Finding my site on Google/Yahoo/etc...

Okay... I included meta tags, keywords and discriptions and made sure to use only about 6-8 words for them so as to not 'over-do' it and get penalized and skipped over...

But neither google nor yahoo is finding my site...? I was told once with yahoo that you had to "Suggest A Site", is this still the way it is to be recognized at all, because yahoo wants cash for that, and I'm not paying yahoo to find me...

Does it just take time for these search engines to refresh their data-bases? I posted the site last weekend, so it's been about a week.

When I do search the only relative link that comes up is to your Critique Forum where the site is posted... BTW, I am referring to my band's site, the URL is in my sig...

Moved to Search engine forum.

The only meta tag I would consider to be important anymore is the Title tag, maybe the description tag. In the title you want to put your most important keywords first. And to get good listings, have good content, have good content, have good content.

With Yahoo, it does cost to be listed in their directory, 299.00 per year. To be listed in there results, you have to be listed in google, for now. So once you are listed in Google, you will be listed in Yahoo. Google is still free, but for Google to better find you, you need to have other sites/directories pointing to you. A good start is getting listed in DMOZ.

And last of all, Yahoo will soon drop Google fro Inktomi, which will cost per URL you want listed.

Hope this helps...

vetofunk, what do you mean by being listed in Google? Do you mean indexed (i.e., in Google's cache for searches), or do you mean in the Google directory?

Nah, you don't hve to submit anything to anybody. Providing Google knows of a page that links to your site, it'll find you (even if it's just a forum post, or a quick link to your site in somebody's site)...

Google will eventually search through your site, and index what it finds. This doesn't happen overnight though. When did your site go up?

Google's results show in Yahoo, for now anyways. As for "listed", yes "indexed" in Google's search engine. To get into Google, like Axe said, it is easier if you have some sites that link to you. That is what I meant by submiting your site to another site/directory. You can also goto Google's submit page, but you dont know how long as of it is going to take.

For other a few other engines such as MSN, you have to subscribe through Inktomi, but you will be included in the Inktomi database in less than 72 hours, which is nice.

My understanding of search engines now, are that they are mostly crawlers. . . . MEANING that they are like a spider that crawls from every knook and cranny. They go to dns servers, get listings, then scan those listings. then scan those directories, and reads through pages, picking up key words used by daily searches. Then it references those key words with your url. . . and wha la. So. . the more links to your site, more times someone uses your name/phrase/address/url/etc. . the better you have to be listed. Meta tags were abused with words such as "sex, violence, war, porn" etc. . . .big key words that people always search for. You could search for them and be directed to little nannies of america. . . . .But hey, they were getting a lot of hits right! And its all about statistics.

So. . Google changed that. . . .The more links to your site from other sites the better. Also, every site has a rank, and the credibility of this rank will increase your site listing. If amazon, has 25 links to your site, and google finds it, you can bet that your site will easily be found on google. Then, their competition will have to get your info. . . Yahoo. etc. .

Any clarification on this would be great! I have spent soo much time researching languages and programs, that this has been neglected.

Just to let you know, Yahoo has only Inktomi results now. No longer Google results. So if you want to be listed in Yahoo, you will have to subscribe to Inktomi.
Here is a link:
http://www.positiontech.com

Also with your site, you do not want the same title on every page which is what you have. Also, in your description tag, try to use more important terms. Do not use "my". Instead add the bands name. Also, try using H1 tags for each page to describe it.

Lil advice, hope it helps

Companies like toppile and bowmac use dummy optimised pages to boost your ranking, andit was quite effective, but after 2 months all the spammy pages dissappeared from their initial impresive positions. I'm sure they get found out and it damages your rank later - does anyone know if it will?

Thanks

my websites are http://www.mypashmina.co.uk and http://www.pashmina-pashminas.co.uk if you are interested in scarves!!

I see that this thread has come back. I need to change the above statement. You can get into Yahoo via the Overture Site Match (guaranteed in about 72 hours) or through their free submit.