Website

[ZOVOX]

I am thinking of starting a new business, and needs some general tips on how to get my website noticed.

[thaistick]

I am thinking of starting a new business, and needs some general tips on how to get my website noticed.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You can try to add your website for free on major search engines like Google and Yahoo.Think up all the key words people would type in their searches.Think Google peruses the net and will automatically add your site when it gets around to it.

With so many millions of websites the only sure way to be on the top of searches and be noticed would be to pay to be a sponsored link.

Newsgroups and craiglists are free to advertise on as well.

[astral]

You need to make sure you have the right list of words at the top of each page to get it listed appropriately,

when the "web spiders" come looking.

Google used to be a good choice, but not any longer.

Their lists are biased to people who sell goods and who pay them, not information services.

[cdnvic]

If you aren't that experienced in HTML I'd recomend two sites that are a must:

http://www.htmlgoodies.com/

Beginning to advanced HTML and webdesign tutorials. Find out how to use META tags to enhance search engine rankings.

http://webpagesthatsuck.com/

How NOT to build a website.

Many webhosting companies provide easy to setup online stores for users without alot of technical experience. Or those that do but are busy with other things.

Submit to all the major search engines, and resubmit about every two weeks.

Paid submissions to search engines are good if you have the cash to spare. Yahoo/Altavista and Google being the top two. Paying makes your site come up ahead of others as a "sponsored search".

If you find a website that attracts alot of your target audience (like this one does for things thai related) and buy advertising there.

Don't bother paying for those "Submit to over 400 search engines" services. 90%+ people use Google or Yahoo/AV

cv

[ZOVOX]

Submit to all the major search engines, and resubmit about every two weeks.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've found the page on google to submit your URL, but can't find it on the yahoo website - any ideas ? Also, i was thinking of sticking an ad in this TV forum - what are the advertising rates ?

[cdnvic]

Submit to all the major search engines, and resubmit about every two weeks.

I've found the page on google to submit your URL, but can't find it on the yahoo website - any ideas ? Also, i was thinking of sticking an ad in this TV forum - what are the advertising rates ?

I don't know the current rates but you do your submission to Altavista (AV and Yahoo are the same company(Overture services)).

The link to the pay services info is here:

http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/ays/...archEngineWatch

cv

[Darknight]

Submit to all the major search engines, and resubmit about every two weeks.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've found the page on google to submit your URL, but can't find it on the yahoo website - any ideas ? Also, i was thinking of sticking an ad in this TV forum - what are the advertising rates ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Please contact George for advertising rates as such, i hear they are very reasonable.

for SEO (search engine optimization) have a look at my blog , i've got some topics on it.

I'ts not as easy as google coming by and listing you. be prepared to take out a lot of addwords or advertising before you get it running. form the billion websites out there only 10% of them have reasonable traffic and are profitable.

the blog is here

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/blog/darknight/index.php?

[yeti]

I don't know what your business is about, but there may be few related sites where you should be linked.

Dedicated web directories, or "independant" sites where your target customers can compare the kind of products/services you intend to sale. Those site won't redirect as many people as Google, but those people will be more interesting for you.

[Crushdepth]

Submitting your site to Google

Various stuff about Google (see the Webmaster guidelines in particular).

Miscellaneous:

* Search engines work in different ways, so its difficult to generalise but

* The title of each page / article is important (heavily weighted), and affects how it is indexed

* Stuff in the left column or closer to the top is generally deemed to be more important and has greater 'ranking' influence

* Links to your site from other highly ranked sites (not crap sites) increase your sites ranking

* A lot of discussion boards allow you to enter your website URL in your member profile (or sometimes signature - not this one by the way). These are often indexed and can increase your site rank (see point above).

* Google can recognise (and disregard) links from 'link farm' pages

* Google ignores meta tags (last time I heard)

* The more frequently you update your site the more frequently it will be indexed

* Give hyperlinks links meaningful and relevant names, ie not 'click here'.

The most important thing though (IMHO) is to make sure your site has high quality content. You can try and optimise your site like crazy and play with keyword densities etc but if the content sucks, nobody will use it. People often lose sight of this

Edited February 3, 2005 by Crushdepth

[Ajarn]

Uniqueness and quality brings visitors, vistors bring you higher in search results...

Something I still do, even though my website is quite well placed in any appropriate search, is to read the meta coding on any page that lists higher than me for certain search terms (like 'asian recipes', 'asian foods', 'asian culture'). This has helped me a lot to tweak my website(s). If you search 'asian recipes' in Google, for example, I'm #1 of 3,310,000 search returns...

If you want to make money selling banner space, it'll take awhile before you see much money. Fastclick and Burst! are the two most popular banner agents. I prefer cpm ads because I don't have to worry about clicks if I maintain an aveage of just .05% clickthrough rate, the US average...

Also, making your site interactive brings people back... A forum for discussion and a guestbook (though banner companies mostly don't allow cpm banners in these two places) have worked well for me, as well a a few little goodies, like showing the current weather/time/news for your location, or maybe an online poll of favorites, like you often see in small boxes on the front page of some popular websites.. All this stuff will generate interest from someone...

Put a 'suggest this website to a friend' box near the bottom of your main page, or wherever. Gets more use than you might think. Lots of these kinds of .cgi scripts available for free at http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/

Google ignores meta tags (last time I heard)

Since they also show the meta in search returns with the search terms highlighted, I must assume Google uses the meta in search returns...

Edited February 3, 2005 by Ajarn

[sniffdog]

Nowadays there's only one word: Pay.

[Ajarn]

Nowadays there's only one word: Pay.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Simply, not true. I've never paid a cent, and my site is 'successful', by any standards. There's more than one way to skin a cat

[cdnvic]

Thats the danger with everyone just automaticly using Google because its the latest thing. It creates a monopoly.

Out of curiosity one night a tried a bunch of identical searches on Hotbot, Webcrawler, Altavista, and Google. To be honest there wasn't much difference in the top couple pages of each search engine's results.

Back when Go, Altavista, Lycos, Webcrawler, Excite, Hotbot, etc were all competing with each other, there was alot less emphisis on paid listings. Witrh Google enjoying a near monopoly these days, thats all going to change once people start relying on them totally.

cv

[Ajarn]

Thats the danger with everyone just automaticly using Google because its the latest thing. It creates a monopoly.

Out of curiosity one night a tried a bunch of identical searches on Hotbot, Webcrawler, Altavista, and Google. To be honest there wasn't much difference in the top couple pages of each search engine's results.

Back when Go, Altavista, Lycos, Webcrawler, Excite, Hotbot, etc were all competing with each other, there was alot less emphisis on paid listings. Witrh Google enjoying a near monopoly these days, thats all going to change once people start relying on them totally.

cv

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

In my view, if google has a monopoly, it's because they've earned it. They continue to be on the cutting edge of so many search/advertising technologies, and have made agreements with most of the major libraries in the western world, including the Library of Congress, to digitize their entire collections and make them available on the internet... That's bound to have a bigger impact on the internet world than most anything else ever has

They also have always ranked me well, so I feel quite friendly towards them