The Top Three Search Engines
Optimizing your website for search engines is important. So, knowing what search engines people use most often will help you optimize to maximum effectiveness for those particular search engines.
Google is the number one ranked search engine. Their design is simple, uncluttered and leaves the user nothing to do but search. It is a place where people go to search and nothing else. Therefore, it makes sense that effective search engine optimization starts with knowing what Google likes and what they don’t.
Using a special sitemap is part of making your website Google search engine friendly. Google prefers a sitemap using the extension of .xml. Information on the exact specifications and way to create this sitemap are available on the Google website. It is also recommended that you include the path to your sitemap in your robots.txt file. Submitting your completed website to Google is easy and free, as well.
Yahoo and MSN are two of the top contenders for search engines, as well. For maximum website exposure, it is important that you submit your website to all three of these search engines. Of course, submission is pointless unless you have optimized your website for these search engines. Having a great website is useless if nobody will ever see it.
Most search engines find the same optimization techniques to be compatible for them. The three major search engines, Google, Yahoo and MSN, have preferences for creating a search engine friendly website and practices that will get your website banned from their search engine.
Proper and recommended search engine optimization practices focus on content, navigation and links. Google, Yahoo and MSN all agree that your website should be created first and foremost for your visitors and for search engines as a secondary audience. Content is important for both users and search engines. Users need to find helpful, stimulating content that will make them want to come back to your website. Search engines use your content to record keyword phrases.
The navigation on your website should be easy for a user to use. Making navigation easy is one of the best and easiest search engine optimization techniques. Simple text links for each page of your website helps search engines index your website. Each page on your website should be within three clicks of the home page. Complex navigation will discourage users and search engines.
Links are hugely important for search engines. Links are also a good way to offer your visitors more information that may be relevant to their browsing. Search engines thrive on websites that have a high number of relevant links that go to their website from other websites and that lead to other relevant websites. Having quality content on your website is a good place to start for getting people to link to your website. Don’t let just anyone link to your website, though. Find other websites that contain quality information that is relevant to your website.
Check with the top three major search engines, Google, Yahoo and MSN, and find out what they like and don’t like in a website. You won’t be sorry you did.
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