User:Shojo/sandbox/Tagsadvice
The Facts and Fiction of Search Engines
If you are a web master you want everyone to know your web site exists, whether it is a personal, support site or commercial site. I am sure you have tried to get in a search engine, and after that you got flooded with offers to get you on all the search engines for just the right “£” or “$”, usually more expensive than most of us can afford, especially for personal web sites.
The Only advantage to this I suppose is faster placement in the engine. But they do not guarantee that. You might ask: ok you snotty little kid, how do we get on Search engines? Well actually it is pretty easy - and you heard it here! You have been to Google and Alta-Vista, Yahoo and maybe some others. Maybe you got listed and maybe you didn’t and some of you paid for it. I don’t have money to pay for that stuff. So how do the sites I build, get decent links in the search engines... well okay its not as easy as that, but it is easy.
First you have to pick a Theme, well yes a color theme for your site, but right now I’m talking about the kind of site you are going to have. Ok a personal site... but what is the theme, what are you trying to get across to everyone.. That is your theme.
Themes and starting
Themes can be books, games, religion, or thousands of other things.. Hopefully all legal, but now that you have a theme what can you do with it? You build it up, this may take sometime, web sites are not easy to deal with. Then after you decide that you get your domain name. After you have that we get you listed, that will give you a few weeks to start building your site. This may sound stupid, but here is how I set up a site. In the header I use awesome meta tags, but not all search engines use them - so right under the body tag I will put the title and the description and the keywords again each line starting with < ! — Phpnuke-uk.com blah blah blah... end it as well — >
Links and such
What else should I look for.. Why links of course. Here is a hint, they will not index your pages if you to not have a link to the page - and back to the home page, and you want those listed as well - that is where your content is. Now lets look at the footer... nothing much there and it is something that we usually over look.
Two Examples:
1. For instance you are selling stuff and have an affiliate program (if you don’t you better get one!) Link your affiliate program to those affiliate generating sites... even before you submit to the search engines yourself.
2. If you are not familiar with RSS news feeds and you write a lot of content - you will want to get your site listed with RSS sites, and by the way, Php-Nuke comes with that news feed already built in. Put all these return links in the bottom of your footer, using font size=1, those places are already listed on all the sites, within a couple of days you will be also The link back is how they grade you and where they place you - if you can, put a graphic up for them - but that is not necessary.
Google.com and DMOZ.ORG
Now you have to do some work on this on your own, just like I had to. Don’t worry about the pay sites no matter what. Search Google “Submit URL” give them just your main page, no more no less. Then go to dmoz.org and request them to look at your site. Now it could be weeks, or days before these two get to you - but if you did what I said to do with links, then it will be a matter of days before you are listed on many engines, it may take a couple of months for all the biggies to get to you - but they will do it as well.
Follow Up
I didn’t talk about meta tags and search words, that is another article. But with these little things you are on the search engines quickly and painlessly.. And if you are using analysis software, then you can actually see them come to your site and look. There are public domain programs for this and CMS programs for it.
Search engines want you to think you have to buy space from them, but let’s look at the facts... not one of them actually says you have to, they just point you to a direction to buy that space. In this second article you will discover how to get free search engine placement in just a few hours to a few days.
Of course they want you to buy space, since the 1990 collapse of Internet business almost 100 thousand people are signing on each month for the first time, and they have no idea that the Internet is actually free. Search engines are looking for that number one space, once held by Yahoo, now by Google, but they all want it. They can’t very well get it if no one goes to them, and why do we go to them? Because they have the most listings....
Ah ha! How did they get those listings? Do you believe for one minute that 7 million web sites paid for those listings? I don’t think so. I have several web sites that place high on the search engines, and I haven’t spent a dime, and all of them are less than four years old.
Those new people that are spending money are doing it for fast and hoping the meta tags these companies provide will put them at the top of the lists... but that isn’t true.
One company, for a measly $500, on sale from their normal $1500, promised rankings in the top ten for the search words they use. Another promises the same thing for $49.00. What is the difference? Nothing. You can do that yourself for free. Do you get the top position when you do that? Not hardly: How can 1 billion sites all have the top position?
