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Subject:Re: HTML keywords & search engines From:Jennifer Jelinek <jlkraus -at- AMETEKWATER -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 13 Oct 1997 08:38:40 -0500
Anyone have any tips on getting a site registered with the search engines?
[Jelinek, Jennifer] The major search engines and index sites (Lycos, Hot
Bot, Excite, Alta Vista) all work in different ways. Some search through
use of meta-tags, some through the number of times a word appears on a
page, some through the title of the page ( in the browser's title bar).
Most use some combination of these factors, and it's difficult to balance
the occurence of these factors in order to optimize your page for every
search engine. In addition, the more traffic your pages have, the more
often many spiders will return to re-index your site.
Some general tips:
1. Use keywords in titles
2. Use metatags
3. Avoid frames...they don't supply page text for engines to search and
index.
4. Use keywords in the page content...try to place them close together and
use them repeatedly
5. When using text images, make sure to add a text 'ALT' tag.
6. Put content as close to top of HTML file as possible...the more it's
obscured by tables, images, etc, the lower your score on the search engine
Realistically, you aren't going to be in the top ten for every keyword you
want to be listed under (ever see some of the pages that are? Yuck!) The
key is to balance what you want to do with the pages in terms of design and
content with strategies that help make it more searchable.
It includes some good pointers on optimizing your pages for various search
engines.
Hope this helps,
Jennifer Jelinek
Documentation Coordinator/Technical Writer/Webmaster
Plymouth Products, Inc.
jlkraus -at- ametekwater -dot- com
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