Wenchy's World

Making The SES Work For You

By

Wenchy

Adult Copy

Every webmaster, no matter how green, knows that search engines are a vital source of traffic for the adult Internet. Unfortunately, working the SEs or, more to the point, making the SEs work for you isn't as easy as it was back when I became a webmistress. These days it takes a helluva lot more time and patience, but the rewards can be significant.

These days it's not a simple matter of throwing together a site and submitting it to the SEs and hoping for the best. Oh, you can still use that method if you've got another source of income and a lot of time to kill. It's definitely not efficient, however, and can be hideously discouraging.

The best way to ensure that your sites will get decent listings in the search engines is to do your homework! Study up on the rules for each SE that you want to submit to. Now I realize this is a huge undertaking and those of you who tend to be short on time may think it counterproductive. But believe me when I tell you that you absolutely cannot rely on anyone else to learn the SEs for you! This is one of those "hands-on" things that you MUST conquer for yourself.

Think of learning the SEs like a video game... the role-playing type. The more you use your weapon the better you get with it and the higher your skill level climbs. Before long, you're a master with your sword (or whatever) and you can kick the virtual ass of any bad guy that comes down the pike. Woohoo! What fun!

Think of the SEs as your weapon... the more you learn about the engines and the more you study and use them, the higher your skill level will climb. I don't know that anyone can actually and honestly call themselves a "master" of the engines due to the almost-constant changes in rules and algorithms, but it is possible to attain an incredibly high level of working knowledge that can give you an edge over your competition.

There are a few basic things to remember when using the engines. Keywords, META tags, and text are the three most critical areas of concentration when building your pages. Sounds pretty straightforward, huh? Well, that's just the tip of the iceberg.

To optimize your pages for best results you absolutely MUST know what the rules are for the various search engines and build your sites accordingly. Some will place more emphasis on text and title tags, some on ALT and META tags, some on keywords. Your best plan of attack is to survey the rules for each of the engines and either build on a per-SE basis or find a middle ground they will all be happy with. I can't tell you which way to go... that's a very individualized thing that you'll have to work out for yourself.

Let me clarify something here real quick. By "search engines" I'm referring to all the usual places that use spiders as well as the "directories" like DMOZ. A word of caution... be VERY sure you are familiar with the rules at DMOZ before you submit! They use human reviewers over there... humans with memories who might recall having seen a crappy submission from you at one point which may lead to their automatically declining any future submissions. (I'm not insinuating that this happens, just something to keep in mind!).

I'll warn you of two other things in advance...

One, learning the SEs is NOT easy, nor can it be done overnight. It is an ongoing process that will require a certain amount of diligence and determination on your part. Once you have the basics down, it's a fairly simple matter to visit the sites frequently in order to keep track of their latest changes. I highly suggest keeping a notebook or file with separate pages or sections for each engine for easy reference and frequent updates. If you make HTML pages for each engine, you can also include the URLs for the submission pages. This is not a one-time venture, so you need to decide now if you have the time and the energy to invest.

Two, I do not use, condone, or recommend the use of auto-submission programs when dealing with the engines. If you don't have the time to do your submissions by hand, you're better off not doing them at all and just waiting for the spiders to catch up to you. I have heard of cases where auto-submissions have resulted in entire domains and even IP ranges being banned and all existing pages removed from an engine... a potentially devastating turn of events! Work your search engine submissions into your daily or weekly schedule and bookmark the submission pages (where possible) to save time. You'll eventually get to the point where your submissions will be second nature and you won't consider a site "finished" until your SE submissions are completed.

Finally, a word about spam. Do it and pay the price!! I'm completely serious... the engines are drastically changing their approach to spammers and how to best deal with them, and they are not being gentle about it! Don't risk yourself, your domains, or your host by flooding the SEs with spam and B.S. pages. I guarantee you that kind of behavior WILL come back to bite you in the butt!

As webmasters we should all have a working knowledge of the search engines, not just for traffic, but to keep track of our competition as well. Learning the rules and building your sites accordingly can produce large amounts of just about the best traffic anywhere. Trying to bend or break the rules can (and probably will) result in a slow death for your sites and eventually your business. The engines are an extremely valuable tool when used properly... a tool no webmaster's toolbox should be without!

Until next time, may your surfers continue to whip it out....

Wenchy