Need help with promoting my site

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Leadsled

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HI, i recently submitted my site to most the major search engines, and optimized it with meta tags, however, i cannot find it when i search, i can only find it on MSN Live search when i type the exact name of my site, the search engine wont pick up keywords or find my sub pages. I set up my site with Frontpage and i have Host Monster as my hosting service. i dont use frames but i used the shared borders feature on frontpage. But i read somewhere that a search engines cant find links on a site that are image links, and i used image buttons on the shared borders navigation section, so at the bottom of each page i put regular text links to each page, was this a good thing? Because i also read that too many links can cause your site to be spam and it will be "sandboxed", what does this mean? Basically i want to know if there is anything i can do to make my site more findable by the search engines, including my subpages, other than the things ive done, and is there anything i should not do? Does it just take some time for the search engines to find my site, i did all the submissions last weekend(4th-5th).

Also, when updating, i delete the files i want to replace and then upload the updated files, for example my home is index.htm, so i delete the index.htm file from my website then replace it with the new index.htm on my computer. Am i doing this right? it works but im wondering if doing this will make my site be lost on the search engines that do pick it up. do i need to re submit my site to search engines every time i update because i have to update often. or will the search engines keep my site listed?

Thanks in advance for any help. :)
 

DLPerry

New Member
HI, i recently submitted my site to most the major search engines, and optimized it with meta tags, however, i cannot find it when i search, i can only find it on MSN Live search when i type the exact name of my site, the search engine wont pick up keywords or find my sub pages.

When you say you have submitted your site to the SE's - do you mean you submitted your sitemap.xml feed to the search engines, or did you submit the actual domain/page urls, or...? Submitting sites to the SE's is not the preferred method of notifying them of your websites existence these days. Now it's all about sitemaps and feeds.

I set up my site with Frontpage and i have Host Monster as my hosting service. i dont use frames but i used the shared borders feature on frontpage. But i read somewhere that a search engines cant find links on a site that are image links, and i used image buttons on the shared borders navigation section, so at the bottom of each page i put regular text links to each page, was this a good thing?

Yes, that's fine. Including plain text links as much as possible is always a good thing from a site navigation and usability standpoint. Of course, making effective use of your image ALT tags is critical. Some SE Bots and Spiders cannot 'read' images per se, but they CAN and DO read image ALT tags, and they can read links.

Because i also read that too many links can cause your site to be spam and it will be "sandboxed", what does this mean?

Sandbox is a term used to describe a reported 'waiting/trust period' that Google allegedly imposes on some new sites/domains/urls/etc. This is a topic of contention among many webmasters - some believe it exists, some do not.

Google DOES however impose stiff penalties on websites suspected of participating in Link Schemes - which can include 'link lists' and the like.

Basically i want to know if there is anything i can do to make my site more findable by the search engines, including my subpages, other than the things ive done, and is there anything i should not do? Does it just take some time for the search engines to find my site, i did all the submissions last weekend(4th-5th).

It all takes time, and getting anything to happen in one week is rare (but doable in some circumstances - see my write-up on Getting in Google in 7 Days).

You might also find this article helpful - which includes things you can do to improve your sites search friendliness. - 12 Ways to Increase Traffic to Your Website

Also, when updating, i delete the files i want to replace and then upload the updated files, for example my home is index.htm, so i delete the index.htm file from my website then replace it with the new index.htm on my computer. Am i doing this right? it works but im wondering if doing this will make my site be lost on the search engines that do pick it up. do i need to re submit my site to search engines every time i update because i have to update often. or will the search engines keep my site listed?

Thanks in advance for any help. :)

In theory it is possible that an SE bot could attempt to access a url at the exact same moment in time that you are updating that page url, which could return an unavailable or a 404 error. That's not something you necessarily want to happen, and you may want to consider renaming files instead of deleting them right away, but it's not a big issue as far as I know. I must believe that most SE crawls are set-up to recognize that some errors are transient and will retry urls that could not be accessed previously.

If you update daily, you should use your sitemap feeds to alert SE's to the new content/pages/etc. DO NOT resubmit your actual page urls to the SE's each and every time you edit. This can get you banned from Google in quick fashion.

