April 19, 2005

• Submitting the web site to search engines is only marginally useful, if at all. It will get you listed, but the key is to achieve a high ranking. The biggest factor in getting a highly ranked position on Google is the number of relevent links to the web site (links from related, legitimate sites). It typically means a lot of time spent asking other sites to link to you. Keywords on the site are also important, make sure that the text of the site contains those words that people are going to search for. I"m sure there are others with more ideas on this...
• Not that I know anything about it, but I think you could do worse than look at this chap's advice. Don't pay for one of those ridiculous services that promise to robotically resubmit the site over and over again.
• You should try: Submitting it to dmoz and searching the web for related websites that have link pages, eg this website looks promising.
• You should submit it to sites that list holiday rental homes. People will find it through there, and them linking to you will help your google ranking. The more of those sites that link to you, the better your google ranking will be, but having them list you is, I think, more valuable than the google ranking when it comes to visibility to potential customers.
• Smallish bear... I have to disagree with you. The links from related sites is critical to the google ranking linked to the keywords, and the google ranking is the most important thing in the world for a web site... When I created my site I solicited links from very reputable (meaning..not just link farms) sites that had related content. I get some hits from those sites, but it was those links that get me to the number one position on google for most related searches on the topic of the site... I work hard to maintain the relationships that resulted in those links.... And.. when I review hits on the page a huge majority of hits come as a result of search engine (primarily google) hits.
• In this particular situation though, I think someone looking for a rental home is more likely to search for one on holidayhomesinspain.com, or whatever. Any shmuck can advertise their own house and make it sound like the greatest vacation home ever, even if it's infested with fleas and there's no hot water. Personally, I'd feel safer renting a home I found on a larger well-maintained site. Not a link farm, but a searchable directory of holiday homes in Spain that lists the features of each and has photos of rooms, etc. Also, it's easier to find a lot of different options through a site like that than it is through google. When you search google for "holiday home spain" you're going to get a bunch of sites like this at the top. I don't think you're going to beat them in google rankings, and I think that's actually the kind of site someone would be looking for when they're looking online for a holiday home. This is just my opinion based on what I look for when I'm renting a beach house. This opinion only applies to this particular kind of website, because you're really only interested in potential renters, not viewers. They're going to be forking over a lot of money for a good vacation, and it'll take more than a high google ranking to give them the sense of assurance that they'll be looking for. Under other circumstances (where you're site is just providing information, or selling something cheaper for instance), I agree that a google ranking would be more important than being listed in a directory.
• Upon re-reading the original post, I'll admit that this doesn't actually answer the poster's question.
• http://www.webmasterworld.com will have alot of info for you.
• Thanks everyone - some valuable insight in web-meistership