Promoting Your site

You may have built the most intuitive, content-rich, attractive web site ever created, but if it lies dormant and unused, what does it matter? It may as well not even exist. There are a number of "tricks of the trade" that webmasters can use to promote their sites on search engines and on other web sites, that, used properly, can really increase the visibility of your site.

Before we begin, ask yourself, "What type of user is interested in my site? What information will they be looking for?" Construct a stereotypical user in your mind, and think of the type of words or phrases that they would be interested in when searching. Let's assume, for an example, that your site concentrates on bass fishing. Your target audience is pretty obvious, but how will they find your site? Well, the most obvious source is through search engines.

What is the key to getting a high placement on the search engines? Unfortunately, mostly luck. But you can do quite a bit to encourage the search "spiders" to find your site and prioritize it highly. The first step lies in your site's use of meta tags. Meta tags should be included inside the

<meta name="type" content="">

The name parameter in the meta tag defines the type of meta tag, and the content parameter includes custom information for your web site. There are two main meta tag types:

• The keyword meta tag lists keywords that you expect people to search for when looking for a site like yours. For our bass fishing example, the keyword meta tag could look like this:

  <meta name="keywords" content="bass fish lake pole hook fishers fishing">

  For your web site, you'll want to list as many keywords as you can think of. The more different keywords, the better! Some webmasters try to increase their search engine exposure by listing the same word multiple times (such as repeating "bass" 50 times) but this is not very effective. Nearly all search engines can detect "spamming" and will automatically remove offenders from their site database.
• The description meta tag allows you to define the description that appears when a search engine lists your site. After a user runs a search, the titles of the sites that the engine found are displayed along with snippets of text describing the sites. Normally, search engines will simply take the first paragraph or two of text from your site and insert it as your site's description. However, you can customize this by providing search engines with your own customized description that could give searchers more information about your site and draw them more powerfully. That's what the description meta tag is for:

  <meta name="description" content="Our site extensively covers every aspect of bass fishing. It provides help for all skill levels, from beginners to experts. We also offer a discussion forum where you can find answers to all your fishing questions.">

  Now, when someone runs into our site on a search engine, our custom text will be displayed. This technique is a very effective method of advertising your site, and, if used appropriately, it will make your site stand out when a user scans search results. Try to think up original or catchy descriptions that will really stand out from the average sites. "The best fishing site!" really doesn't cut it. Try to make your site unique in some way, and concentrate on that aspect in your description to pull ahead of the competition.

Web directory search engines, such as Yahoo!, operate very differently. You have to specifically request that your site be included in their listing; they will not automatically add you to their directory. After several interesting attempts to get my own web sites listed on Yahoo!, I've come to the conclusion that there is no one way to get your site listed. In my own opinion, it depends largely on how the Yahoo! admissions employee enjoyed their breakfast. My only recommendation is that you pursue relentlessly until you are listed, and select the most relevant categories for your site. Run a test search or two on words that apply to your site to see where the most highly publicized sites are, and what categories they are located in. You can learn from their successes when placing your site.

If you follow the guidelines suggested here, your site will soon be reeling in the visitors!

• Bandwidth
• Cross-Browser Design

Jonathan Brownell (), a 16-year-old homeschooled student, is the founder of Alpha Omega Software, an Internet development and consulting company. Since his venture into the Internet and the world of web site development, he has authored several successful commercial websites for businesses nationwide.

</html>: In Closing is an opinion column, updated monthly, that focuses on web site development and emerging Internet technologies.

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