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How to get more web traffic
The Point: Search engine tweaking has three goals to enhance the link s rank in search engine results for people who are specifically querying for our services, to get the link to appear in search engine results for people who are in our target market, and to make the link more attractive to query-ers in general.
The Methods:
1 Meta Tags
Description Most search engines display the first sentence or
so of text on the linked page. Some search engines will present text in the
description meta tag instead if it is available. NOTE: this can be as small as
130 characters. Wording matters.
Keyword Most search engines will index based on text characteristics
(see below). Some will use keywords in a meta tag as well, or preferentially.
NOTE: We probably don t want to use sex as a keyword just to increase our hit
count. Things like non-profit and information, on the other hand, will
target our market. It appears that there is a 1000 character limit on the meta-keyword
field.
2 Text Characteristics
Engines index differently, some index based on
all the text on the page, some on the first x number of words, some only
on things in header tags, etc. It is critical that relevant keywords appear
early in the text on the page, and that we use header tags.
3 Title
Some search engines will look for search words
in the title before looking in the page text. Some engines show the title of
the page (the text enclosed within <title></title> tags) as part of
the search result. We should have a different, relevant title for each page on
the site.
4 Separation of page function
If different pages are of explicitly different
function, and that information is clearly taken into consideration when
applying the methods above, the site s search-find probability as a whole
should be substantially enhanced. The new site map I created for www.tcn.org does delineate function
sharply.
5 Site promotional features
Some search engines rank found pages by how
many times they are linked to by other pages. Site features that are not
directly related to our business, but that are likely to be linked to by other
sites, will enhance the site s search-find ranking. (This is not the only reason
to have site promotional features others are discussed below).
See also:
http://www.monash.com/spidap4.html
http://searchenginewatch.internet.com/webmasters/features.html
http://searchenginewatch.internet.com/webmasters/display.html
http://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/tips.html
Web directories
The Point: While web directories and search engines co-exist on many of the same portal sites, links in web directories are chosen by editors and have to be explicitly registered. Links are put in relatively rigid classifications in the directory tree, and include a site description. The issues are similar to those for search engine results.
The Methods:
1 Explicit registration
Some services offer registration to many
directories simultaneously. I recommend against using them different
directories have different requirements and different trees, we will do better
to tailor the entry to the top dozen sites than to scattershot to the top
hundred.
2 Clarity of page focus/different focus for
different pages.
Most organizations register their top level
page and that s all. There s no reason not to register several more pages,
however, if they would fit naturally into different categories. This increases
the likelihood that some page link will be seen. The new site map for TCN does
separate functionality to facilitate this. It is critical to have navigation
links back to the top level on all pages (except spawned response windows).
3 Site promotional features
As with registering different pages with
different functions, registering a promotional page will increase the
probability that some page from TCN s site will be seen. With promotional
pages, however, we can tailor the page topic itself to target our market.
( links of interest to fund raisers , for example, or evaluate your NP
website )
Publicity generators
The Point: Search engines are not the only way to get traffic to the site. Crosslinks from other related sites, news stories, advertising are all other avenues.
The Methods:
1 Site
promotional features
Mentioned above. Site promotional features
also generate links back to the site.
2 Press releases
News stories will generate site traffic and
potential links. These can be project based (the client stories that are
already being written), event based, or promotional feature based. The last,
promotional feature-based, is most costly time-wise but potentially most
fruitful. If the promotional feature is really useful enough to be recommended
in the press, the back links will be permanent, not temporary.
3 Advertising
We ve already explored banner advertising on
Lycos and thumbnail advertising on PNN. Other avenues exist, including the
potential for paying for keyword placement on some search engines. These
options cost serious money and should be the subject of another memo.
4 Link swapping
We can create a list of links of interest to
our target market and encourage linkees to link back to us. Those sites that
charge for advertising will probably refuse the rest will be relatively low
traffic. On the other hand, it doesn t cost much.
Portal sites
The sites below are search and/or directory sites. This is not a complete listing, but includes the most popular. Some are driven by the same search engine, some share directories. Note that even search-only sites have a form to add your URL explicitly, so all should be visited when registering www.tcn.org. Note also that some sites have European or Asian satellites we need to register with ALL of those.