Why doesn’t your site come up in search engines?

Many people believe that because you have a website, you should automatically come up in the search engines. The truth is, it takes month for your new site to get indexed. For this reason you should never change your URL after you have already established a website, instead, forward your new URL to your old URL; this way you will not risk losing valuable indexing and your customers won’t know the difference.

So, how does one get indexed? Well, this simple question has a complex answer. It is important to understand that all search engines have one goal: They want to provide their users with relevant content for every search term or keyword phrase entered. Each engine uses constantly changing algorithms to configure the relevance of your site.

This may seem daunting, but if you concentrate on great content you are sure to get indexed and increase your page ranking over time. The more content you have, the more likely you are to establish a higher page ranking. A great way to add content on a regular basis is to have a blog that is hosted on your site’s server. We have used both Blogger and Word Press and have experienced good results with both.

Inbound links are another way to increase your page ranking. You may consider opening an E-bay store and linking back to your own site. Every time someone features you on their site – they should link back to you as well. Think of this as footprints leading back to your site. The more you have the more likely you are to get noticed.

Ask your web master to add title tags to each of your site’s pages - these should be the most relevant keyword phrases and also describe each page effectively. The use of ALT, description and meta tags are also ways you can utilize your most relevant keywords throughout your site (though these are not highly valued any longer). For more on keyword phrases and site tags, read What are keywords and why do I need them?

MSN, Yahoo and Google are the most competitive search engines and each one places varying significance on different aspects of your site.

Google uses a page ranking system called PageRank – you can check your page rank at Alexa. It is likely that your site will first come up in MSN, Yahoo, and then Google – respectively; assuming you have diligently added relevant content and keyword phrases to your site.

Keep in mind, the longer your site is active, the more weight your site carries with search engines, so have patience. Add fresh content often and remember to ask for back links to your site.