An email I got today…

How do I get my website on google and other search engines?
I went on google and searched for zzn and other people’s came up. But when i
searched mine (chicagoil.zzn.com) it didn’t show up! Can you help me do
that?

I wanted to be as concise and useful as possible, without baffling people or driving them into the arms of some expensive ‘Search Engine Optimization’ (SEO) ‘expert’, and I came up with this:

Hi,

There are a million people who will tell you how, and many will want money for their service but there are just a few tips that will help:

1. Make sure you website has TEXT, lots of text that describes your website, using KEYWORDS as much as you can.
2. Categorize your website and fine tune any META tags to as concisely and uniquely as possible describe your site’s purpose.
3. Use H1, H2, H3 html tags wisely (search engines use these to see what’s important in your site. )
4. Encourage visitors (including yourself) to visit. Google comes to the site to see what the content is so that it can service you relevant ads at the top. the more you visit, the higher importance it gives your site.
5. Google is democratic – the more people who ‘vote’ for you, the better the ranking you will get.
6. Pictures don’t tell Google anything – it cant read them, or javascript – imagine your site without them – that’s what Google sees.

Anyone got any better sugestions?