| Frequently
Asked Questions |
|
VAT - We only
need to charge this for transactions within the European EEC. |
| Currency payment -
If you wish we can accept payment in USD ($) based on an exchange
rate of $1.59 to the £1.00 (or latest rate). Alternatively if you
pay by credit card the transaction can be performed as Sterling (£)
and your credit card company can make the exchange based on their
own rates. |
| Which search
engines? New Search Engines start up and close daily. We update
our list every few days so it is impossible to give a complete up
to date listing. In addition not all submissions are successful. We
make sure the main search engines are included and resubmit any unsuccessful
ones a second time. Please contact us for more information on the
latest list. |
| Guarantee
of listing - We can make sure your site is submitted but some
search engines do not guarantee a listing and it may be 'sometime'
before they are able to include it. For example, Yahoo makes a charge
(about $200) just to look at a site but will still not guarantee a
listing. And it may take several months before it is included, if
at all. (Stop press - They now charge for all submission
under business categories) |
What are 'Meta
name key words' / 'Meta name descriptions' - This is data that
is added to the code of your site but is hidden on the displayed page.
This information can be extracted by search engines and used to match
their viewers search's. (i.e. their search request includes some of
your Meta name key words, they then display a list of possible matches
with a brief description which is your Meta name description.)
They will also look at other aspects of your site, see section below
titled 'position within search engines'. If no meta content is available
many will read the first lines of your code instead.
Meta content can also include other information such as language,
the software used to edit a site and many other things. This is an
example of some meta content:
This is an example of some meta content:
<meta http-equiv="Content-Language"
content="en-gb">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type"
content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<meta name="keywords"
content="host-it, website
hosting, website, web site, find local web design company, designer,
internet, webpage hosting, domain name, hosting company, Northampton,
northampton, Northamptonshire, england, uk">
<meta name="description"
content="All forms of website
design and development as well as hosting and domain name registration
etc. Based in Northampton UK">
|
Position
within search engines - Some companies say they will guarantee
first page listings on search engines. So how can every company
be first? The secret is the search words that are used, if you
pick the most obscure words or make one up such as 'wwgyy33_e'
and instruct the site owner to insert it into their keywords and
then search for it, of course it is going to be up there. But
we do not consider this much use if prospective viewers are not
entering these key words. The only reason for using search engines
is to find more customers/viewers.
FACTORS THAT DO INFLUENCE LISTING POSITION
-
Popularity
of your industry. The more sites there are in your field
the more competition there is, and the harder it is to get
a good listing. It is a simple numbers game.
- Site set
up. To try and prevent people conning the search engines many
have introduced advanced ways of automatically scanning your site
and scoring it based on quality. As people become wise to the
criteria, the engines have to adapt their systems and almost every
search engine has different criteria it looks for. Search engines
look for basic things such as meta tag key words and descriptions
but can also look at the words you have used throughout the site
their size, position, colour and connection to your key words.
They can also look at the names you have called your images and
also how many sites link to your site. And much much more! This
is one of the benefits of using a professional website design
company most engines have different criteria so getting a balance
can be difficult and like most things, experience counts.
- A good
site. There are a few things that we would recommend doing,
such as making sure you have meta key words and descriptions,
repeating a few of the key words on the initial page, having a
back door link to pages within the site if you use frames and
having a links page with a few popular pages (what about this
site?) but the most important thing is to make sure your site
is a good one. With clear navigation, useful information and quick
browser loading.
You
can kid the search engines so far but making sure your site is as
good as it can be is the best solution!
Click
here for advanced tips |
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