These are all come-ons for you to spend money on things they promise, but don’t have to own up to if you read their contract... it goes something like it is your responsibility and you can not hold them liable for any change you make in your site after they tell you what to put on it... ok that means if you change one word, the game is over, you lose. You can’t get your money back. Now if you think it is odd they would ask a 16 year old for $500, just remember I get email for enlarging my breasts and Viagra too! But that shows you how hard up they are for real business.
The point is, if the only ones that paid search engines got on them, then only a few thousand would be on them at all, and that surely would not make them the number one search engine! So the search engines need your listing to stay on top. New people don’t understand this concept, so they pay for it. So how do you get on the list and stay on top? I will go a step further, how do you get on the list fast, and stay on top?
Most of you bypass these great opportunities every day. Phpnuke-uk.com gets hundreds, if not thousands of hits from web masters every day, yet only one out of 3000 take the time to put their web site address on the web links, less add it to our top sites, that is two different links in one site alone... they do not submit news to that site, that is three places. Now if you have a phpnuke site at all, and you place those links on the other 1000 phpnuke sites you have quite a few links. The same goes for all CMS, and even if you do not use a CMS most will support your site if you give them a link and input.
How does that help you? Well some of those sites have been around a long time. Some of them are cataloged by search engines everyday. If they are cataloged, then those sites see the news, web links, and top sites. Those are all Places into their search engine usually within 24 hours. Part two of this great process is that once they have put your link on from the sites, they then - within a few weeks- start spidering your site!
I’ll break it down. Whenever you go to a cms site, or other site that is a portal, then place your web link and tell all about your site (make these up in advance on your word processor so you only have to cut and paste it!) Put news on your site, and some of it is worth placing on others, maybe they wont post it, but then again maybe they will! When you write in a forum have your web link and a pic in your signature i.e. Tag < BR >Hugssss< BR >< a href="http://article-publicity.com" > < / A> <img src= "http://bookwired.com/pics/88x31banner.gif"> That alone draws attention, gets you hits, and gets you on search engines.
Search engines as well as people that visit your site are looking for content on your Theme... The same theme we discussed earlier. Now what is content? Content are files and information as well as news, talk, chat, and articles, especially how to articles but any articles covering your theme are appropriate. For instance if you have a game site, of course you want to have games to play, but you need other content as well, articles that tell about new games coming out, interviews with game makers - even if it is you.
Game discussions, not about what you are doing so much as how to play. If you have a site for themes, but you are not helping others or have how to content, exactly how prone are people to participate in your site? Most do not think they are smart enough or can write well enough to create a story for your site. That is nonsense. Ok so this has been edited sort of by others, but just about every article is done that way. Invite your users to send in articles, news, post about your theme in the forums. Then do light editing if you have to, but tell them that in advance.
The worst web sites are ones with no themes, no content, and no purpose. Search engines pick this up right away, so before you start announcing your site and theme make sure you have some content right at the first and build on that as you go, daily if necessary but at least weekly.
This content is what the search engines are going to index... especially in php portals such as phpnuke. Now if you don’t believe that, look at a site that has had Matty Scripts MS-Analysis on it. Look at the search words people have used to find it. You will be very surprised, because 90% of those searches are for a keyword, and if the site did not have that group of words on it, then they never would have found it. Content in php is very important, and phpsites are just now starting to realize the potential..
Another instance, is that this series of articles on search engines, is content for any site posting it. That content when someone searches for it will show up on their site. So not only do people hear about am-nuke.net, they hear about the site that supported the article, the content of help that those people need at that time.
To sum it all up, create a theme for your site, get content that matches it, then submit your site to every CMS. web link, sponsor, supporter, top ten list that you can, and don’t stop to smell the roses, keep plugging at it every week, and in six months or less you will be bring in 1000 hits a week - regardless of your theme, just doing those simple things. That is the way of the search engines, no hype, no selling here, you got the truth and the truth works... If only Mulder had known me. I hope this series of articles helped you. To support me, I don’t want your money. I want you to visit our site, and become active, because I want you to learn what my friends and I have found out the hard way!
