Search Engine Optimization -Getting Indexed

Here are a few tips for when your website is about to go live. There is the option of submitting your website to all the main search engine companies, i.e. Google, MSN and Yahoo, this takes time - which is in short supply when a site is going live.

Do remember that you have already made a large investment, and now you need your investment to start paying out. If you are thinking of sending your website to one of the search engine companies, a lot depends on how long it will take for your web- site to be indexed by this company.

It can take up to 2 months (MSN and AOL), but can be accomplished in as little as a week (AltaVista) or 2 (Fast). You will need to be indexed on one of the main search engines, because of the simple fact that they are used a lot every single day, increasing the likelihood of lot of people visiting your web- site

Make sure that your website is fully ready by the time you request to be indexed. This means getting rid of any bugs; if you do not get rid of all the little bugs and glitches, you can be sure that someone else will find them for you, which can cause problems. Also, you must have your site description ready for the search engine. This is a simple 25-word-or-less description of your website, and if you write an awesome description you can be sure that you will receive a lot of visits to your web site. If you are selling something, try to avoid making it all about how you are the lowest-priced company on the planet. That is just marketing hype, and no-one will fall for it. Just make a brief description of what you sell which will jump out at people who are looking for that item.

You call also submit your website to the open directory, a volunteer guide to the web which is provided to webmasters as an option at all the major websites like MSN, Google and Yahoo.

The good news about submitting your website to the open directory is that it is totally free. Unfortunately there is no guarantee about turnaround time, but it should take around 3 weeks.

If you still can’t see your website listed after that, re-submit it - a lot of websites are submitted to the open directory, and that means that some fall through the net occasionally. Some people have said that you needn’t submit your website to places like Google or MSM because your website will be picked up automatically, but leaving it to be picked up automatically is a risk that shouldn’t be taken by webmasters.