Search Engine Ranking: Being On Top Of It
By: scratchONtheBOX
28th of March 2005 7:11pm GMT+03

Sidenotes:
Firstly, I have made this tutorial by my own after reading and understanding most of the references I put here. Second, I have checked with the AO SEARCH and read most of the related tutorials herewith (also mentioned here for reference and link purposes). Third, I have read sticky(s) about good ways on how to write tutorials and how to avoid ANGRY guys who will flame this idea (hope not). Lastly, after considering all of the above, and had the courage to push this through, I had put-up this tut based on my personal experience and it really works in my case.

Website designers, developers and hobbyist, hear me, hear me! Ever had dreamed of putting your web site on top of the list of BIG search engines for FREE?

Of course there are pretty d@mn easy but costly ways to do this but what I will bring out here is how to do it free, YES! FREE! It might as well be called as “DO-IT-YOURSELF-THING” and worth achieving. I’ve started these steps since the early part of 2004, up to now I used it in the web sites I am creating.

This simple tutorial (I hope it will pass as one), will emphasize on the following aspects:

1) Secrets of Web Site Submission (WHO, WHAT, WHERE and HOW’s of website submission).
2) HTML coding secrets (meta tags, titles, etc.)
3) Personal experiences with Web site ranking

Going to the details…

1) The Secrets of Web Site Submission
Any recipe has its own secrets, so as search engine submission. Most of the Search Engine out there has a “submit-your-site” ready on the front of your face when browsing their search page. Few things to consider in the fields that you will be filling up before you submit it. The submission form will demand you the following:

A) URL (Uniform Resource Locator) – Known as your domain
- com .net, .org - top-level domain or TLDs
- or the "country-code" top-level domain or ccTLDs like in my case - http://www.orly.coms.ph
- other types of TLDs
B) Description of the web site that you are submitting
- If your web site is a personal type, you can give a description starting your name (full name is optional but it works especially when OLD PALS are looking for you in the net, but be careful giving your FULL IDENTITY. Do it at your own risk.) You could also put a description like your schools, company, place where you live (town, City, Province, Country).

- Commercial site would be better described by the following sequence – COMMERCIAL NAME, PRODUCTS/SERVICES OFFERED, LOCATION. You have to consider that if the descriptions you are thinking had been already used often (i.e. security, anti-virus, car rentals, etc.), you will probably need more than this tutorial. The best way is find a relevant keyword pertaining to your site that would be unique but may not be far away from the idea. But still you could include that common description on your list.
Your target keywords should always be at least two or more words long. Usually, too many sites will be relevant for a single word, such as "stamps." This "competition" means your odds of success are lower. Don't waste your time fighting the odds. Pick phrases of two or more words, and you'll have a better shot at success.
- The Description is one of the main keys next to your URL in making your web site easy to be recognized in the search engine database. If I am longing to put my personal web site into the top search engines, I will use my common name or nick name on my first description (i.e. orly ruiz).

Here is a website that links to the BIG SEARCH ENGINE SUBMISSION PAGES. Start submitting:
http://www.bjorgul.com/?id=links

And this Free web ranking report tool that could report your web site’s ranking with a specific keyword in Major Search Engines:
http://www.submitawebsite.com/siteranker.html

2) HTML coding secrets (meta tags, titles, etc.) – Optimization
Your web pages in your web site (I mentioned web pages because I would like to point out that all your pages are relevant in the ranking of web sites in search engines -I will further discuss this on the next aspect [3]), the same with any open-source program written should be made in a manner that it would be very easy to read the source. Since coding in HTML has a lot of styles and protocols, writing your code (or at least after doing it in WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) HTML maker program [M$ Frontpage, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe Image Ready, Etc.], you could do the requirements in optimizing properties like title, meta tags and links) that could be very related to your web site or the services it offers.

- Title – Very important in Search Engine Indexing. Web page title is one of the major keys being indexed. (For you beginners in web design, the TITLE shows up on the Top Left location of your browser called the TITLE BAR).
- Meta tags - Being used by the infamous META-CRAWLERS like google, yahoo, teoma, etc. There are two major things you should remember in Meta Tags, the Description and keywords.
- Description – should include the full description of your web page. Such description should cover the whole idea why the web site is there. Includes what are the expected contents that the pages compose of. If it is a personal page, like biography or pertaining to your hobby, you should include descriptions very related to that subject.
- keywords – words that actually are part of your description but is the specific of the description. Keywords should be carefully picked since it is vital in META-CRAWLERS. In your keywords, include all the possible hints that are related to your site. Choose your keywords wisely.
- Links – it is a good and powerful practice to put your web site links to where ever places you could put in the Internet, with the right places like forums, blogs, and most popular portals in the net. You could also consider including it to your local portals for specific search benefits. You could see more of this steps I had taken in the next aspect [3].