Getting hits to your Site the Right Way
Writing to get your News out
Web masters... you have spent time, effort and probably money designing your web site, but yet it receives few or no hits. What can you do to make sure that your site receives the publicity it deserves?
One tried and proven solution is by writing a small article about your site and submitting it to an S.E.O. and content provider site. People visit these sites every day to discover articles which they can include in their own site. These articles, which can cover all sorts of topics from angling to zoo-keeping, are designed to provide a taste of what your own site contains.
They would usually be about one small part of your own site, but are sufficiently interesting to make a reader click on the link to your site so that they can find out more information, thus leading to a greater number of hits.
They should be relatively short, say 400 to 500 words, so that a reader will not become bored by them. Research has shown that if a visitor to a web site does not have their attention grabbed within about 5 seconds, or less, they will move on.
Some article submission sites will offer, in addition to hosting your article writing service. You provide them with an idea of the style you want, a description of your site and they will provide you with an article.
Some sites will expect you to submit the article to them for hosting, while others will give you the article so that you choose where to submit it. Whatever you choose, copyright of the article always remains with you, and this is acknowledged by a small statement that the content was provided by whoever. There is also usually a link to the article writer, thus ensuring that your site receives a measure of promotion.
Submitting an article is generally a straightforward procedure. You choose the content provider you wish to submit your article to, register with them, and you are then able to submit your article.
Tag Craig 2006
Have a Top Website in 90 days or less
I see lots of web sites go under in less than 90 days, so I thought it was time to help people by writing another series of articles, this time on your web site, and what to do with it. This formula works with any theme.
Lets start with the theme. Whether it is cats, dogs, snakes, recipes, just a forum, there is a formula for making it a great web site. The normal person puts up their web site, messes 4-8 hours a day changing all the graphics for at least a week. Or worse, messes with coding and hacks when a phpnuke web site works from day one.
When you decide to have a web site, you are excited and hope that thousands of people will come. Using the above method, you have worked over a month on getting it to look good, changing things and at the end of that month your friends have said how cool it is, but don’t go back, and new people are not coming. Ouch!
That’s because they don’t even know about it. So lets go back to basics, let’s create your first new web site with a bang, not spending a dime on advertising. It does not matter what your theme is. I repeat it does NOT matter. Wether you have several things for people to see or just specialize in one, it does NOT matter.
So, what does matter? Content is what matters, not graphics or how many hacks you have. Why does content matter? Because this is what search engines pick up. How do search engines even know about you? They don’t but we will find out how to get them to see you... and to get them to see you for free.
Now if you are getting your own domain, you will have better luck than you would with a sub domain, and those of you that are using a domain but putting your web site in a sub folder will hurt because of it, that is a sub domain whether you realize it or not... you don’t have to admit to it, but it’s in black and white. Search engines are indexing the main directory, they work on subdirectories later, and if your domain points to home and your site is in a sub directory, then guess what. Most search engines to not even list sub domains, and most will not index them entirely.
Now for content. Whatever your subject or field, you are not the only one interested in it. After your web site is up and running, you need to start adding content right away. From day one everyday for 90 days add one to 5 articles, ask others to use their articles, post them, get them ready. After 5 days you will only have 25 news articles, but you are not done. That takes about an hour a day if you are not writing them yourself and getting help from others.... now while you were out getting help from others, post your web site. Look for the sites Google ranking, if it is above one... you want on their site. Don’t turn down one without a ranking, just make sure you get on the highest ones possible.
While you are getting on web sites and adding content, start writing your own content. Post this and your home page link always include story by: Your Name, Web Site: Your http addy, and your email for people to contact you. Upload it to as many sites.
Now don’t expect them to do that if you are running a commercial site, and blatant advertising. I have about 10 professional phpnuke sites send articles each week, they never give anything away, and some are not even using phpnuke, but just write modules selling to phpnukers. Yet they promote their own CMS on their site.
