words in your site but where those words are so you wnat to make sure that the words you think people will be searching by are in important places. gbae.org looks pretty good for this one. The one suggestion I might make is to change the title of the page from "Welcome" to "Great Basin Arts and Entertainment in Winnemucca" or even better "Winnemucca Great Basin Arts and Entertainment". The later is even better because Winnemucca is at the beginning, but it may not exactly fit for your organization so the former may be the best choice for you.
Either way the title is important. For example, for my store if you go to it you will notice that the title is "Your source for Elixir, D'addario, John Pearse, & more!" even though my store is http://www.greatstrings.com. I know that people arent searching for Greatstrings, they are searching for their favorite string brands so I make that my title.
4. Get people to link to you - This is the hardest to work on because its not directly under your control but it is also by far the most helpful thing you can look at. I would guess this is 70% of what will help get your site listed high.
Ok, the basic idea is, the more sites that link to you, the more important search engines see your site as. Before we begin a couple cool research tips:
-----------------
** You can see who is linking to you by going to google and searching for:
link:http://sitename.com (note: the "http://" is optional)
Click me for and example...In doing this you see that there is a link to your blog from Morsa. Her's in turn has some from another blog. (so we are already seeing, that your blog is a good place to put a link to your site and encorage your friends to ;)
** If you have the Google toolbar installed you can turn on the Pagerank viewer. It is a super cool feature that lets you see how important Google sees a site as (and the only reason I use the Google toolbar). If you have the toolbar installed click: Google > Options > Checkbox next to Pagerank
----------------
Any links are good but the higher the pagerank of a site the better it is for your pagerank if they have a link to you. Google basically figures "They are important, and if they think your important, well than it must be true!" (Trivia: This idea is the basis of the Google founders Stanford thesis and one of the most important ideas that makes Google so badass.)
3 tips for where to look for links:
4a. Relevant Keyword result sites - Do a search for the keywords you think people will search for. Often times these sites might be related to you and be interested in linking to your site. They are important because since you know they show up high you know that the search engines already see them as important for your keywords.
4b. Blogs, Bands, Friends, & Family - So, to get more links you might just try to get some of the other community sites in the Mucc' to link to you, maybe some of the bands that have played, and anyone else you can think of that might be interested in having a link to your page. (a huge tip on this one is reciprocal links. People are much more likely to link to you if you say you will be putting a link to their site. Or even better if you show them that you already have in the email you write to them).
4c. Submit yourself to the DMOZ - dmoz.org one of the holy trinity of most important places to get your site listed (Yahoo! and Looksmart are the other 2 but they are both fee based). It is a directory like Yahoo! but is free and run by individuals. Their page rank is so high that getting listed here will go a long way in getting you high in the results (I think they are a 9 or maybe even a 10 in pagerank but cant remember)
-------------
Well there is a quick and dirty set of tips for you. Hope it helped. If you have any questions let me know. Also, if you want more info you might check out searchenginewatch.com. Its the best site for search engine optimization tips.
Z
Thank you Z, I'll get right on these suggestions, and let you know how this all turns out.
B. Bill
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