So many times we have faced the question of indexing in the major Search Engines, I have felt the urge to compile guidelines for Google, Yahoo and MSN in one place. The source is their official websites. Google Guidelines - Design and content guidelines Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link. Offer a site map to your users with links that point to the important parts of your site. If the site map is larger than 100 or so links, you may want to break the site map into separate pages. Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content. Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it. Try to use text instead of images to display important names, content, or links. The Google crawler doesn't recognize text contained in images. Make sure that your <title> elements and alt attributes are descriptive and accurate. Check for broken links and correct HTML. If you decide to use dynamic pages (i.e., the URL contains a "?" character), be aware that not every search engine spider crawls dynamic pages as well as static pages. It helps to keep the parameters short and the number of them few. Keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number (fewer than 100). Quality guidelines - basic principles Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines. Don't deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users, which is commonly referred to as "cloaking." Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you'd feel comfortable explaining what you've done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, "Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?" Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links. Don't use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate G's Terms of Service. Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Goldâ„¢ that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google. Quality guidelines - specific guidelines Avoid hidden text or hidden links. Don't use cloaking or sneaky redirects. Don't send automated queries to Google. Don't load pages with irrelevant keywords. Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content. Don't create pages with malicious behavior, such as phishing or installing viruses, trojans, or other badware. Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines, or other "cookie cutter" approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content. If your site participates in an affiliate program, make sure that your site adds value. Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site first. Yahoo Guidelines - Generally, you can ensure you have unique and targeted content for your audience. Here are a few tips that can help your page be found by a focused search on the Internet: Think carefully of the key terms that your users will search on to find content like yours. Use those terms to guide the text and construction of your page. Users are more likely to click a link if the title matches their search. Choose terms for the title that match the concept of your document. Use a "description" meta-tag and write your description accurately and carefully. After the title, the description is the most important draw for users. Make sure the document title and description attract the interest of the user but also fit the content on your site. Use a "keyword" meta-tag to list key words for the document. Use a distinct list of keywords that relate to the specific page on your site instead of using one broad set of keywords for every page. Keep relevant text and links in HTML. Placing them in graphics or image maps means search engines can't always search for the text, and the crawler can't follow links to your site's other pages. An HTML site map, with a link from your welcome page, can help make sure all your pages are crawled. Use ALT text for graphics. It's good page design to accommodate text browsers or visually impaired visitors, and it helps improve the text content of your page for search purposes. Correspond with webmasters and other content providers and build rich linkages between related pages. MSN Guidelines - Guidelines for successful indexing Following are recommendations that may help MSNBot and other web crawlers effectively index and rank your site. We've also provided a list of techniques to avoid if you want to make sure your site is indexed. Technical recommendations for your website Use only well-formed HTML code in your pages. Make sure that all tags are closed, and that all links open the correct web page. If your site contains broken links, MSNBot may not be able to index your site effectively, thus preventing people from reaching all of your pages. If you move a page, set up the page's original URL to direct people to the new page. Indicate whether the move is permanent or temporary. Make sure MSNBot is allowed to crawl your site and isn't on your list of web crawlers that are prohibited from indexing your site. Use a robots.txt file or meta tags to control how MSNBot and other web crawlers index your site. You can use the robots.txt file to prevent web crawlers from crawling specific files and folders. Keep your URLs simple and static. URLs that are complicated or that change frequently are difficult to use as link destinations. For example, the URL www.example.com/mypage is easier for MSNBot to crawl and for people to type than a long URL with multiple extensions. Also, a URL that doesn't change is easier for people to remember. That makes it a more likely link destination from other sites. Content guidelines for your website The best way to attract people to your site, and keep them coming back, is to design your pages with valuable content that your target audience is interested in. The following guidelines can help you design a more efficient and popular page: In the visible page text, include words users might choose as search query terms to find the information on your site. Limit all pages to a reasonable size. We recommend one topic per page. An HTML page with no pictures should be under 150 KB. Make sure that each page is accessible by at least one static text link. Don't put the text that you want indexed inside images. For example, if you want your company name or address to be indexed, make sure it is not displayed inside a company logo. Add a site map. A site map helps MSNBot to find all of your pages. Links that are embedded in menus, list boxes, and similar elements are not accessible to web crawlers unless they appear in your site map. Keep your site hierarchy fairly flat. That is, each page should only be from one to three clicks away from the home page. Techniques that may prevent your site from appearing in Live Search results The following techniques aren't appropriate uses of the Live Search index. Use of these techniques may affect how your site is ranked within Live Search, and may cause your site to be removed from the index. Attempting to increase a page's keyword density by add lots of irrelevant words. This includes stuffing ALT tags that users are unlikely to view. Using hidden text or links. Only use text and links that are visible to users. Using techniques, such as link farms, to artificially increase the number of links to your page.