Then you have other sites such as Nukescripts, Codezwiz, Ravens, NukeStyles, that may or may not sell things, but they consistently give to the community. Dealing with other sites is the same, For instance I deal with lots of photography sites. Some just sell things, some are there to help, some give their programs away and yet sell some. I support anyone who makes money and gives back to the community regardless of theme you can do that too.
How you deal with other sites is up to you, but I feel that if it is a commercial site, they need to pay for and or trade for positioning. Nothing like going to a Google commercial site and seeing a ranking of 7, but they only have 25 members... that is because they are using other sites for their bogus advertising. So don’t be like them, if you are running commercial stuff for anything be sure you are giving back to the community if you want the support.
Expect the same from your site to theirs. If you are asking to use their articles also offer to give them some. If you can put your banner on their site, at least offer them the same service. This will help you in about 30 days.
In the meantime, spend no longer than an hour a day on your graphics. You will need the following banners: 88x31, 120x240, 120 x 360 and 120x600, and of course the 468x60 banner. Use photoshop or other graphics program, Gif Animator is also good for this as well as dozens of other programs, but don’t spend more an hour a day on it, you have content you need, and contacts to make.
Having links does not mean you will get a top ranking, and it sure doesn’t mean you are going to keep it, to get that ranking and keep it you need content as we discussed in part one. There are things other than links and content to be looking for as well.
In phpnuke in the includes directory there is meta.php. Meta tags... Tags named after me I might add, are all important on how your site is looked at by search engines. The one that comes with phpnuke is set up for phpnuke, you will have to change it for your site and your theme almost immediately for good results.
Were you aware that most people use a string of words to search the major engines? Let’s face it a one word search does work, but gives you hundreds of thousands of entries. The majority of people want to limit their search by using a string of words. So instead of say ‘ice cream’, they will put in ‘homemade ice cream’ or ‘homemade chocolate ice cream’.
Search words are important and download centers have trial ware you can use to find out what people are searching for. If you have many web sites you may want to purchase it, but most of the time if you are just planing one major site, then using the trial software is all you need. Besides your single entry words, but those phrases in as well, it will help your ranking tremendously. Go to your competitors and see what phrases and search words they are using by looking at the sites source code. Use your meta tags to promote your site.
Not all search engines use meta tags, so it is important to have that list of words at the very beginning of your source code. So under your meta tags try this: <–! Lists of search words and phrases separated by a comma !–> some will use /* — / or other means but the idea is the same, now your search words are listed 2 times instead of one and work lots better on any type of search engine.
Most of the link exchange and web ring programs benefit only a few members, but they are still links to your site, so use them if the program looks like it will benefit you. The chances of them ever helping your site is not very good, but any link is better than none. Instead use Supporter links, Web links, classified ads and sites that use those. You want to start getting those links immediately. Exchange links with sites similar to yours the first couple of weeks. This is something you need to do each week. I spend at least an hour a week locating and exchanging links. Before long your links will be showing up in the least expected places, but to get there you must promote it on your own at least an hour a week, and this part never stops. Why? Because many of those sites wont make it - they will disappear, and that means you lost a link, so never stop trying to get new links.
When you do this keep in mind without a link back to their site, it does no good. Link-backs are very important, if you do not have web links listed on your site, or such things as classified ads or supporter block areas, those links you have made are going to die, and search engines will actually pick up who you linked to more than who is linked to you! So when you are going around doing this, make sure you offer those sites the same respect and have similar software programs on your site for them to use.
Your downloads area is very important. Most of us can not write programs so we believe we don’t need them, but we do, and we need them for the theme we are promoting. There is a way to use the downloads area of your site to benefit you and others. First give others the ability to upload to your site. Now make some downloads. Using software for things like art photos, music or combinations of them, you can make small little programs such as movies, screen savers, custom music examples, photo montages, backgrounds etc, some of these things can be used with Paint, the program that came with your computer on Windows machines. Don’t just have giant files, make them relatively small, less than 250K most sites will only allow 244K upload tho, so keep that in mind. Now that you have your new product, and your name and home page are on it, upload it to similar sites... yes upload it! Those are links!
