Submitting To Search Crawlers: Google, Yahoo, Ask & Microsoft's Live Search

Crawler-based search engines automatically visit Web pages to compile their listings. This means that, unlike directories, you are likely to have several, if not many, pages listed with them. This also means that by taking care in how you build your pages, you might rank well in crawler-produced results.

Optimizing pages for crawlers is covered in more detail in the Optimizing For Crawlers section of Search Engine Watch. If you have time, it is recommended that you read the pages in this section, especially the Search Engine Placement Tips page. However, by simply following the submission tips below, you can at least get your pages listed with crawlers, where they might naturally rank well for certain terms.

Submitting To Google

One of the most important crawler-based search engines is Google, because many people search there, plus it "powers" the main results of several other services (see the Search Engine Results Chart for an explanation of what "main" results are).

The absolute best way to get listed with Google is to get links to your Web site from other sites. Indeed, this is the best way to get listed for free with all the major crawlers listed on this page. Crawlers follow links, so if you have good links pointing at your Web site, the crawlers are more likely to find and include your pages in their databases.

Here's the good news: if you submitted your site to the major directories and got listed with one of them, then Google and other crawlers will almost certainly pick up the URL that was listed. This means you may not need to do additional work to get listed with crawlers.

Nevertheless, you may find it helpful to do some link building beyond the directories. Basic tips on building good links are covered on the Search Engine Placement Tips page. The Link Analysis & Link Building page available to Search Engine Watch members provides in-depth advice on building relevant links to your Web site. Consider reading what's covered on one or both of these pages.

The Submitting & Encouraging Crawlers page available to Search Engine Watch members also has advice on how your site architecture can be improved to naturally allow more of your pages to be added by crawlers.

Aside from link building, Google provides an Add URL page that lets you submit a URL directly to its crawler. However, there's no guarantee that Google will actually include a URL submitted to it this way. Despite this, it makes sense to submit your home page and perhaps one or two other URLs from "inside" your Web site via the Add URL page.

In addition to the ADD URL page, Google offers other options to submit a large list of URLs (a sitemap file) and verify ownership of your site within Google Webmaster Central for faster indexing, free of charge.

Once you have completed one of the options above, you really don't need to submit more than this. The only reason for submitting some of your inside pages is to give Google an alternate route into your site in case there is a problem reaching your home page. From whatever page it visits, Google will look for links to other pages within your site, perhaps including those in its index. This is true for other crawlers, as well.

If you have a brand new Web site, it will probably take about a month before Google lists your web pages naturally. Because of this, you might consider making use of its paid placement program Google AdWords, which is covered in the next part of this guide.

Finally, Search Engine Watch members have access to a detailed Guide to Google page that guides you even more through the process of submitting to the crawler and ranking well within its results. To learn more about becoming a member to access this information, visit the membership information page.

Submitting To Yahoo

Yahoo is an important crawler-based search engine because many people use the Yahoo search function, which provides the main results of several other services (see the Search Engine Results Chart for more about this).

As with Google, building links is the best way to get listed for free in Yahoo. Yahoo also offers a free URL submission form that you'll find listed on this page. Submit according to the same instructions as given for Google, above.

What if you aren't picked up for free? Yahoo has paid inclusion programs that guarantee to add the pages you submit quickly. The downside to these programs is that you'll be charged every time someone clicks on your listing. If you run out of money, potentially, your listing may be dropped. However, there's still a chance that even if you run out of money, you might continue to be listed for free.

Confused? You're to be forgiven, if so. The programs are so complex that we do not recommend beginners bother with them. Instead, there's a good chance that many pages in your site will just naturally get listed for free.

By the way, Yahoo's crawler incorporates technology from three different crawlers that it purchased in 2002 and 2003: Inktomi, AltaVista and FAST's AllTheWeb. However, any references you hear about those crawlers are superceded by the single Yahoo crawler.

Submitting To Ask

Ask.com search results have been powered by the Teoma ExpertRank algorithm since 2001 (see the Search Engine Results Chart).

Ask has no free Add URL page and no longer offers a paid site submission service. However, the Ask Jeeves/Teoma agent automatically crawls the Web, so if you have links pointing at your site from other sites, it will get included naturally.

