Bryght site and search engines
How do I get Bryght sites to be found by search engines such as Google or Yahoo? I am thinking particularly of one site (tokyoinfosource.bryght.net) Does having a real domain name help? If the owner doesn't want to do that, what else can I do to make the site show up when people search terms such as Tokyo information etc.
Thanks.
Comments
Congrats so far
Hi Kelly -- first off, let me say that we've all been watching you build your Bryght site and are impressed: Roland will likely get in touch at some point to have you as a featured site of the week.
So, yes, having a domain name is a good start, but actually, you won't see benefits for a while: Google and other search engines actually block new domains for a while to make sure they aren't spam sites. You really should think about a top level domain name: it's very much part of your brand, and you don't want to be stuck with *.bryght.net forever.
The first bit of advice is to look for related sites / blogs and posting about them on a regular blog cycle. Some of them will link back to you, thus driving traffic for you. This is not meant to be "link bait" -- find relevant news and make some of your own commentary locally. Quality content is always a good place to start.
The second bit of advice has to do with site structure. Currently, you've built out your site just as pages -- especially the links and so on.
Consider using CCK to build a "Weblink" content type, and using views / categories to make nice listings. Even Japanese books could be a separate "book" content type.
I've just talked to Richard, and he's going to write up a recipe for creating a weblinks directory with CCK and Views. Stand by!
Thanks!
Thanks for your kind words! I'd love to be featured! But I am very aware that I am still new to all this. I have been a graphic designer, and have worked with html, css, Flash, audio etc for a while but all this is new to me. I am quite pleased that I have gone this far but I know there are still lots that I don't know ... and CCK is one of the things that I still need to explore!
I have used view for the What's Up page, but may need to work on the other things. Currently, I am relying soley on the Bryght and Drupal manuls and handbooks to learn my stuff. But sometimes, I found them a liitle difficult to understand with my level of programming knowledge. Are there other sources that I can use?
As for the domain name ... I have been urging my friend, who is the official owner of the site, to get one, but I will have to wait for her to make up her mind. The reason for this question (the search engine etc) is because she is also urging me to "register" her site ... For other more traditional html sites, I have been relying heavily on keyowrds etc. So I'd like to know how to do this.
BTW, she is searhcing "Tokyo Yokohama Information" ...
Thanks for any further advice.