Webpage Anatomy Keywords Importance of Pages Importance of Links Submit your page Spam-Spiders Multiple Portals |
 | Search-engines & |
A Search-engine Tutorial for Webtv's Pagebuilder
The purpose of this website is to explain how META tags present information about your page to search-engines, and then explain how to add this meta-information to your page's head. The importance of adding links, extra pages, and properly placing keywords within your page's body text, is also discussed.
META tags are defined as:
"A special HTML tag that provides information about a Web page. Unlike normal HTML tags, meta tags do not affect how the page is displayed. Instead, they provide information such as who created the page, how often it is updated, what the page is about, and which keywords represent the page's content. Many search engines use this information when building their indices."
After you register with the search-engines their spiders (aka: "bots" & "crawlers") will then visit your site and catalogue it so that other people can find it by inputting search words, which hopefully will lead them to your site. Many search engines rely on the keywords and other information in your page's META tags in this process.
There is a lot of conflicting information out there on meta-tagging. If you're confused it may be because different search engines look at meta tags in different ways. Some rely heavily on meta tags, others don't use them at all.
[You may want to quickly review a webpage's standard HTML format before proceeding.]
It seems to be generally agreed that the "title" and the "description" meta tags are important since several major search engines use them in their indices. Therefore, you should also try to use relevant keywords in your title, and vary the titles on the different pages that make up your website, in order to target as many keywords as possible.
As for the "description" meta tag, some search engines will use it as their short summary of your page, so make sure your page's description is one that will entice surfers to your site.
The more unique and specific your keywords are, then the better the chances that you won't be buried 100 pages down on the search engines' lists. Try finding sites similar to your own that are listed well and check (by validating their pages) to see what keywords they used.
Pagebuilder has a limited ability to add keywords to its built-in meta tags, but there are ways around this problem. In fact, META tags aren't as important as they once were since many engines are now looking for keywords in the <body> text too.
Even so, first, add as much description to your title that you can - for example:
http://community.webtv.net/kdine/ap
...is one of my pages that I originally titled simply "ap" because the first title becomes part of your URL (so keep it short); but, "ap" is too short of a title to help as part of the document's head...so, after my page is published I can add to my title by erasing "ap" and adding a fuller descriptive title. As long as I don't unpublish and then re-publish my page, I'll keep the short URL and also have a longer title in the head of my document.
You don't have to check the "show title on page" box to do any of this...the relevant "title" you are actually adding is to your document's head and this is invisible - you can only see this new title by validating your page.
Then, add as many descriptive keywords in the "description" box that you can (fill this box up - about 135 characters max.)...and remember, since many search-engines display this description in their search results, you'll also want to make your description interesting so that people will want to click on it. "PREVIEW" and then re-publish your page to set your new title and META description into Pagebuilder's head.
Next, you can put even more keywords, or short phrases, in the body of your page. Search-engines DO NOT rely exclusively on meta tags any more, and many spiders will now scan the text in your document too.
Many search-engines will now look for bold text in the body of your page, so use bold text on keywords and phrases that you want noticed. Some search-engines will also spider your page looking for links to other sites...they figure if your site isn't linked to other sites it may not be very important. See "The importance of adding links."
Keep your site's cover page, which you intend to register, fast loading with a minimum of graphics on it. Then, link more pages to this main title page - this will help improve your ranking. See "The importance of adding pages."
Last, and most important, find out and use your Pagebuilder webpage's real URL to register with because most spider bots don't like WebTv's redirected URLs - (Google is the exception...use your regular PB URL with Google).
For example, this is the URL I used to register my "ap" page:
http://community-2.webtv.net/@HH!A9!7C!01080252F275/kdine/ap/index.html
You can get your page's real URL by inputting your page's URL in Scrub-the-Web's Meta Tag Analyzer - add the "index.html" ending to it before you click:
Check your <<>META<>> tags here:
You will need a good counter that has reports which shows your visitors' referring URL to see if they are coming from search-engines...you can also click onto the referring URL to see which keywords your visitors used to find your site - I recommend:
http://www.sitemeter.com
You also need a good META type search-engine to check to see if you can find your pages:
http://www.metacrawler.com
&
http://www.dogpile.com
http://www.ask.com (Ask Jeeves)
&
iWon-Search
It takes several days to several weeks to be listed, so be patient.
WARNING! There are bad e-mail spam spiders roaming the web too:
Click Here
SUMMARY
- Definitely add meta description and meta keyword tags to your web pages. Meta tags can help information-poor pages be better acknowledged by some search engines and some search engines will give you a boost if you have them. But don't expect that to necessarily be enough to put you in the top ten since Meta tags are only one design element that you can tap into.
- Don't add a lot of graphics to your entry page which may slow down page loading.
