I am sure there are simple guides which tell you how to get found on the web. The problem is they are hidden by the mounds of other things there are out there. We get people coming to us all the time asking how to get started.
The best description of the web is it is like an ant heap, generating huge amounts of activity. It clearly has some kind of organisation; you can look and see what one ant is doing; it's just that finding the ant and working out what they are doing in the great scheme of things is really hard work. Plenty of people run a mile because of all the hard work and confusion.
The basics
We thought we would start with a few simple basics you can do to get your site noticed. Alternatively, you can at least go to your website provider and ask them if they can prove they have done these basics:
- Does your site have a sitemap - a sitemap is essentially an index of pages in a format the search engines like. Checking your own site has one should be easy if you have FTP access, or if you are using a CMS such as Wordpress. The Search Engines use sitemaps as the index to your pages and to check on the changes that you have made so they can update your information. If you need an independent sitemap generator, you can try http://www.xml-sitemaps.com, though there are plenty of other tools out there to get you started.
- Have you submitted your site to the Search Engines - You will get found quicker if you submit your sites to Google and Bing/Yahoo. It's a once only process for each of them.
- For Google - create an account, go to webmaster tools and it's a simple job to use their optimisation tools to get your site indexed for the first time. Google will see to the rest.
- Bing has its own webmaster tools as well which will allow you to submit your site there in much the same way.
- Submit your site URL - While you are in Google and Bing, you can submit your site's URL to them. Bing's is an anonymous tool, and you can submit your site via Google while you are in Webmaster tools.
These are the very basics required to have your site identified. What follows can be very frustrating, as you wait for your work to register somewhere deep in the search engines. Like most of us have experienced, you may well wonder why you cant find yourself, even though you are typing your URL directly into search. The fact is, some sites take longer to register than others for no obvious reason. We have occasionally found that the process takes longer if the server paths are confusing. Check your ownership of your domain and how your server is set up with your web host if you think this is the case.
Another recommendation is to make sure your site is well-constructed, and all the key elements such as page titles, headers, metadata and keywords are consistent and high quality. Although this does not register immediately you will benefit in the long run if you spend a little time courting the search engines by giving them the things they like.
Doing a little more
But you are impatient, you want to build your site's profile quicker. There are other steps you can take.
- Create a social presence - Social media serves the role of creating a conversation around your web presence. We use the word "around" carefully here, as this is not the same as advertising directly. Use Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ and YouTube to add to the conversations linked to your site. They provide additional platforms and valuable links to your website, meaning you are searched and found more often. If you want to understand why, imagine that your own site is stuck in an out-of-town desert where nobody drives by, whereas millions of people are pouring through these sites each day. Suddenly coming across a signpost to your site will mean they know where to find you.
- Bookmark your site using quality bookmarking sites such as StumbleUpon, Digg and Delicious for the same reason.
- Create content offsite - If you are in a position to add content to high ranking sites that link back to your own, this can be extremely valuable. In the past, these links have been built through link-building sites, but the search engines are making a great effort to crack down on these link farms and advertising sites in an effort to clear a lot of the spam from the web. Concentrate instead on quality sites where your expertise will reflect well on you and the website you link back to.
If you are in a hurry
If all this is not sufficient, or you need to get your business going quicker, then look at payment methods such as Pay per click with Google.
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