Publicizing your web site to web directories and search engines consists first of building a good site, and then taking a few simple steps to get the word out. The latter part is easy; following the four steps listed below is all it took to make this site visible enough for you to have found it already.
Most people find a web site by using a search engine to get a list of web sites that bear some relationship to their search terms, by searching a directory to find a list of web sites corresponding to a particular topical category, by following a link from another site, or by hearing about and directly inputting a site’s address into a web browser. Those who come back to a web site do so because it was worth the earlier visit. This web page provides pointers to prosecutors on how to help people find your web site, and includes some ideas on how make sure they benefit from what they find.
Four steps, taking perhaps ten minutes:
These steps should not be taken until after the web site is fully constructed and loaded with useful content.
Read about the various means business owners use to get their sales-oriented web sites listed higher on search engine results lists than competitor’s sites. Get confused and start thinking you need to do the same thing. Waste hours trying to design your site in such a way that its meta tags, structure, and use of particular keywords attracts more attention from search engines. Squander money paying someone to promote your site to every conceivable search engine and directory and to buy higher placement on directory listings. Then, after all that confusion, wasted time, and squandered money, figure out that there really isn’t that much competition for attention between prosecutor’s web sites, and that by getting listed in just two or three places one’s office home page will become visible throughout most of the Web to those who are looking for your site.
If you really want to become a search engine optimization junkie, then “Spider Food” (http://spider-food.net) will let you gorge on information about web site promotion.
First, go to the Open Directory Project’s directory and read their submission guidelines (http://dmoz.org/add.html). Then go to the ODP’s Prosecuting Attorneys category (http://dmoz.org/Society/Law/Law_Enforcement/Prosecuting_Attorneys/), navigate to an appropriate subcategory, click the “add URL” link at the top of page, and follow the instructions. The ODP uses volunteer editors to try to keep pace with the growth of the Web, and a volunteer editor will review your site to see if it has useful content meriting inclusion in the ODP’s directory. In the spirit of the open source movement, the ODP makes it database available to other directories for free, which makes it popular with other directories. In fact, Google, Netscape, AOL, and many other directories take their directory information directly from the ODP. Apart from those using Yahoo!, if someone is searching a web directory they’ll likely be searching information downloaded from the ODP’s directory. The ODP is the power behind the throne in terms of web directories (and many search engines, since many search engines not only search their own databases but also search at least one directory) and it is important to convince an ODP editor to list your site. Too many people have not yet realized that getting listed in the ODP is one of the most important things you can do to publicize a web site. Note that apart from the fact it may take a few days for an editor to get around to reviewing your site, different directories download ODP information on different schedules, so your ODP listing may take a few weeks to propagate through the Web.
Second, go to the District Attorneys page (http://dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/Crime/Law_Enforcement/District_Attorneys/) in the Yahoo! directory and click on the “Suggest a Site” link at the bottom of the page. Follow the instructions, and submit your site’s URL (its web site address) for inclusion in the Yahoo! directory. Yahoo’s directory has not kept pace with the growth of the Web because it is impossible for one company’s paid staff to review so many web sites, and directories are of necessity human-created (it also doesn’t help that Yahoo! now focuses on making money and so reviews paid submissions before it gets around to reviewing those from public entities). As with the ODP, inclusion in the Yahoo! directory is not automatic and may take some time. However, Yahoo!—though fading—is a popular means of finding web sites, and if someone is looking for your office’s home page they may still look there. Between the various resources that use ODP data, and the venerable Yahoo!, if someone is looking for your site and you are listed in the ODP directory and the Yahoo! directory you will likely show up on anyone’s directory search. Those who wonder why I listed Yahoo! as step #2 instead of step #1 should compare the size and quality of the respective ODP and Yahoo! prosecutor directory categories.
Third, the Eaton County Prosecuting Attorney has a marvelous web site (http://www.prosecutor.info) categorizing and listing many prosecutor’s home pages. Because some people may use that site to look for your site, because inclusion on that site will make it more likely that a search engine will discover your site and include it in that search engine’s database for future reference (search engine software periodically crawls the Web, following links from known resources to new ones to refresh the search engine’s database), and because more search engines are following Google’s lead and ranking pages based on how many other pages link to that page (an Eaton County link would thereby give you a “vote,” suggesting to Google’s search engine software that your site deserves prominent placement on its list of search engine results), you should let the webmaster at Eaton County know that your office’s home page exists. Click the “Add Site” button in the middle of the Eaton County prosecutor web site’s main page to e-mail the webmaster (nobrien@eatoncounty.org) your site’s address on the Web.
Fourth, you could use the “Add URL” form (http://www.google.com/addurl.html) of the Web’s best search engine, Google, to let it know your site exists. This step isn’t entirely necessary since if you have done steps one through three Google (and other seach engines like AltaVista and Teoma) will eventually find your site and add it to its database as it crawls the Web (Google will also find your site and add it to Google’s search engine database when Google takes its directory information from the ODP). However, using Google’s “Add URL” form might result in a speedier listing in Google’s search engine database.
There are other ways to publicize your site. The methods listed above are Internet-specific; people sitting at the keyboard already would typically use those means. However, you can publicize your web site the same way you publicize anything else: through letterhead, pamphlets, the phone book, word of mouth, the media, and so forth. In fact, for prosecutors it is even more important to do these things than to actively seek listings in directories and in search engine databases. You have a relatively small target audience to reach, and you should use conventional means of notifying them that you have put something online that they can use (as opposed to hoping they think to look for your site, and trying only to make sure that if they do look online they will find it). Also, try to get associated agencies to put a link to your site on their own web sites. Ultimately, if you get the most important thing right—quality—then other people will be impressed enough, and aided enough by the services provided by your site, to spread the news for you.
If you want your site to be visible on the Web, you need to build a worthwhile site. Otherwise search engines will have difficulty indexing it. Editors of directories will not list it. And few people will want to view it, much less link to it. Useful sites have useful content. Also, useful sites have accessible useful content. Some people overlook this latter point, assuming that if the page looks good on their browser it will look good on everyone’s. However, some browsers tolerate sloppy HTML, XHTML, CSS, or XML coding and some do not, and if the code you use to create your web site doesn’t meet standards it won’t look good on all browsers. Run your code through the W3C validator (http://validator.w3.org/) to check compliance with standards before uploading it to the Web. You can also run it through Bobby (http://www.cast.org/bobby/) to make sure your site’s design does not inadvertently include barriers to access by disabled people.
Here are examples of pages providing worthwhile content; in some cases the web design may not be inspired, but the webmaster’s heart was in the right place:
Here are examples of some sites that are not as good (these are archival versions of what these sites looked like in late 2001; the sites may have changed since then, but here I have provided saved copies of the old versions since linking to a new and improved version wouldn’t make the point):
Some prosecutor’s web sites consist only of a home page with minimal contact information. Don’t do that! Instead, add content. You do not have to be on the cutting edge of using cascading style sheets to deliver content to handheld electronic devices, or using XML to interact with those visiting your site. Just provide information people can use. Here are some examples of the kinds of content provided by various prosecutor’s offices:
For additional ideas, skim the descriptions of web pages provided in the Prosecuting Attorneys categories of the Open Directory Project.
Last updated during the summer of 2003.
To contact the author, send e-mail to Paul Wake at wake@xmission.com. If you cannot use e-mail software from your location, use this form.