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Common Sense Advice for Search Engine Optimization
Most web surfers start their sessions at a search engine or a web directory. There are a number of different methods you can use to capture their traffic and drive it to your site:
1. Stick to the big names: The two largest directories: Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com) and the Open Project Directory (http://www.dmoz.org), and the two largest search engines: Google (http://www.google.com ) and Inktomi (used by MSN search (http://www.msn.com) and AOL (http://www.aol.com)) are likely to deliver 80% of your traffic, so concentrate on those and don't spend too much time on anybody else.
2. Yahoo and the Open Project Directory are administered by humans, so an editor will inspect your site before it's added. They receive so many submissions that it can literally take months before your site is reviewed, and nothing (not even paid subscriptions) guarantees that it will be listed. It's worth to keep trying, though, so check back every month or so and, if your site isn't listed, submit it again.
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3. Google and Inktomi are robots (software programs) that "crawl" (find and read) millions of sites on the web, and add them to their index. That's why it is not absolutely necessary to manually submit your site to a search engine, since they may find your site and add it automatically when they find a link to your site on another page.
4. You don't need to submit all the pages on your site. Once the search engine finds your main page (homepage), it will find the other ones by following links. To improve the chances of your secondary pages being found, create a link called ‘site map' in your homepage, and have it point to a page that is nothing but a collection of links to all the pages on your site. This way, the search engine will follow the link and "suck in" all your pages. Try putting this link as close to the top of your homepage as possible, since it will have a better chance of being picked up by the search engine.
5. Your site will stand a much better chance of showing up at the top of the search results list if you choose keywords that are as specific as possible. In general, niche sites that use very specific keywords have a better chance of being at the top of the list than generic sites that use more common keywords. For example, a restaurant that specializes in brick oven pizza (keywords: brick oven pizza) has a better chance of showing up in a prime position than an all-encompassing Italian restaurant (keywords: Italian restaurant).
6. A good search engine ranking is also conditioned by the amount ......
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