If a site, such as am-nuke net does not have a category for your things, leave feedback to the web master, he or she will probably make an area for your things, or at least a temporary one until you have several things available, just one new thing a month could possibly give you thousands of links over a year, but in those first thirty days shoot for at least 4 new items and upload them everywhere you can think of. If you can make programs, do the same, free ware never hurt anyone, your link appears and makes you a site worth seeing!
The forums are probably the hardest thing new and even experienced web masters deal with. They take time, and a lot of effort. This is just a guideline, but it will give you an example of how to start your forum and how to grow with it.
Most web masters will either put a single forum, or way too many to start their site off. Even if you only have forums, you take the same risk. Too many look empty, to few makes it look like you are not in business.
When you start try having three forums, ‘About This Site’, gives your users a chance to talk about your site, let you know of things they want to see added, and tell you about errors they are receiving. This is ones your friends will use as you are building your site as well, lets people ask questions on how to use the site, and by the time your first real guests arrive you will have several message threads going.
A second good choice for a forum is about your theme. So if you have a Canine Forum, try using something like “About Your Dog’ and have it as a place for your users to talk about their pets.
The third forum is ‘General Discussion’ this is for politics, religion, and just about anything that comes up under the sun. You want to watch this forum closely, because it can tell you soon what forums you need to add, and at that time you can move older messages into the new forum so users can see that it is being used. Usually this will branch off your theme. If you have a collecting site for Trading cards, people will start asking questions. After you get several, start a new forum putting those questions about trading cards into it. ‘Beginners Trading Questions’
You may think right off that you need more than this, but if you think about it, most forums only receive one or two messages per day. If you have six forums and only two messages a day, your site looks dead.
Now your web site is set up, you have content, you have forums that your friends are helping to start. You have links on sites all over the world, but what about the search engines?
If you followed this plan precisely as outlined, within that first week, you link will be picked up by Google automatically, just because of the fact that you had links on major sites with link backs to their site. In two weeks you will show up on the Google engine. A few weeks after that you should start showing up on everything but Dmoz.org. That you will have to do by hand, and because most of their volunteers could care less about YOUR site, good luck with getting on it. Just trial and error with that one, and hopefully sooner or later you will get listed, but don’t worry about it if you don’t. Your site will be picked up by all the majors in two to four weeks, and up to 90 days, without any further effort on your part. Do not pay anyone to get included. You are wasting your money, and immediate results to a page with no content is like hanging yourself.
How to Write a Successful Article and ensure your article is read
Before we begin, just remember one important thing during all this. People want to know about your web site. They want your knowledge about any subject on your site. Even small sites have hundreds of articles that can be written about. Use your imagination and get those hits to your site!
The number of websites, both commercial and for individual use has grown drastically over the years. Relatively cheap or even free software is available to enable people to have their own little piece of hyperspace. The problem then becomes one of attracting visitors to your space. How do you get them sufficiently interested in your site to want to visit IT rather than the millions of others out there? Since you’re reading this article, you are already aware of the advantages of using a website such as bookwired.com, to post an article about your website, and allowing other people to use your article to generate hits to your site.
The purpose of this article is to tell you how to go about writing your own, ready for submission to an article-hosting site. It will not tell you what to write exactly. That will vary according to your website. It will, however, give you some general guidelines.
The article will cover the following areas.
1. How to decide what part of your website to describe in your article,
2. What to say in your article, and, most importantly,
3. What not to say,
4. How to actually submit your article to a hosting website,
5. How to decide on a headline for your article
6. Some general matter of courtesy when submitting your article.
Choosing What to Write
When choosing which part of your website to write about, remember that if your article is sufficiently interesting to the reader to make him want to visit your site in the first place, then you do not need to try to describe the whole thing. Remember hyperlinks on your own site. These will enable visitors to easily go to different parts of your site, if they want to. If, for example, you are a company making several different items, then it is better to write several articles about each than one long one describing them both. If you have a tourism website with information about attractions and accommodation, then write an article about each attraction. Someone might be interested in historic buildings and others in lovely gardens. Keep each article specific about one area of your site.