In HTML, a typical PERSONAL web site should include the following coding: *
Code:
<HTML xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<HEAD>

<TITLE>orly ruiz @ www.orly.coms.ph @ Home of Orlando Robinson Ruiz</TITLE>

<META 
content="orly, orlando, ruiz, robinson, orly ruiz, langgam, san pedro, Laguna, Philippines,
sebeneleben, Maria, Mae, Pancer, Loveskie, 03192000, 32, Mulawin Circle, Andoy, Ruiz Family,
Kilen, Anet, Merlita, Juanito, Pilipinas, Region IV, Region 4, Upper Village, SPRCNHS, SPCBA,
Langgam Elementary School" 
name="keywords">

<META 
content="Orly Ruiz, Life of Orlando Robinson Ruiz, Life of Orly NeO ^NeO^ Ruiz,
Orly and Maria Mae, Loveskie, Homepage of Orly Ruiz, Home of Orlando Robinson Ruiz" 
name="description">

</HEAD>

3) Personal Experiences with Web site ranking that I can share
Most of you will probably think that I made this article to boost my presence more in the web, since I will ask you to search for my name (not exactly my EXACT NAME, whatever!). Really, the more you searched for a particular subject, the more the search engines are remembering it. So, what I do is have a place in my web site where you can search ( http://www.orly.coms.ph/neo.htm ). I actually put lots of these search engines in my page. Even put the starting or default name to my keyword “orly ruiz”, and others.

Further, SEARCH ENGINES WORK HAND-IN-HAND. It means that when you rank good in the major search engines (GOOGLE, YAHOO, ALTAVISTA, ETC.), chances are your site will probably be also indexed well in other search engines. Here is a website illustrating the CONNECTION between SEARCH ENGINES - http://www.bruceclay.com/searchengin...nshipchart.htm

Another observation I can tell is that you should also include other pages in your web site to be submitted just in-case your main page is inaccessible by any means, your other pages could be available in the search result as well as other web sites that you are maintaining that has relevance with what you long for. In that way, your product or service or even your information could still be accessible in the Internet even though the main web site cannot be reached. Unless there are unavoidable circumstances that the entire DOMAIN is really unreachable.

Using popular local and international portals, forums and message boards could boost the presence of your website in the World Wide Web Search Engines. The more links your web site gets, the more chances it could have in going or staying at the top.

You can also search for local search engines and submit your web site there. This way, promoting locally, especially if you target local customers or audiences would be a great step.

“Before, for the keyword “orly ruiz” and other important and relevant keywords for my web site when I searched in Google, Yahoo!, Altavista and others, I could not find my web site in at least top 50 of the results there, but after doing the above-mentioned procedures, as of this date, you could find my web site on the rank of these search engines, without paying any penny for it.”

Disclaimer: The above-mentioned procedures on submitting website would entirely take some time to have results, although in certain cases, like mine, the more visit the web page is receiving, the BIGGER the chances it could also be on the TOP. Too much things to consider in expecting good result, but most of it, when done correctly is effective to date. And to the best of my knowledge, such steps in optimizing and promoting your web site is not illegal, further check with your local rules and regulations before doing this.

This tutorial as some will criticize (or not hopefully), is far different from tips since I added some of the actual things or scenario that you could do or prevent in order to have a healthy and TOP-CRAWLING web site (more applicable in a personal-type of web site).

I know this is not the entirety of the step-by-step procedures in achieving SEARCH ENGINE RANKING, like I told you, there are lots of ways, most of them COSTLY. Nevertheless, I hope it helped! See references and other links on the last part below.

Also, remember that while search engines are a primary way people look for web sites, but they are not the only way. People also find sites through word-of-mouth, traditional advertising, the traditional media, newsgroup postings, web directories and links from other sites. Many times, these alternative forms are far more effective draws than are search engines.
Good luck!

Comments (criticisms) and suggestions are openly accepted and appreciated.

Sources & References & Links you might want to check out to learn beyond this tutorial:
Submitting To Crawlers: Google, Yahoo, Ask/Teoma & Microsoft's MSN - http://searchenginewatch.com/webmast...le.php/2167871
More important tips in submitting web sites to search engines - http://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/#optimizing
More details here in Search Engine Placement Tips - http://searchenginewatch.com/webmast...le.php/2168021
1-Page MultiSearch Engines © with All META and Major Search Engines - bjorgul.com - http://www.bjorgul.com/?id=links

Free web ranking report tool – submitawebsite.com - http://www.submitawebsite.com/siteranker.html

AO Tutorial that I found with the same goal of promoting one’s web site - http://www.antionline.com/showthread...hreadid=236909 - I love the introduction. In this tutorial, one thing I am sure that I had done few years before is to include my web site in my e-mail’s signature section.

Other related AO tutorials:

Really helps in Search Optimization
- http://www.antionline.com/showthread...hreadid=239001
- http://www.antionline.com/showthread...hreadid=239274

Search Engine Lists (including local search engines in your place)
- http://www.antionline.com/showthread...hreadid=243724

Website of Search Engine Connection Illustration
- http://www.bruceclay.com


Thanks for your time reading my first simple tutorial (hopefully).

Yo!

- scratchONtheBOX