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Get Found! (by Search Engines)
When people use a search engine to look for information about your community and library, you will want your new web site to rank high in their search results. Techniques you can use to make your web site show up high on the list are below.
Congratulations on your new Plinkit web site! Now that your web site is ready, it’s time to promote it and make it easy for people to find.
1. Submit your URL to Search Engines
When you get your new web site and go live, this is a quick and easy way to get better ranking. Search engines may not add your new web site to their index as quickly as you would like. Before your site has been indexed, you can submit your URL to a few search engines to let them know you exist.
- Google: http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl
- Yahoo Search: http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html
- MSN’s Live Search: http://beta.search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx
- Yahoo Directory http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/ You will need to sign up for a Yahoo
account and submit the directory information such as: http://dir.yahoo.com/Reference/Libraries/Public_Libraries/<YourLibraryName>
-OR-
http://dir.yahoo.com/Reference/Libraries/Public_Libraries/By_Region/U_S__States/Oregon
2. Create Index-Friendly Content
Plone, the platform used for Plinkit, has search engine optimization built in. Additionally, these tips apply when you add new pages, files, images or other content you add to your web site.
- Title - When you title your page, image or other file, it serves a few purposes. First, this is a quick way for users to find out about the page. Second, page titles are used to create the URL for the page. Third, they are used by search engines to find your page. Make sure to:
- Write a phrase which describes the unique content of each page
- Start with important, descriptive words as the first one or two words of the page title.
- Keep the page title short – 60 characters or ten words maximum
- Description – Use the page description box to provide more detail clearly describe the content of your page.
- Image descriptors - Title and describe your images descriptively. Google Image Search can be one method for people to ‘stumble upon’ your web site. A unique title and description of the image will help with findability.
- Use heading tags - In the body of your site, you can select Heading for some text that you want to bring attention to. Heading with give the text an H2 tag which indicates the topic and also is recognized by some search engines.
- Get sites to link to your site – Multiple links to your web site can mean better ranking with many of the search engines. Contact various local, regional and state organizations to ask them to add your home page URL to their directories and web site resource pages.
3. Have a current web site?
Use Yahoo to find links to your current site:
- Go to: http://yahoo.com
- In the search box, type “link:<your old url>”, for example: link:http://www.plinkit.org
- Yahoo will list web pages which have your URL listed on their page.
- Contact the webmaster for each site listed to request they update the link(s) to your new URL.
Contact agencies in your community to inform them of your new web site. Ask that they add your new web address to their web site. Offer to add their web address to your new web site:
- Town Webmaster
- County Webmaster
- Local Chamber of Commerce
- Local School District and/or local schools
- Local organizations with web sites such as museums, businesses, visitor centers, real estate agencies, local government agencies such as social services
Change the code on your old web site to refer to your new web site
This HTML code can replace the code on all your
current web pages to re-direct your old web pages to the new web site. Insert
your library URL and library name as directed below before copying and pasting
to your web pages. You may need to work with the maintainer/webmaster/IT person of your original site to have this done.
<html>
<head>
<META
HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="5; URL=http://www.yourlibrary.plinkit.org">
<title>(Your library name)</title>
</head>
<body>
<p align="center"><STRONG>
(Your library) has a new website! This page will redirect to the new page
in 5 seconds...<P>
If the re-direct does not work,
<a href="http://www.yourlibrary.plinkit.org">Click here</a> to go to the new site</STRONG><p>
</body>
</html>
This HTML code is a short-term solution. After 3-6 months, ask that your old web site be removed from the server where it resides.
If you have a domain that you would like to keep, contact your tech support to get the domain to pass through to your new URL.