The idea of you writing an article is to make readers interested enough to visit your website. If it is too long, they will get bored, and move somewhere else. Keep your article as short as it needs to be to cover everything you want to say. Your article is meant to describe what your website is about - not be an exact copy of your site. To use the manufacturing example again, briefly describe your product, and what it can do for you. There is no need to go into great technical detail. That is what your site is for. Or, to use the tourism example, if a part of your website is about a Castle, for instance, tell the reader what he can see and experience if they visit the real thing. If you are a golf club, give them a short description of one of the facilities you offer on each article. How many courses there are, what dining and refreshment facilities are available, etc. Keep your article accurate. If the reader already knows about your product, or an attraction, or your golf club, and you lie, they won’t trust anything you write.
How to write and what not to write:
As far as possible, keep your writing in the third person. Say, an excellent round of golf can be played here, rather than I enjoyed a wonderful round of golf. Maybe you did have a fantastic time on the golf course. You were lucky with the weather, you had good companions and you played out of your skin. The next day, it could have been raining like Noah’s flood, your companions were the most boring people on earth and you could not hit a fairway.
Try whenever possible to avoid negativity in your article. If the attraction you’re describing gets overly busy with long queues at times, don’t tell the reader that. Say instead that it is best to arrive early, to enjoy all the attraction can offer. If your golf club gets lots of visiting players who just turn up expecting a round and then have to leave disappointed, say that a phone call to reserve your tee-off times is recommended.
Never ever lie in your article. Many hosting sites will check your article for outright untruths. If they find them, not only will they not host that article, but almost certainly they will refuse to have any further dealings with you.
You can also give a direct link to an article on your site if you wish. Do not constantly refer to your web site, or have repeated hyperlinks to it in your article. One hyperlink, at the end in a sentence would be:
Author: Tag Craig, lives in New Mexico. You can visit his web site at http://bookwired.com for more information on how to write good web design.
How to actually submit an article:
When you actually come to submit your article it is generally a straightforward process. There will be a link on the home page worded Submit an article or something similar. Clicking that link will enable you to either login using your username and password, or to register as a new user. If you are a new user, simply complete a simple form and click submit. Usually, you will see a page saying that your application has been received and you will receive an e-mail with instructions to confirm your application. However, if you have a pop-up blocker installed, or your browser uses one, you may need to disable it temporarily, generally by holding down the ctrl key and clicking, to receive the messages.
Once you’ve successfully registered, a window will open where you can submit your article. Details vary, but there will usually be boxes for headline, sub-heading, first paragraph, and main article. Copy and paste into the relevant boxes and click preview to check if it looks ok. If it does, click submit and the article is submitted.
For some sites, it helps if you have a basic knowledge of HTML. If you have prepared your article using a word processor, with paragraph breaks, and just copy and paste it into the boxes, especially the main body text one, it will almost certainly appear as one continuous block of text. You will need to separate the paragraphs by using the _br_ html tag. Using one only creates a line break. You need 2 to force a paragraph break.
Check your spelling, punctuation and grammar. If possible, get one person at least to proofread it. Often, if you fail to notice a misspelled word when you read it over the first time, chances are you always will.
Deciding on your headline:
Deciding on a headline should be comparatively simple. It is there for one reason only, and that is to grab your reader’s attention. Keep it short. If space allows, you may be able to use a subheading to elaborate on the headline. In your headline, think of what your article is about. People tend to rapidly scroll through a webpage looking for key words that interest them. For instance, if your article is about a golf club, be sure these words are in the title.
A little known bonus:
It is not just common courtesy to include on the page on your own site the article is linked to, a link back to the article site. This helps your site get a link-back to a site with more ranking and in turn, adds ranking to your site, maybe not right away, but the more you do it the higher your ranking will go in the long run. Most sites will have available a selection of icons and logos you can use for this purpose. This is a bonus on top of the fact that in a few days articles will start to appear all over the net with your article, link, and homepage.
Get busy! An article every two weeks is pretty good, and you will enjoy the benefits you and your site will receive, however one a week is even better! As you look around different places you will actually see new places to post your articles.