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After You Submit
Submitting to search engines is a bit like washing windows - some
panes just don't come clean without some extra scrubbing, and they
all get dirty again. Getting listed can take anywhere from a few
days to a few months. Sometimes a search engine just won't list
your site at all, for reasons which elude even the most expert Web
promotion gurus. For this reason, it's absolutely essential that
you check all the search engines a month or so after you submit.
If you're not in there, submit again. Don't forget our warnings
against spamming the engines, but resubmitting every month or two
is not likely to anger them.
Some search engines may drop your site from their database for
reasons unknown, and some place older listings lower in their
rankings. Also, if anything changes on your site (as it should),
then the search engines should be instructed to reindex your site.
For these reasons, it's a good idea to re-submit to the major
search engines at least every six months or so, or any time you
make a major site revision. Sound like a lot of work? Not really,
especially if you use an auto submitter. Some of them can also
automate the process of checking to see if you are listed.
Submitting to search engines is an essential first step, but there
are lots of other things you can do to promote your site. The name
of the game is to get as much traffic as you can, so you want to
get as many links pointing to
your site as you can. The Web is so large and complex that there's
practically no limit to the amount of time you can spend trying to
stir up traffic.
Specialty search engines and directories are well worth
investigating. There are lots of sites that feature links to sites
about a particular topic, such as travel, investing, food, etc.
Some are small search engines, which allow
users to search for sites, while others are "links pages," which
simply have static lists of links that users can browse. These can
be very worthwhile if your site happens to fit into a topic that
they cover. Don't forget our
caveat about all the marginal sites out there. If a page looks
amateurishly done, or appears not to have been updated in a long
time, it probably gets little or no traffic.
Link exchanges are very valuable for new and/or smaller sites.
These outfits let you submit a banner ad to them in return for
placing their ad on your site. Every time someone sees the banner
on your site, you earn credit towards displays of your banner on
other member sites. The largest of these is the Internet
LinkExchange, but there is also the Hyperbanner and several
others.
A time-honored and effective way to build traffic is to exchange
links with related sites. Your competitors probably won't want to
put up a link to your site (then again, they may), but your
suppliers, customers and other companies that you work with may do
so. Content sites that cover topics related to your site, and
sites of companies that make related products, are good candidates
for reciprocal links. Most folks will expect you to respond in
kind by adding a link to their site. If you like, you can put all
these links on a special "links page" so they don't clutter up
your home page. If you have lots of useful links, your links page
may even become a valuable resource in its own right, building
even more traffic for your site. Email newsletters are terrific
traffic-builders. An announcement newsletter, which allows you to
send email to visitors who sign up for the list, can be used to
notify customers and potential customers of new features on your
site, special offers, etc. A discussion list, which allows any
list members to post messages, can be a valuable resource for
members, and can be used to plug your site. For details of how
email lists can be used to build site traffic, see the article,
Mailing Lists for Web Sites.
Don't confuse mailing lists with spam. A mailing list consists of
people who signed up to receive messages, and who can unsubscribe
from the list at any time. Spam is mass email sent to people who
never asked to receive it. Don't
believe the promises of the scamsters who offer to set you up with
spam lists. Spamming will cripple your traffic, and quite possibly
put your Web site out of business, as all hosting services have
strict anti-spam policies, and will cancel the account of a
spammer in a heartbeat.
Whether you have your own mailing list or not, participating in
appropriate discussion lists and online forums can be a good way
to increase awareness of your site, and build traffic. Be careful
to use proper netiquette, and obey all the guidelines of any group
that you participate in. Most lists won't tolerate blatant
advertising, but see nothing wrong in sneaking in a plug for your
site here and there, in the course of contributing meaningfully to
the discussion.
What about paid advertising? As an employee of an
advertising-supported network of Web sites, I hate to bite the
hand that feeds me, but in my experience, buying banner
advertising is seldom cost-effective for a small business. To get
results from banner ads, you need to spend some serious money, and
you need to be prepared to refine both the banners and their
placement on an ongoing basis. Mailing list ads, however, are
generally far cheaper, and often reach much more finely-targeted
audiences, than banner ads. If you can find a mailing list or two
that target the type of people you're trying to reach, it might be
well worthwhile to try a few ads.
