[thelist] Query: search engine submission and ranking

[Osaurus]

Thanks Tom... and others who commented. This has clarified things a bit. I
think the thing to do is to offer people good markup/key text to get ranked,
as you say, and no 'mass search-engine submission' whatsoever. If it's just
a worthless (to the client) money-spinner for developers then I'd rather
live with some morals and just submit their sites to directories that have
specific relevence. I'll probably be bankrupt within the year.. ;-)

Nick

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Dell'Aringa" <pixelmech at yahoo.com>
To: <thelist at lists.evolt.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2004 4:36 PM
Subject: Re: [thelist] Query: search engine submission and ranking


> --- Osaurus <osaurus at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I wonder if few of you can clarify something for me regarding
> > search-engine submissions...
>
> "Search engine submissions" are somewhat of a snake-oil salesmans
> trick. In fact, without paying big money, you'll never get anything
> directly submitted to Yahoo!
>
> The problem you really want to tackle is how you are authoring.
> Following good solid practices such as valid and key text instead of
> images, mimimal use of tables, a good hierarchy (smart use of H#
> tags) and even the order stuff appears on your page make your site
> more relevant. Googling the topic will bring up lots of good stuff.
>
> Google is a spider and crawls the web of its own volition (although
> you can submit a URL). When it does spider your page, you'll get
> placed appropriately based on *how well you authored your pages* and
> not some search engine trick. In fact, Google etc are pretty wise to
> the tricks and will penalize you for them.
>
> The Google ranking is your first job. Yahoo! has changed lately, they
> used to actually show Google results, I'm not sure what they are
> showing right now. So I'll defer on that.
>
> For other engines and spiders, feel free to manually submit, if they
> offer it. The key is to follow their instructions.
>
> But as for "blasting" your URL to "thousands" of search engines, its
> bunk. Don't EVER pay for such a service! Why would you want your
> train site listed in some search engine about dolls? The key players
> are Google, AOL search, MSN and Yahoo! basically, Google being #1. If
> you find other, targeted search engines/directories that make sense
> for you, then do the submission work - the engines you really need to
> be a part of you can do yourself - and *should* do yourself.
>
> In the end, it's all about the content on your site and how its built
> that makes the difference in the beginning. Then its about how often
> your site is visited - and if you pay for placement.
>
> A well done, targeted site that doesn't have a million competitors
> should be able to get in on the first couple/few pages, and that's a
> job well done IMO. You can tweak from there.
>
> This is really a huge topic and a speciality all unto itself, I hope
> this *brief* intro has helped somewhat, certainly others will chime
> in as well.
>
> Tom
>
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