Building a Web Site For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Checking Your Search Site Position

You need to follow up on your submissions to make sure that you’re listed (different search sites react on different timetables) as well as to find out where you land in the rankings when your keywords are used in a search.

Obviously, the fastest way to find out both of these things is to log on to the search engines you’ve submitted to and check things out. First, enter the name of your site and see if it comes up. If not, and it’s been more time than the search engine is supposed to take, you may want to resubmit to it.

This is also a great way to find out which other Web sites have links to yours, because any page with your site’s name on it will show up in the search results. (See the next section “Investigating Reciprocal Linking.”)

If your site does come up, you’ll want to enter the keywords from your site as search terms. This quickly shows you where you fall in the rankings. Assuming that some other sites show up on top of your own, it’s worthwhile to take a look at their source code to see what keywords they use. Also, don’t forget to look over their pages carefully. This is one of those rare instances where your competitors’ techniques are literally an open book.