Posted by Bill Chambers on September 11, 2006 at 1:27 PM
I finally got my website up, but now for the big question - how do I get the site noticed? Thanks to David Schwaegler, I've started reading articles on search engine submissions, but I swear it's like learning another language; and there seems to be a lot of conflicting advice. Some articles say Keywords are very important, others say they're a waste of time, some say each and every page needs to be submitted while some say only submit the main page, some say use phrases for keywords, others say only use single words. Jeez, this can make you go nuts! I still don't have a decent understanding of what robots, spiders, and crawlers are.
There's got to be a better way. Can anyone give me some advice on where to go for the "latest" info and tips that's written for the lay person?
Thanks in advance.
Posted by Dave Larkman on September 11, 2006 at 2:10 PM
Hi Bill,
Keywords are important. Your first page should contain a number of commonly search words and key phrases. You can hide these words by putting them the same colour as the background. Once that is done you just have to wait and the search engines will find you.
Dave
Posted by Dan Borzynski on September 11, 2006 at 3:05 PM
The most consistent thing I have seen, besides a lot of conflicting advice which you are discovering, would be links from other websites. Ideally, you would want them from high traffic sites ranked highly from search engines, the theory that since they are "important" sites, so must yours be.
It will take time - don't expect overnight success. Take the opportunities offered from what you feel are respectable sites and keep working.
Don't be afraid to ask for reciprocal links with people you know, even by e-mail from here. The worst that will happen is that you'll get a no.
By the way, I wouldn't rule out sales of your paddling images. They are pretty nice and generally a step above what I have seen for sale for the same topic. You never know what people will buy.
Posted by Richard Wong on September 11, 2006 at 3:32 PM
phrases are probably better than single words as someone might search: wintering birds at Florida beaches
I need to do a better job at that myself. Every search engine has different criteria. keywords and keyword meta tags get you results in MSN and yahoo. whereas in google site links, title, content and alt tags are all that matters.
more HTML pages on your site helps too as there are more things to catalog and potentially be reached by searches.
Posted by Brent Murphy on September 11, 2006 at 6:34 PM
Each search engine uses different criteria, so there's not one catch-all that will get you noticed on all of them. Basically, though, search engines like text. As mentioned above, use some text on your front page, describing your site. But instead of hiding it, as mentioned above, you can use a couple paragraphs describing yourself and your work. This should contains words and phrases that people would use as their search terms. You should also use ALT and/or TITLE tags for your images. (Note that these are NOT the same, although IE seems to think so). You can also use META KEYWORD info in your page headers, but these are less useful these days, and I believe most search engines ignore them. And by all means, trade links with other sites. This helps search engines find your site, but also helps Joe Customer find your site, too.
Posted by Richard Wong on September 11, 2006 at 7:30 PM
Don't hide your text by making it the same color as your background, Google will blacklist you if you do that then you'll have to work your way out. I've tried that, and it doesn't do you any good other than for aesthetic purposes. It works on msn but, eventually I think they'll all catch on.
Hi Bill,
keywords, meta tag, submission to search engines, links, ect can be useful but, honestly, I consider them mainly a waste of time ;-)
Google updates often its database so after few days or weeks you will see you pages listed on google, even if you don't submit the site.
The only way to get a lot of visits is hard work and patience - do your best to propose good content and update the site regularly. Other than that, you need a lot of patience...when I created my website, some years ago, I had 3-4 visits per day - and one was mine ;-) Now I've nearly 400 visit/day
Posted by Tom Nevesely on September 12, 2006 at 12:09 PM
400 visits/day! Wow That is awesome. I've had my website for about 5 years and I average 1-3 people a day mostly from photography forums and such. Now mind you I don't have any articles on my website - just my pictures. I looked at your website Juza and it looks terrific. Nice work!
Posted by Martin Beebee on September 12, 2006 at 9:46 PM
Hi Bill,
Richard's right -- do NOT try and hide keywords. It's a quick way to get banned from Google, and that's bad. Key words and phrases are not a waste of time, but have to be placed strategically. But you also have to consider the competition -- how many other nature photography sites are out there? Lots. Getting on Google is one thing, getting somewhere on the top 20 pages is something else. . . .
Discussion
9 repliesThere's got to be a better way. Can anyone give me some advice on where to go for the "latest" info and tips that's written for the lay person?
Thanks in advance.
Keywords are important. Your first page should contain a number of commonly search words and key phrases. You can hide these words by putting them the same colour as the background. Once that is done you just have to wait and the search engines will find you.
Dave
It will take time - don't expect overnight success. Take the opportunities offered from what you feel are respectable sites and keep working.
Don't be afraid to ask for reciprocal links with people you know, even by e-mail from here. The worst that will happen is that you'll get a no.
By the way, I wouldn't rule out sales of your paddling images. They are pretty nice and generally a step above what I have seen for sale for the same topic. You never know what people will buy.
I need to do a better job at that myself. Every search engine has different criteria. keywords and keyword meta tags get you results in MSN and yahoo. whereas in google site links, title, content and alt tags are all that matters.
more HTML pages on your site helps too as there are more things to catalog and potentially be reached by searches.
keywords, meta tag, submission to search engines, links, ect can be useful but, honestly, I consider them mainly a waste of time ;-)
Google updates often its database so after few days or weeks you will see you pages listed on google, even if you don't submit the site.
The only way to get a lot of visits is hard work and patience - do your best to propose good content and update the site regularly. Other than that, you need a lot of patience...when I created my website, some years ago, I had 3-4 visits per day - and one was mine ;-) Now I've nearly 400 visit/day
Richard's right -- do NOT try and hide keywords. It's a quick way to get banned from Google, and that's bad. Key words and phrases are not a waste of time, but have to be placed strategically. But you also have to consider the competition -- how many other nature photography sites are out there? Lots. Getting on Google is one thing, getting somewhere on the top 20 pages is something else. . . .
Martin