Google is the biggest search engine on the web and probably the biggest single entity online. It is the search engine of choice for most internet users. Its simple user interface and speedy response times make for a great user experience. Getting your site listed and indexed by Google is fairly simple and requires very little technical knowledge! Google’s index is constantly updated by "spiders". Spiders are pieces of software that constantly scour the web looking for new addresses and information. Your site will eventually be found by a spider and added to Google’s index. This means Google knows your site and it can now be found using the search engine. But your site only appears in results when certain keywords are entered by the user which relate directly to your site. However, due to the massive amount of new data and domains appearing on the internet every day, these spiders take time to sift through everything, meaning your site could take some time to be recognised.

If you have registered your domain name through domainmonster.com, you can take advantage of My Home Page. This allows you to simply customise a single page with your own details, images and text, which can be parked on your domain and automatically submit the domain to all the major search engines including Google, Yahoo and MSN/Bing. This is going to save you a lot of time spent searching through all the different search engines and submitting your domain name to each one. You can also add Meta Tag information to include your keywords to further assist search engines in identifying what your site is about and when to display the site in search results. Your Home Page is configurable in 4 steps and goes live instantly.

Using the freely available Google Webmaster Tools you can request a spider to come and visit your site to collect information. This is a good idea if you have had a major update to your site. Indexing anything you have added to your site can increase your popularity with all search engines by increasing the amount of keywords on show and, in turn, attract more traffic to your site. There are a number of other tools on offer from Google through Webmaster Tools, which can all help manage your site more effectively and gain more traffic.

Getting listed on Google is only half the battle. Once your indexed by Google you have to develop a great site to help your page rank higher than other similar pages. This means using sound SEO procedures, choosing the right domain , updating your site on a regular basis, getting users involved and using analytical tools to identify areas where you can improve.

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