Getting Indexed By The Search Engines - The Fast Way And The Slow
Way by Rebecca Prescott
The first step to getting any traffic on the internet is getting your site
indexed by the search engines - specifically, the 'Big 3'. - Google, Microsoft,
and Yahoo. And there are two things you should forget about straight away.
Number One - Yes, you can submit your URL to the search engines using their
online form. But be prepared to wait around for a long, long time if you're
relying on this to actually include your site in their databases. The search
engines like to find your site through links on other sites, especially well
ranking, established sites. With so many sites on the internet, this is their
way of deciding if they should even think about adding your site to their index
- never mind the question of ranking well in their index.
Number Two - If you see an ad or service offering to submit your site to 10,000
search engines and directories - run the other way. If you have money to burn,
donate it to a charity or shelter instead. At least then it would have been
spent on something worthwhile. Most of your traffic will come from google,
yahoo, and Microsoft. Other search engines don't represent any significant
amount of traffic. You will actually get more traffic from link partners or
people republishing your articles than these guys. It certainly won't get your
site indexed by those that count.
So how can you get your site indexed?
1. The Slow Way
* Reciprocal Linking
Reciprocal linking used to be more prominent amongst webmasters than it is now.
It was once considered by the search engines as a good vote in favor of your
site. The it got abused to the point that irrelevant results started to clog up
the arteries of the search results. So these hypertensive algorithms were
changed, and sites that relied too heavily on reciprocal linking lost a lot of
their ranking and traffic. It can of course still provide a pathway for the
search bots to find your new site. But exchanging links is time consuming and
tedious. The links usually end up on a side page that exists solely for the
purposes of link exchange. It doesn't provide a very relevant and topical link,
and is a really poor use of time.
Reciprocal linking hasn't been consigned to history however. Some webmasters
have so many links exchanged that together this constitutes a good flow of
traffic. I do get traffic from my links. But I get more traffic from sites that
have published my articles. Reciprocal linking is a big topic - ebooks have
been written with chapters devoted to it. But suffice to say, in terms of
getting your new site indexed, this takes a long time, and it doesn't leverage
your time.
2. The Quick Way
* Writing Articles
Writing articles for other webmasters and ezine publishers to reprint has many
advantages, not least the traffic you receive from it. But it is very effective
at getting sites indexed quickly, and getting new web pages indexed quickly.
This is an excellent way to leverage your time, unlike reciprocal linking. One
article can get you links for months and years to come. By including a link in
the resource box at the end of the article, you not only get a very topical
link to your site (assuming you wrote an article that was relevant to the page
and site you are linking to), but you get interested visitors to your site.
These visitors come from both the major article directories, and the sites that
choose to publish your article.
How many people will republish your article depends very much on how topical
your article is, how big the niche is, and of course, how good the article is.
Writing fluff or rubbish will generally not serve you well. Few if anyone will
republish it - assuming it is accepted by the article directories in the first
place. And any visitors reading it will not be persuaded to click through to
your site if you don't provide good, relevant content. Article marketing is not
just about getting a site indexed, or getting links from authority article
directories. These benefits are actually a consequence rather than an object in
and of themselves.
Write to inform, write to solve a problem, write to contribute to people's
understanding. Don't write for the search bots.
* Google Sitemaps
Google sitemaps is a great tool to reduce the amount of time it takes to get
the googlebot back to your site when you've added fresh content. The search
engines love fresh content. And the special sitemap you set up with google lets
their bots know when a site has been updated. Pre sitemaps, the googlebot would
have its own estimated schedule of when your site might be updated. In those
'old days', it might take a month for googlebot to crawl new pages.
* Press Releases
Whilst the idea of sending a press release sounds daunting, there is a lot of
free information out there to make the process easier. Press release have to be
formatted a certain way, and they must be written from the point of view of
news. But they are great ways to get good links if you pay to have them
released to yahoo news and google news. These can become a good source of
traffic too, if they are optimized correctly. And whilst many webmasters now
use article marketing, fewer use press releases.
Getting your site indexed quickly is all about getting one way, authority links
into your new site. The major article directories are considered authority
sites, and of course, so is yahoo and google news. And submitting your article
to a lot of smaller article directories increases your chances of getting those
articles republished. Those directories provide links themselves, but also a
way of reaching a wider audience of webmasters looking for content. And the
niche directories provide very relevant - and hence valuable - incoming links.
About the Author
Rebecca Prescott runs this niche
health article directory. She also shows how those looking to
work at home on the internet can break through the noise and develop a
successful online business.
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