Basic tips on building good links are covered on the Search Engine Placement Tips page, while the Link Analysis & Link Building page available to Search Engine Watch members provides in-depth advice on building relevant links to your Web site. Consider reading what's covered on one or both of these pages, to help yourself with Ask.

Submitting To Microsoft Live Search

Microsoft Live Search (formerly MSN Search) is an important crawler-based search engine used by many people. Formerly powered by Yahoo's crawler-based results, Live Search currently uses its own search technology, MSNBot, to automatically crawl the web looking for links within Web sites for indexing and ranking.

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Do search engines distinguish between keyword phrases and individual keywords in the meta keywords tag? Should I duplicate words in similar phrases?

There are two questions here, one asked and one unasked. First, we'll adress the question about whether to use individual keywords or keyword phrases in your meta tags. Then we'll address the unasked question, "Do I have a chance to win for either 'historical research' or 'historical writing' with a page about both historical research and historical writing?"

Keyword Optimization: Individual Words or Phrases?

Consider two pages which simply feature large images, for example, pictures of two charts. The first page has the following meta keywords tag :

(1) <meta name="keywords" content="keyword analysis, keyword optimization">

The second page has the following meta keywords tag :

(2) <meta name="keywords" content="keyword, analysis, optimization">

If you search using the keyword phrase "keyword analysis" with and without the quotation marks, the first page will rank higher than the second page every time, all else being equal. The same goes for the keyword phrase "keyword optimization" and for the individual keyword, "keyword." On the other hand, the second page will win for the keyword searches "analysis" and "optimization."

Now consider a third page with a picture of another chart. The third page has the following meta keywords tag :

(3) <meta name="keywords" content="keyword analysis, keyword optimization, analysis, optimization, keyword">

With the addition of this third page, the results for our competition are shifted. Now the third page, which includes the words and phrases, wins for every single search, including keyword analysis, keyword optimization, keyword, analysis, and optimization.

The answer to the original question above is yes, kind of. You should duplicate words in similar phrases, but you should also enter in the individual keywords. The final optimized keywords list for the original question would be:

<meta name="keywords" content="historical research, historical writing, research, writing, historical">

The unasked question: "Do I have a chance to win for either 'historical research' or 'historical writing' with a page about both historical research and historical writing?"

From your question, it is clear that you are a writer who is offering historical research and writing services, most likely for large companies, and that you hope to use the Internet to generate leads. Generically speaking, when building your website, you should build a page about each keyword phrase you hope to win. In your case, you need a page about your historical research services, and a page about your historical writing services.

Unfortunately, "historical research" is an incredibly competitive phrase, and you have little chance of ever getting a top ten ranking for that phrase without expending an inordinate amount of time and energy. You have a much better chance of winning for "historical writing, " but even that phrase is very competitive. We suggest you focus on "historical writing" and "historical writer" as your primary keyword phrases, and then do Pay-Per-Click marketing for your "historical research" phrase. At the time of this writing, you can buy a top 3 Overture listing for the phrase for $0.11/click. Actually, you can buy a top 3 ranking for "historical writing" for just $0.05/click as well, which would supplement your SEO efforts nicely.

For more about meta tags and keywords, see the following FAQ pages:

• What are meta tags?
• What are meta keywords?
• How important are meta tags now?

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How important are meta tags now?

Though meta keywords tag and meta description tags are not the main factor search engines consider when ranking sites, they should not be left off the page. A meta description tag is supposed to be a brief and concise summary of your page's content. A meta keyword tag is supposed to be a summary list of the most important words on your page. They were both proposed in order to make using the web easier. Unfortunately, webmasters over the years have abused meta tags so much that search engine creators have had to de-emphasize their importance in their algorithms.

To learn more about meta tags in general, visit What are meta tags? To learn more about the meta description tag, visit What are meta descriptions? To learn more about the meta keywords tag, visit What are meta keywords?

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What are meta keywords? What is the meta keywords tag?