Some more tips on things you can do to promote your Web site can
be found in my recent WDVL article, You've submitted to all the
search engines. Now what?
Promoting your Web site is an endless task. You could sit at your
computer for twelve hours a day for weeks, and still not exhaust
all the potential ways to stir up traffic. But don't despair. As
with all things, there's a point of diminishing returns -
submitting your site to the major search engines carefully and
thoroughly, and taking a few of the other steps listed above,
should be quite enough to get some traffic rolling your way. After
that, the most important thing for Internet success is the same as
in any business - sell a quality product or service at a
competitive price. If you don't do that, then all the promotion
and marketing in the world will be a waste of time.
Site Promotion Resources Web Site Promotion Guide A veritable
plethora of articles and tutorials on site submission, how to
maximize rankings, and other traffic-building topics. Search
Engine Watch. The definitive guide to search engines. These guys
manage to keep up with the ever-changing, complex world of search
engines. Better them than me. Step Right Up! A guide to
distinguishing valuable site promotion resources from time-wasting
scams.
Plain Text Attachment [ Save to my Yahoo! Briefcase | Download
File ] Search Engine Optimization & Web Promotion Services There
are two types of search engines: Search Engine Directories and
Search Engine Spiders. Each search engine (regardless of whether
it is a spider or a directory) uses unique criteria for "ranking"
websites.
1. Spider driven search engines use "robots" to spider websites
across the Internet. Robots "crawl" each website and "score" pages
based on relevancy. Some engines score the index page while others
score individual WebPages. A website's score or placement within a
spider driven search engine is derived from hundreds of variables
such as, link popularity, click popularity, keyword density,
website themes and more. Google.com is the most popular spider
driven search engine.
2. Search Engine Directories rely on humans to gauge web page
relevancy and search engine placement. Human editors review each
website and rank them according to a set of guidelines such as
website content, website functionality, and design
professionalism. Yahoo! and the Open Directory Project, DMOZ are
the most popular Directory Driven Search Engines.
Earning Top 10 Search Engine Placement is complex and highly
competitive for three reasons:
1. The variety and complexity of search engine's "ranking"
algorithms
2. Search Engines constantly modify "page ranking criterions"
3. Increasing competition on the web
Why Search Engine Optimization?
Studies have proven that top placement in search engines provide a
more favorable return on investment compared to traditional forms
of advertising such as, snail mail, radio commercials and
television. Search engine optimization is the ONLY fool proof
method to earning guaranteed Top 10 search engine placement.
How does SEO earn guaranteed top 10 placements?
Every Search Engine ranks Website Relevancy using a unique
formula.
Another term for a search engine's ranking formula is a search
engine algorithms. The goal in search engine optimization is to
build a website that meets each search engines "ranking criterion.
The closer a website matches each search engine's "ranking
criterion, the higher the website scores. Higher scores equal
better placement in search engines. The best scores are rewarded
with Top 10 search engine placement.
Each search engine places emphasis on variable factors such as the
design and layout, keyword density and the number of relevant
sites linking to it. Search engines constantly update and refine
their ranking criterions in order to index the most relevant
sites. Other variables that have an emphasis on search engine
placement include the following:
Keywords: choosing the right keywords is mission critical.
Link Popularity: the more links pointing your site from "relevant"
sites the better.
Click Popularity: the more traffic your site receives, the higher
you score.
Website Themes: Create text heavy pages broken down into "themes".
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Search Listings:
Should you use pay-per-click engines? This decision should be
influenced by your industry's keywords and prices. Your budget,
economies of scale, cost-per-customer acquisition, marginal costs
and profitability should be considered before entering the PPC
arena.
How much are you willing to spend to generate a sale?
If pay-per-click engines can meet the figure you derive, it is a
rewarding investment. Learn more about pay-per-click search
engines!
Competitive Analysis:
Competition analysis is about focusing on the areas you need the
most improvement. Find the engines you lack solid placement and
learn the tricks to earn top 10-search engine placement.
Link Popularity is more important than ever… and more complex than
you might think!
The majority of the major search engines use link popularity as an
important factor in ranking relevancy. As search engines have
become more sophisticated, so too has link popularity.
