So you have made a great website and it’s just not getting the traffic it deserves, and you don’t know what to do next. You have told all your friends, you have spent lots of time and money on advertising and it’s still not helping. Well, if you didn’t already know this, most of your websites traffic is going to come from search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN. there are hundreds out there but these are the big three, and the ones you really need to focus on. To get these sites to notice you can prove quite difficult, especially when you don’t know where to begin. Well here is a guide to get you started on your way to a high page rank in the big search engines.
Step 1: Submit your URL
There are websites out there that give you the option of submitting your URL to hundreds of sites at once either for a small fee, or in some cases for free. You can use these if you want, but to get the best results you are better off submitting your URL to each search engine individually. There are four that I recommend you submit your URL to immediately. They are Google, Yahoo, MSN, and DMOZ (the open directory project). The big three you want to submit your URL to because they are the most commonly used search engines, and a lot of smaller search engines derive their results from these engines. The DMOZ however, is not a big name search engine, at least not compared to the big three. You still want to submit your URL to them though because they are an exclusive group, and getting your web URL in their directory can improve your page rank in all other search engines. To submit your URL simply visit the site you want to be included in, and hit the “ADD URL” or “SUGGEST URL” link. If you can’t find the link you can always just use the search engine and search for how to add your link to that particular site.
Step 2: Submit a sitemap
Sometimes submitting your URL doesn’t get you listed fast enough, or at all, and this is why a sitemap is important. A sitemap is in short a list of your websites individual pages. The sitemap lists them all and when you submit your sitemap to a search engine it tell their crawler robots to crawl your pages. This method can sometimes get your site listed in as little as 24 hours. The two sites you are going to want to submit a sitemap to are Yahoo and Google. Each one of these search engines requires you submit a sitemap in a different format. Yahoo wants a txt style format, and Google wants a sitemap in XML. You can use online free sitemap generators to make your sitemap for you if you don’t know how to make one on your own. To find one just search “free sitemap generator.” Once your sitemap is generated follow the instructions given by Goolgle and/or Yahoo to submit it to them. For Google you can find the instruction in their Webmaster Tools section, and for Yahoo you can submit your sitemap on the same page you submit your URL.
Step 3: Get other websites to link to yours
Getting the big name websites to link to yours can be a very difficult task. A lot of these big name websites disregard 99% of link offers they receive, and they receive hundreds of offers everyday. The reason for this is because of two main reasons. One, you did not ask them the right way. Two, they don’t feel that the content on your website would be beneficial to their users. First we are going to take a look at reason one. Most people who write to the web-masters present their link exchange request as follows……..
Hi, my name is (your name) and I have recently made a website. My website is all about (whatever your website is about) and I’m really trying to get it noticed. I was wondering if you would consider putting a link to my website on your website. In return I will put a link to your site on my website. You can check out my website at www.(yourwebsitename).com. Please write back to me even if the answer is no, and please give me some tips to make my website as good as yours.
Okay, 99% of people write to other websites requesting a link exchange like this, and they get nowhere. That is because they get this kind of request everyday, and usually sites who present themselves this way are not worth linking to. If you really want to get sites to link to yours you should write to them as follows……
Hi, my name is (your name) and I just got done reading your article on (whatever the article was about). I really enjoyed it and you presented it nicely. I have a website that is about just this kind of thing, and was wondering if you would give me permission to include a link to your article on my website. I really feel that my users could benefit from the knowledge on your website. You may also want to check out an article I have that is similar to this one, that I’m sure you will find beneficial to your website. You can check out the article at www.(your website name).com/(your articles exact URL).htm. Feel free to have a look at other articles while your there. If you would like to give me permission to have your link on my website please e-mail me when you can, and if there is anything else I need to do other than put your link on my site please let me know. Thanks for taking the time to consider my website.
(your name).
This is a much better e-mail because you are showing that you value their website, and feel it would be beneficial to your users. You are also not asking for a “link exchange”, you are asking for a content exchange.
Now looking at problem 2, the solution is very simple. You have to write good quality content, and keep adding to it daily. Do this and you will find that sites will be coming to you asking for content exchanges.Note: There are programs out there where you can pay to have websites linked to yours. But don’t be fooled, most search engines disregard these links because you didn’t earn them the proper way.
Step 4: Let your website age
Not much to really do with this one, just sit back and let your website get a little older. The reason for this is that search engines take a websites age in to consideration when assigning it a page rank. The older your website is the more credible the search engine will find your website content.
Thats it for SEO, but you still are going to want your website to get noticed in other ways as well. Put your URL in your signature and post on blogs, get involved in Google and Yahoo groups, and use advertising tools like Google Adwords to get your ad out. You also may want to try using Yahoo Answers to promote your website. Answer peoples questions that relate to the content of your website, and establish yourself as an expert in your field. You can also leave your website as the source link so they can visit your website to find content similar to their question. Hope this guide helped you, and good luck with your website.
By: Matt Rankin
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