Though meta keywords tags are not a major factor search engines consider when ranking sites, they should not be left off the page. Both the meta keywords tag and the meta description tag contribute to your search engine ranking. A meta keywords tag is supposed to be a brief and concise list of the most important themes of your page. The meta keywords tag takes the following form:

<meta name="keywords" content="keywords, keyword, keyword phrase, etc.">

When you write a meta keywords list, start by scanning the copy on your page. Make a list of the most important terms you see on the page. Then read through the list. Pick the 10 or 15 terms that most accurately describe the content of the page. If you can't narrow your keyword list down to 10-15 keywords, then the content on your page may be rambling to far. Because of the hyper-competitiveness of the current search engine placement landscape, pages need to be very focused on one or two specific keyword phrases in order to have a chance to get a top ten placement. For example, a page about northern Michigan apples and central Florida oranges doesn't have much of a chance to win for either "northern Michigan apples" or "central Florida oranges." To have any chance to win, you need to have one page about northern Michigan apples and one page about central Florida oranges.

Another example: If you page is a list of exercise or fitness tips, and on the page you list tips for things to do before, during, and after a workout, then you need to think to yourself, "what 10 or 15 words or phrases is this page MOST about?" Just because your page mentions dieting in the text doesn't mean that the page is about dieting. If you want to win for dieting, then create a page about dieting. The ultimate example of a page which is focused and ready for search engine optimization is a page from an encyclopedia. Each page is brief, focused, and has just one theme.

Search engine optimization and the meta keywords tag.

Long ago in Internet time, the meta keywords tag was very useful in helping pages to win on search engines. Unfortunately, so many unscrupulous webmasters have abused the meta keywords tag that search engines have had to de-emphasize their importance. Still, you should not leave the meta keywords tag off your pages.
Meta keywords tags should adhere to the following guidelines: (1) keep your list of keywords or keyword phrases down to 10 - 15 unique words or phrases; (2) separate the words or phrases using a comma (you do not need to leave a space between words separated by commas); (3) do not repeat words or phrases; (4) put your most important word or phrases at the beginning of your list.
To learn more about meta tags in general, visit What are meta tags?

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What are meta tags?

Meta tags are HTML codes that are inserted into the header on a web page, after the title tag. They take a variety of forms and serve a variety of purposes, but in the context of search engine optimization when people refer to meta tags, they are usually referring to the meta description tag and the meta keywords tag.

The meta description tag and the meta keywords tag were proposed so that webmasters would have a consistent method for providing meta document data to user agents, such as search engines. Unfortunately, so many unscrupulous webmasters have abused the meta description and meta keywords tag that search engines have had to de-emphasize their importance. To learn more about the meta description tag, visit What are meta descriptions? To learn more about the meta keywords tag, visit What are meta keywords?

In addition to the well-known meta description and meta keywords tags, there are other useful meta tags, including the meta http-equiv tag, meta refresh tag, the meta robots tag, the meta copyright tag, and the meta author tag, among others. These tags are used to instruct user agents such as web browsers and search engine spiders on a variety of topics.

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How to get a SEO Friendly Blogger Page Title

Looking for a quick fix that will improve your rankings? Take a look at your blogger title tags. A title tag is the line of text that is normally displayed at the top of the browser window. Title tags are arguably the most important SEO tags for any blog.

For most search engines, the maximum length of a title tag to be displayed is between 60-75 characters. If your title tag is over 75 characters, your title will be cut off around 75 characters on the search results page.

In my mind, the title tag is so vital to the success of your SEO that I advocate rigorous testing of tags to find which ones work and which don't. Once you've found a winner, you should implement a title tag formula that everyone who touches SEO on your website can follow. Benefits of an SEO title tag for your blogger title

Display some HTML elements only on home page

Sometimes it's usefult to display some page elements only on home page and not on each single post. To do it, you have to use Blogger <b:if> statement, adding the following code on your Blogger template:

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>
<!-- ... HTML code if you want to display only on home page here... -->
</b:if&gt

In this way, if the current page isn't an "item" page (but for example it's your home page) , will be displayed all code within <b:if> tag.

Page title and meta tag description

For a better indexing of your blog on Google I suggest you to make these simple changes on your template. Change this line (blog title):

<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>

with the following code:

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>
<title>My site | This is a short description</title>
<b:else/>
<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>
</b:if>

and add Meta tag description below the previous <b:if> statement.

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>
<meta name="Description" content="Add here a short description of your site" />
</b:if>

For example: "SEOmoz is the most popular provider of SEO software. Our easy to use tools and tutorials make search engine optimization accessible to everyone.", so when someone looking for SEOmoz on Google, search results display the following description:

SEOmoz on Google

Finished! Now you have an SEO friendly page title.

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