Author: Kathy

Back in September we wrote an article on how to get your site listed on the search engines, and we advised that you submit your website URL to the three major search engines, Google, Yahoo! Search and MSN Live Search. So now that's done, you might be wonder what else can you do to make sure your website URL rank well, ie. make it more 'searchable'.

It is only logical to assume that to be 'searchable', you need:

• people searching for it
• a website that matches the search inquiries

Well, since we can't control what people search for, that means the only thing that's left to do is make sure your site matches as best as possible to potential search inquiries:

1. What is your website about? What is the purpose of your website?
2. Who is your target audience?
3. If people are to search for your website, what search words would they most likely use?
4. Is your website content relevent to the purpose, target audience and keywords you've identified?

And who determines the relevancy of website content? Well, the search engines - Google, Yahoo! Search, MSN Live Search, etc. After all, their goal should be to keep their users happy by giving them the information they are looking for.

You've probably heard of the term SEO, Search Engine Optimization. SEO is the process of improving traffic to a website from search engines via search results. Search engines uses complex algorithms to determine what information is fed to the search user and in what order. So, it's safe to say that as long as you satisfy these complex algorithms, your website URL will appear higher on that search result list. Unfortunately, Google, Yahoo! Search and Microsoft's Live Search do not disclose the algorithms they use.

But they do offer tips, hints, suggestions and guidelines that you can follow.

From Google Webmaster Help Center:

• Webmaster Guidelines
• Creating a Google-Friendly Site?

From Yahoo! Search:

• Yahoo! Search Content Quality Guidelines
• Improve Ranking
• Indexing