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Publicizing your Site outside Hopkins

For your web site to achieve better rankings in external search engines, please take the following into consideration:

Submitting your site to a directory

The term "search engine" is often used generically to describe both true search engines and directories.  They are not the same.  The main difference between a search engine (explained below) like GO.com and a general directory like Yahoo! is that a directory will not list a URL if it is not registered with them.  In order to register your URL with a directory, you would submit to them a short description of your entire site.  A directory search looks for matches only in the descriptions submitted.

Directories do not make use of indexing software agents and so they have no way of knowing your site is out there unless you register it with them. In addition, directories such as Yahoo! cannot guarantee that every site submitted to them will be included in their index. Even if it does decide to include your site, Yahoo! states on its web site that, since it reviews sites by hand, the process of adding a site to Yahoo! is not immediate (in fact, it may take up to eight weeks).

Yahoo! Add Site Page: http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/url/url-01.html

Google Add Site Page: http://www.google.com/addurl.html

How to achieve better rankings in search engines

While there is no way to guarantee a listing in a directory, there are methods that are useful for improving rankings with true search engines such as AltaVista or GO.com.  Search engines create their listings automatically by crawling the web.  If you modify your web pages (e.g., change your page titles and body copy), search engines will eventually find these changes and that can affect how you are listed.

Every search engine has a unique method for ranking the search results of a particular term being searched.  The primary areas search engines focus on are listed follow:

• Search engines pay attention to the title of a web site.  In regard to your title, you need to consider how people will search for your web page. The words you imagine them typing into the search box are your strategic keywords.  Your strategic keywords should always be at least two or more words long, and they should appear in the crucial locations on your web pages.  The page title is most important.
  
  
• Keywords appearing near the top of a web page, such as in the headline or in the first few paragraphs of text will attract a search engine's attention.
  
  
• Frequency: A search engine will analyze how often keywords appear in relation to other words in a web page. Those with a higher frequency are often deemed more relevant than other web pages.
  
  
• Meta tags: Meta tags are special HTML codes that can help provide keywords and descriptions on pages that for various reasons lack text (e.g., pages with mainly images).  However, simply including a meta tag is not a guarantee that your page will suddenly leap to the top of every search engine listing.  Meta tags have a far lesser effect on search rankings than they do on controlling the description of your site presented to the end user in search results.

Beyond these general rules, the best way to learn about how each search engine ranks the results of a particular term being searched is to visit each of their HELP pages.

Another way of finding out what makes some sites appear when browsers search for keywords (e.g., psychiatry) is to go to the search engines, type in the keyword, see what comes up in the source code and modify your source code accordingly.

It is important to keep in mind that what works for one search engine will not necessarily work for another.  For example, meta tags boost rankings in Infoseek and Inktomi, but not in AltaVista, Excite, Google, Lycos, or Nlight.

Ensuring your listing is posted

Search engines (including both true search engines and directories) revisit sites on a regular schedule.  However, some search engines have grown smart enough to realize that some sites only change content once or twice a year, so they may visit less often.  Since it can take up to two months for "non-submitted" pages to appear in a search engine, you need to resubmit your site any time you make significant changes.

However, even if a site is submitted, many search engines take time to list it.  The amount of time depends on the search engine, but it can vary from one week (Infoseek) to eight weeks (Yahoo!).  In addition, it often takes more than one submission to get the best results.

Maintaining your listing

Once you've checked to see that your pages are listed in a search engine, you will need to monitor the listings to make sure your ranking remains high (since search engines receive thousands of submissions every day for new listings).