A few years ago, the number of websites linking to your site
gauged link popularity; little emphasis was placed on the "content
relevancy" of the linking site. In an effort to gain more link
popularity, "link farms" began sprouting up across the web. For a
nominal fee, a website owner could join link farms and enjoy
increased link popularity overnight.
Search engines caught onto this tactic and created better tools
for detecting legitimate links. Websites that have links from
websites with "similar" or "relevant" content score higher, thus
earn better placement in search engines.
Be Careful! Avoid joining "link farms"; some search engines
consider them a form of Spam. Many engines will actually penalize
sites for maintaining an abundance of links from non-related
websites. It is more important than ever to develop a solid
"link-popularity" strategy. One excellent, although time
consuming, method is to simply write complimentary website
requesting a link exchange.
Link Popularity Summary:
Link Popularity is an important component to your search engine
ranking. Request text based links from complimentary sites
containing your main keywords.
Topics Related to Link Popularity-
Click Popularity and Stickiness:
Click Popularity is a measure of the number of clicks received by
a website from a search engine's referral. Web Page Stickiness is
measured by the timeframe a user spends at a website. Based on
this ranking methodology, search engines conclude that the longer
a users spends on a site… the more relevant it must be.
Search engines derive Web Page Themes by defining the common
"topic" throughout a website. The common theme for this website is
Search Engine Optimization, Website Marketing, Internet
Advertising etc.
One excellent method of creating a consistent theme is to include
your most important keyword phrases in the web site's title, Meta
tags, text and links.
Be Careful! Don't overdue it. Search Engines are smarter than you
might expect. They can detect keyword spamming if you saturate too
many keywords into your content. As a general rule, it is best if
you keep keyword
density to about 4-6% of the words contained within a web page. It
is best to include at least 150 words of text per page!
There are many different ways to drive new visitors to your web
site:
Search Engine strategies
Bulk/Opt-In emailing
Free classifieds
Paid advertising
Newsletter
E-zine advertising
Banner ad
Link exchange
Article submission
Press release
Newsgroups posting... and so much more However, third party
studies have proven that Search Engines provide
better results than most other forms of Web advertising. As 80% of
internet traffic is generated by search engines, submitting your
Web site to ALL major Search Engines is the most effective way to
promote your Web page on the
Internet.
Surfers actively searching for specific information on their
chosen subjects submit keywords to Search Engines in order to
locate suitable Web sites to visit. There are hundreds of
directories, spiders and links out there on the Internet today.
Most of them are continuously updating their databases both
through active 'spidering' throughout the Web or by accepting
submissions from Webmasters.
In order to drive real traffic to your web site, you need to
regularly submit your Web site details to these Web directories
and engines, and maintain your web site at the TOP position of all
the search engine for your chosen 'keywords'. You have to:
Manage your web site details
Submit your web sites to ALL major search engines and directories
Create and build a keyword library for your web site
Analyze and optimize keywords on your web page
Create correct Mate Tags for all your web pages
Analyze and optimize your web site for TOP position
Upload your web pages to your web server
Check your URL visibility and Link popularity for the search
engines
Keep monitoring your web site position on the search engines
Create Doorway pages to explode your web site and get a HIGH
ranking
Learn more knowledge, tips and tricks about search engine
positioning
Link Popularity is more important than ever… and more complex than
you might think!
The majority of the major search engines use link popularity as an
important factor in ranking relevancy. As search engines have
become more sophisticated, so too has link popularity. A few years
ago, the number of websites linking to your site gauged link
popularity; little emphasis was placed on the "content relevancy"
of the linking site. In an effort to gain more link popularity,
"link farms" began sprouting up across the web. For a nominal fee,
a website owner could join link farms and enjoy increased link
popularity overnight.
Search engines caught onto this tactic and created better tools
for detecting legitimate links. Websites that have links from
websites with "similar" or "relevant" content score higher, thus
earn better placement in search engines.
Be Careful! Avoid joining "link farms"; some search engines
consider them a form of Spam. Many engines will actually penalize
sites for maintaining an abundance of links from non-related
websites. It is more important than ever to develop a solid
"link-popularity" strategy. One excellent, although time
consuming, method is to simply write complimentary website
requesting a link exchange.
Link Popularity Summary:
Link Popularity is an important component to your search engine
ranking. Request text based links from complimentary sites
containing your main keywords.
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