Promoting with Search Engines

What's a "search engine" or "directory"?

It's a web site where you type in "keywords" related to something you're looking for and it gives you a list of, hopefully, relevant websites.

A search engine uses special software to determine what pages are relevant.  The top search engines are http://www.altavista.com/, http://www.hotbot.com/, http://www.lycos.com/, http://www.infoseek.com/, http://www.excite.com/, http://www.northernlight.com/, http://www.webcrawler.com/

A directory uses humans who make this determination. The most popular directory is http://www.yahoo.com/

Then there's http://www.goto.com/ where you PAY for your ranking!

Why you want to be listed in search engines/directories

Simple. FREE LEADS!

It doesn't cost anything to be listed in a search engine, but you can get hundreds or THOUSANDS of leads if your listing is within the top 10-30 for a keyword's results!

The problems with search engines

There are 2 big problems with relying on search engines and directories for your success:

  1. It can take MONTHS for a search engine to list your page in their index.
      
  2. The search engines CONSTANTLY change the way they rank pages. So your #1 page today, can be #258 tomorrow. This means you have to spend a lot of time to keep your pages visible in the search engines.

How do I get high rankings in search engines?

Remember, the search engines use elaborate mathematical formulas to determine which pages get listed first for a keyword.

So, the three steps required for high search engine ranking are:

  1. Know what the search engines want.
      
  2. Design "gateway pages" to give it to them.
      
  3. Submit your pages and track your results.

The best way to do #1 is by subscribing to The Unfair Advantage On Winning The Search Engine Wars from Planet Ocean Communications. Every month, POC tells you EXACTLY what you need to do for high search engine placement. Click here to find out more.

A GREAT resource for doing #2, is Michael Campbell's book Nothing but Net where he describes how he designed and used gateway pages for his site (that made him $750,000 in a year!). Click here for a copy.

Another AWESOME book about promoting websites with search engines (and MUCH more) is called Making Your Site Sell (MYSS). It's only $24.95 CANADIAN (which is less than $17 US!). Click here to read some sample chapters or to order a copy.

To track your results, you NEED WebPosition Gold. WPG checks the top search engines for the keywords you specify and tells you how your pages are doing... then tells you what to do to improve them, makes better ones for you and submits them to the search engines! Click here to get a copy.

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