Increase search engine results

[southerngent]

Our pastor's sermon this morning was on the da Vinci code (thanks revjbat for the graphics). I should have the audio file edited and posted to the website this evening. Some great points were made and would be great for someone tryng to get info on this subject to be able to hear his message. What are some steps I can take to make our site and particularly the page for this sermon more likely to show up in an online search that is done for "da Vinci code"? I know with time, the search engines will pick up on things, but I would like for it to as visible as possible in the next 3-4 weeks.

[Nathan J]

Unfortunately, it's not easy if you're not starting from a high "ranking" site. Your first step should be submitting this Google submission form. Don't worry if it has been done before, this form basically puts your site in the que to be checked again.

The best way to gain rank is through referral links -- the more websites (other than your own) have links to yours, the better. Google and other search engines use as a gauge to how important your site is. This is not the only thing they look for but it definately helps to have.

[Gene]

Google and other search engines work by ranking a page by the keywords (the meta name="keywords" and the meta name="description" tags in the page header) and content on the page, as well as by other sites that link to it and their rankings (e.g., if you got a site like CNN to link to your site, it would carry more weight than if you had my blog link to it ) So have church members with websites link to it ASAP, and Google and other search engines will take that into account.

You can also potentially speed things a little bit by filling out a form on the search engine site like this at Google. Yahoo! has (or at used to) a similar page, as do some other search engines.

[Robert Adams]

I listed our site on Church Angel, and that's another way to get your site mentioned is through their site...

[southerngent]

Ok, I have done the Google submission thing and will find the Yahoo link later tonight. Just as an experiment, anyone that would like to link to the site (http://www.realpeacetoday.org/daVinciCode.html), feel free to post a link on your personal or church website(s). Even if it is a hidden link. I am curious to see if I can get the ranking to show up on Google in the next week or so.

[Robert Adams]

This Search Engine Relationship Chart has links and info for submitting to search engines...

[revjbat]

I always double post my sermons. Once on my blog and again on the church website. I find that I get more random hits via the blog than through the website. So I've developed the philosophy that the website sermons are for my church members who happen to miss a Sunday or want to refer a particular message to a friend, while the blog postcast is for a wider audience.

I preached the first a three part series on the Da Vinci Code yesterday. I don't think most people saw the sense in it until I mentioned that between services I was talking a person from our community who stopped by our coffee house who believed that Jesus had to have been married. That really caught their attention. Sadly, the person didn't come into worship to hear the truth, but my wife did get a chance to witness to her some.