More info and utilities you may find helpful:

What is an RSS Feed? (and do you need one?)
How does a Search Engine Bot/Crawler/Spider see your site?
Keyword Density Cloud Tool

hth
 

Leadsled

New Member
HI , thanks for all the info. i am signed up with google webmaster tools and i uploaded a sitemap.xml file to my website and submitted it to google and it says that its ok. and i verified ownership so that i can check my stats, so now im just waiting to be indexed.

Does this matter - I bought my domain and bought my hosting package a few months ago and i left it blank for a a few months before i finally uploaded my site. Is it possible that google checked my site so many times when it was blank that it gave up on it? Should i submit a reconsideration to google?
I havent done any link scheming, i have however, posted my site on a few directories and classified sites that relate to my page, i submitted to dmoz.com but they havent put me up yet.
also i did my "keywords" meta tag, but what is a H1 meta tag? and ALT tags?

Also, do i need to put up a sitemap in a different format for MSN Live and Yahoo to find it(if they even use sitemaps)?
Should i update my sitemap every time i update my site?

And i figured out how to replace my existing files in my FTP instead of deleting them first, then uploading my new ones, i think that will work better.
 

DLPerry

New Member
Is your domain in Googles index? In the Google search field - type
index: your.domain and/or index: www.your.domain

If your domain shows up - it is in the index already - DO NOT submit a re inclusion request

If it does not show up - patience. Getting indexed can take time, and again - DO NOT submit a reinclusion request.

Without knowing what your domain is and doing some research and a website analysis - I can't say if the lag time to launch had any effect or not, nor if any of your links may be problematic.

It is well known that Google has been cracking down hard on "Link Schemes" this year, and many previously acceptable linking techniques are no longer acceptable. There has been quite a bit of stir about this in the search and website design industries.

H1 is HTML code used to define a page title or subhead. Search Engines sometimes look at text designated H1 when listing a page.

ALT is an image attribute in HTML, used to provide the image with a text description.

Google, Yahoo MSN and Ask all accept sitemap feeds in the sitemaps.org protocol.

FYI: It could be years before you see any activity from Dmoz. I don't recommend expending a lot of time and energy there.

You only need to update your sitemap feed if you add additional pages/urls. If you add to or edit existing pages/urls - then a re-submit is all that you'll want to do - if that.
 

Ar3d

New Member
in promoting your site makes sure that always post a unique and relevant to your site according to the services and products you offer.
 

jhoffman2010

New Member
Submitting to search engines is really a waste of time. The key is getting your name out on the internet as much as possible. Pay-per-clicks also are a waste of money. Once again, do everything you can to get your name out as much as possible. Check out my web site. I use one of my clients as proof of what really works. There is so much you can do and it's all free.
 

kiko_friendly

New Member
I had the same problem with only finding my site by typing the URL in, or my name...

That was when my site had first opened, though.

What I did was found sites with similar content to mine and affiliated with them, which gave me hits, and slowly bumped my site up the search engines.

It doesn't take too long, but it's worth doing.

My site is Burning Violet, and I got my affiliates to use that as their anchors on their sites. However, "MySpace layouts" would have been a LOT better. Getting to the top of Google for "MySpace layouts" is better because more people search for that than for "Burning Violet".

I'm really tired, and that was a bad explanation. Sorry.
 

paulhet

New Member
Hi Guy,
You need not to worry about your sites in search engine as it takes time to crawl new sites by google. Once you have got a reasonable traffic to your site every thing will become ok. For this make sure to start a link exchange campaign of your site.

Also remember to avoid BLACK HAT SEO...(OVERUSE OF KEYWORDS, SPAMMING OF KEYWORDS, SAME BACKGROUND AND TEXT LINK COLOUR USE)

In addition you can try search engine optimization tips to make your site a success.

Have a good look........:)
 
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lee_vhoi_ol

New Member
For a start, put a link to your site on your signature on this forum.

DO SEO.

Submit to free directories - avoid reciprocal links, as some directories are banned or considered by Google as bad sites. Linking to such bad sites will be bad for your SERPs.

Post in the right forums, putting a link to your site in your signature.

Exchange links with sites that are RELATED to your own. Avoid exchanging links with those that are not, they will do you more harm than good. Do not link to LINK FARMS!

Do not worry about having to submit to the search engines. Focus more instead on getting RELATED links. The more links to your site, the higher your PageRank, the more possibility that the search engine will find and update your page in their crawl.
 
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