Search Engine Optimization (SEO) FAQ Part 2

I submitted my site to the search engines, but it was not accepted

Search Engine listings are not guaranteed to everyone who launches a website on the Internet. Search engines are for-profit businesses and have the right to refuse to list any site for virtually any reason. If done properly most sites can get listed on search engines. It is important to cover all bases and all necessary elements are present before submitting the finalized site to the search engines or directories. it is important that new websites arereviewed by SEO professionals before being launched.

How long before I see results?

It can take between 2 - 12 weeks or longer to see results, depending on each search engine. Sometimes it can take longer if you don't follow industry standard SEO procedures. To get in the top (3) pages (top 30 listings) requires proper optimization along with extensive link building which can take months if at all.

How does the Search Engine find websites?

There are two ways a search engine can find a website to add to its database. The first and most direct method is to accept submissions from website designers, optimizers or website owners. Most search engines have a "submit your URL" section inviting submissions from website owners. The second method of finding websites is that search engines send a "spider" to follow each and every link on, off, and through websites which in turn link to other websites. If you have links from other sites then your site eventually will be found.

What is a "Spider"?

A "spider" is an electronic robot that travels the web examining websites in order to add them to a search engine database and rank them according to the specific ranking criteria for that search engine. Most search engines use spiders to quickly and efficiently canvass the web for information. The spiders will periodically come back to your site once indexed in their database. That is why it is important to constantly refresh your content, because the spiders will stop coming to your site if your content remains the same. One should add new content as frequently as possible as well as refresh their websites at least every six months to a year.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search Engine Optimization is the process of making websites search engine friendly. The process often involves minor modifications to, or additions of, several standard elements of a website such as: keyword rich content, meta tags, alt tags, header tags as well as robot .txt files and site maps.

What do you mean by Search Engine Friendly?

We use this term to describe a website that has specific elements added or modified to attract and please search engine spiders or live directory editors. In other words don't structure your site to obstruct the ability of the search engine robot spider to navigate your site such as: frames, flash pages, splash pages with no relevant content, "dirty URLs", no site map or Google site map, not using proper programming code and not using good web page format.

Sometimes you may need extra elements added to your website. A search engine spider is an automated program that electronically probes every URL submitted to its database. As the spider is a computer program, it is designed to look for and rank very specific items on each page it probes. If those elements are present, the spider computes a higher ranking than it would if those elements were not present. Each page needs to be properly optimized to have the best possible chance for a favorable listing. Unfortunately, Most website designers don't know or have the experience to properly optimize the web pages. Also they don't want to charge you extra dollars to take the time to properly optimize each page because you may decide the project is too costly. In most cases the site designer is a highly skilled and creative person whose job is to put your ideas on the web. Again more often than not, the designers have not received extensive training in search engine optimization and don't think about it while pursuing a cool looking design. Search engines are also constantly changing their ranking criteria. They do this to prevent gross manipulation of their search tools. Often, website designers are not fully up to date with changes taking place with the search engines.