How to appear on search engines

The indexing  and the positioning are fundamental components for the success of your site. Indexing is important because it means being included in the index  of research engines such as Google or MSN Live Search, thus increasing visibility. Positioning means appearing within the best positions on  a research engines.
Should your site not appear on either Google, Yahoo or MSN Live Search it’ll be more difficult for people to discover your existence, no matter how useful or beautiful.
Here’s a few advices on how to index your web pages

How to flag your site on Google and MSN Live Search

Research engines don’t know you exist? Follow card indications, it won’t take more than a few minutes.
[CARD:FLAG YOUR SITE ON GOOGLE]
[CARD: FLAG YOUR SITE ON MSN LIVE SEARCH]
Remember that your pages will be indexed more rapidly if already linked to other sites.

Create a sitemap

Including a map on your website will facilitate the orientation and research engines will easily visit all your pages and index more than one.
Attention, we are not talking about a page that will list all the contents of your website (that can, in any case, be a useful instrument both for research engines as well as surfers). We’re talking  about a particular file, an  “.xml” extension constructed specifically for being read by research engines.
The entire “creation” procedure of a sitemap and a signaling on Google needs no more than a half hour, but it’s worthwhile following, especially if your site contains many pages unknown to  research engines. You’ll see results within two weeks.
To create your sitemap you can use an online instrument such as this:
http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/
Within the card you will find a step by step guide on how to use it:
[CARD: create a sitemap with xml-sitemaps]
Once you’ve created your map, upload it on the most important file within your site. After this you should subscribe to Google webmaster instruments so as to register it with the research engine desired.

Google Webmaster instruments

It is possible to subscribe from this link:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/?hl=it
The procedure for reaching this site is quite simple.
Add  your site to instruments, you will be requested to verify it. You can choose to verify it by adding a file on your site or by changing the HTML code from the homepage. Done? Now we can send a sitemap.

Send the sitemap to Google

This operation should be done from the Webmaster instrument page on Google specifically dedicated to your site (if you’ve just verified your site you’re already there otherwise visit  this link and then click on the name of your site).
In the menu on the left hand side choose “sitemap” and then click on “add a sitemap”. The kind of sitemap  we are uploading is “general web sitemap”. Add the address of your sitemap (if you’ve uploaded the file in the main website folder) you should only write sitemap.xml) and click on “add general web sitemap”.
Finished! In a few days from now, if you wish, you can once again refer to Google webmaster instruments and verify how indexing is proceeding by clicking on “sitemap panorama”. You’ll have a complete list of addresses sent as well as those that have already been indexed.
Go to next topic: improve your pages and position your website within the good range on research engines.