- Re-register your site every 3 to 4 months, but no more often than every 6 weeks because they consider this spamming and may drop your pages from their lists.
- Do add links to your page.
- Don't use frames - but if you must, read Engines & Frames for helpful tips.
- Title tag: title tags are critical in search engine placement algorithms. The title tag should contain five to ten good, descriptive words and not exceed 200 characters [Pagebuilder only allows about 60 characters max. - use all of it!]
- Preferably, the targeted keyword should be used as the first word of the title. Keep in mind Alta Vista, Excite, HotBot, InfoSeek, Lycos and Web Crawler use the title tag's text for their website listings.
- Begin the copy with a heading tag (i.e., <H1>) Within this headline, use the targeted keyword or phrase:
<H1> ~ Your Title w/ Keywords Here ~ </H1>
- Make sure the copy is coherent and compelling. Do NOT simply repeat your keywords over and over. Avoid using words written in the same color as the background. These technique guarantees the portal page will be evaluated as spam by the search engine.
- In general, avoid background images and image maps for portal pages. If there are graphics on the page, be sure to use ALT tags. The ALT tag text should contain the targeted keyword or phrase. Use complete sentences and a different sentence for each tag. Example:
<img src="http://www.wtv-home.com/romcache/navigationglobe0.gif"ALT="search engine & meta tag help">
- Some search engines will also read comment tags. This is an opportunity to use the keyword or phrase thereby increasing the density and relevance. As with the alt tags, use complete sentences and a different sentence in each comment. Example:
<!--A bicycling website created by a bicyclist for cyclists. Riding techniques, bicycle maintenance and emergency bike repair.-->
- Include two or three links to logical starting places within the site on the portal page. A page with only one link triggers the spam penalty in some search engines.
- Avoid items that do not add content to be indexed. These items include banners, counters, cgi, Java or JavaScript. Do NOT use the refresh tag. This will, without exception, trigger the search engines spam penalty.
- Portal pages are pages that are designed to place well in the search engine with a particular keyword or phrase. Portals can also be optimized for one particular search engine. These pages then provide links into the substance of your web site.
- Portal pages are a controversial subject, some say they are spam while others believe they are smart web site promotion. Ultimately, every webmaster will have to decide for themselves. Abuse of portal pages is certainly spamming. Used correctly, and in moderation, portal pages can be a valuable tool to improve a web site's placement.
- Plan to put between two hundred and five hundred words of copy on the portal page. Some search engines are imposing a spam penalty for pages with less than one hundred words. Sprinkle the keyword or phrase liberally throughout the copy.
- Create portal pages in directories that utilize the target keyword or phrase. Name the file utilizing the keyword in the name.
- Consider placing portal pages on other servers than the one hosting the main website. They will have different IP addresses and will be indexed separately but will still bring visitors to the intended site.
- Do NOT flood the Web with portal pages. This is clearly spamming and should result in the target site being penalized.
- One last trick for increasing the total amount of links on your Portal page, but you must scroll to the bottom of this page to see it:
~ LINKS ~
You are welcome to
Add links to your webpage
here
Hosted By HostedScripts.com
META Medic
Frames pages can be a problem for search engines - see Engines & Frames for tips
Check your
Link Popularity
Site Add makes it free and easy
to add your site to the top search engines.
A Down and Dirty Guide to
Search Engine Positioning
Search Engine Secrets
Meta Smeta, got no time for this? Then, register
with this WebTv friendly search-engine:
i-TV
| KMA's Webpage Help: [Home] [Content] [Finding a server] [HTML] [Style and Organization] [Make your page stand out] [Promote your site] [Updating] [Profit From your site] |
~ WEBRINGS ~
| Webrings can also be useful to increase traffic to your page...here's several that I belong to: |
|
 |  | |
Previous Next Random List Sites Join | ||
| *WebTV Excellence This Site: Register Pagebuilder with Search Engines | ||
This webring allows pages of general content:
|
kdine@webtv.net
Keep going!
Increase the Links on your page
Google absolutely will not register your page unless they detect many links to and from your site, and many of the other engines are now following suit.
I have other webpages, but they have nothing to do with this tutorial, so openly adding links to my other pages on these other unrelated topics would just confuse any uninformed surfers. What to do?
Normally, a surfer would not scroll way down here past a blank space, so, down here out of the way I have added 3 more links to my other pages using invisible spacer gifs as image links:
Did you find the 3 links between these paragraphs? This is what the first of these three links actually looks like (and remember to use your real URLs so the spiders will follow the links):
<a href="http://community-2.webtv.net/@HH!A9!7C!01080252F275/kdine/cra/index.html"><img src="http://community.webtv.net/kdine/PMCLoons/scrapbookFiles/importD10.gif"border="0"ALT="Search the web for keyword help"></a>
|
|
| |
|
|
||
|
|
next page | |
|
|
||