Besides on-page measures listed in the previous page (See Search Engine Optimization : Search Engine On-Page Criteria) which involve optimizing your web pages, there are steps you need to take outside your website to get good search engine ranking. In fact these 'off-page' steps are even more important than the on-page ones, as far as Google is concerned.
Off-Page Criteria for Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Submission: The first thing you need to do when your new website is up and has a few pages, is to let the search engines know it exists.
The best way this is done is when search engines find your website for themselves when they follow a link, called a backlink, from some other website.
Search engines use software, called spiders or bots, to find out about websites by 'crawling' from one website to another via links between them, and indexing the contents of each.
That is the organic, preferred way, and is one of the many reasons to get backlinks. However, it is a good idea to submit your website to the major search engines as well, in case that does not happen.
There're many services out there that offer to submit your website to hundreds of search engines for a fee or even for free, but don't bother with those. See Search Engine Optimization : Search Engine Submission for why not, and how to submit website to search engines yourself.
Submit XML Sitemap: An XML sitemap is a file that lists, and links to, all the pages in your website, that is read by search engine spider software.
It helps search engine spiders find and index all the pages of a site.
Search engines are actually able to find and index the pages of a website without a sitemap, but there are times when, for whatever reason, some pages are missed out. A sitemap helps prevent that.
Google has a feature that allows you to submit XML sitemaps to them for indexing. See this Google Help Center page on when you should submit a sitemap to them, and how to do so.
For Yahoo, you start at the Yahoo Site Explorer page and follow the instructions to proceed from there. You have to log in with a Yahoo name, which can be your Yahoo email name if you have one.
Your XML sitemap file should first be present in your website’s home directory on the web host. You can get a free tool to create XML sitemaps at xml-sitemaps.com.
Get backlinks: Backlinks (links from other websites to yours) are a major factor in search engine optimization, and search engine ranking. The reason, which might not be immediately obvious, is as follows.
Search engines rank websites, first and foremost, in order to present web surfers with quality search results, so as to ultimately increase their own advertising revenue.
However, ranking algorithms, being software-driven, are unable to vet sites as reliably as a human can. Which is why, in addition to on-page criteria, search engines use human behaviour as well to help assess the quality of websites.
One action which shows approval of a website, is when people link to it, whether from their own website, or from a blog or forum where they mention it, perhaps to recommend it.
That's why search engines value backlinks so highly in their ranking algorithms, as it sees them as 'votes of confidence'. So it's crucial to your search engine optimization efforts, to get lots of backlinks if you want good search engine ranking.
In addition, if you have backlinks from established sites, you might not even need to submit your website to search engines, since they might find and spider your site through those links.
Get Directory Listings: For the same search engine optimization reason, you should get your site listed at web directories, after it has enough substance for it to be promoted.
Apart from the backlinks you get, search engines give greater weight to sites listed in directories, especially certain ones. This is because, unlike search engines which evaluate websites using software, listings in these directories are normally human editor-approved.
So a directory listing is seen as a reliable vote of confidence, that the site is not one with spam or illegal content.
Most directories require a submission fee, to cover the vetting work. Fees are mostly not refundable even if the website is not accepted.
Directories which are free to submit to, tend to take much longer to review and list your site, sometimes as long as months.
Websites listed in directories also get traffic from the directories, and are likely to get spidered by search engines via the directory links.
Some Web Directories to Submit To (Right-click on a link to open in new window.)
Suggest URL link is at top right of page. Vetted by volunteers, so expect to wait weeks or months for approval. One of the two most valued directories for search engine optimization purposes.
Suggest a Site link is at top right. Fee is non-refundable. Review time: 7 days. The other of the two most valued directories for search engine optimization purposes - hence the high price tag!
You need to register with them first. Click on the Submit Your Article or Website link on the home page. You will be guided from there. (This site is also an article directory.)
Submit URL link is at top right, and at bottom of page. Review time: 3 business days. Offers free listing, but no guaranteed review time, and lists below paid options.
You need to register first. Then browse the categories and go to the relevant category for your site. You will find an Add URL link at the top of that page.
Add URL link is at bottom of page. Fee is refundable if site is not accepted. Review time: 5 business days.
* as at April 2008; PR is PageRank (the higher the better).
Submit your site to some of these directories. The first 4 directories (DMOZ, Yahoo, BOTW, JoeAnt) should be the most important for your search engine optimization as they seem to carry the most weight with search engines, so list with them if possible. While it might seem an expensive exercise, many people say that it's worth it for the traffic they get subsequently.
