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How To Improve Your
Ranking On Search Engines
- By Dr. Kevin Nunley,
Marketing Help for Biz
New techniques can drive thousands of visitors to your
web site.
Randy is the first to tell you driving traffic to your
web site is an expensive proposition. "I spent the
promotion budget on ads, the grocery money on banners,
and we still aren't getting that many hits," he says.
Now Randy turns to search engines. He's heard that tens
of millions use them each day to navigate around the Net.
A good listing on a major search engine can bring
thousands of already-targeted customers to his site. But
how can he get his site listed--and fast?
As search engines get more sophisticated, it's easier to
get a good site listed. It's also harder to "trick"
search engines into listing you. The good news is, if you
have a site that is focused on just a few topics your
best prospects are likely to search for, you're in a
situation where the mammoth Internet portals can help you.
And it's all free!
Forget about those services that promise to list you on
thousands of search engines. There are only three search
engines that really count. Because a number of the majors
use the same database, you can register on one and show
up on several of them.
"Don't waste time trying to get on Yahoo," says
Jerry West, search engine expert with NetGateway. "Instead,
submit your site to HotBot.com." Both use the
Inktomi database. A listing on HotBot virtually
guarantees a showing on Yahoo.
Recently AltaVista surged in user popularity. It ranks as
one of the best places to have your site listed. Alta
Vista rotates visitors through four databases. If you don't
see your site listed, try again in 15 minutes when the
next database will be on display. Register with Alta
Vista weekly to get your site listed in all four
databases.
You will also want to submit your web address to Excite,
perennially one of the most used engines. Like HotBot and
Alta Vista, Excite spiders through your site in a matter
of seconds. Your listing can show up within a few days.
That gives a search engine several good keywords to use
when categorizing Sheila's site, words that her customers
are likely to use when looking for her.
Your Title is Tops
Search engines pay close
attention to the title of your site. That's the line that
appears in the little box on your browser. Take care to
include two or three keywords that your best prospects
are likely to type into a search engine when they are
looking for a site like yours.
"Welcome to Sheila's Web Site" may sound good,
but it doesn't give search engines much to go on. It
would be better to title Sheila's opening page with some
words about what Sheila offers, like "Solutions for
credit card debt, loan restructuring, and bankruptcy."
That gives a search engine several good keywords to use
when categorizing Sheila's site, words that her customers
are likely to use when looking for her.
How to find popular
keywords
Big companies now have
access to records from all the major search engines.
These databases show which keywords people search with.
Often a company can find a keyword that millions of
people search with, but isn't used by many web sites.
Using a popular but neglected keyword can draw a goldmine
of new visitors.
West says you don't have to lay out big bucks for the
insider's list of keywords.
More and more, getting a good listing on search engines
has less to do with tricks of the trade and more to do
with how well your site covers a particular topic. After
all, that's what people hope to find when they use a
search engine.
Spend time crafting a inviting description of your site
to include in your Meta Tags (for a quick lesson on how
to write your own Meta Tags, see Alta Vista's short
tutorial at http://www.altavista.com/av/content/addurl_meta.htm/ Search engines display your
description next to the link to your site. A good
description can grab attention and cause lots of people
to click to your site rather than another one.
Be patient and don't get too obsessive. I find that once
sites are listed on the six or seven major search engines,
they tend to start showing up on many other search
engines and link libraries. You can register your site
with all the majors with one click at http://www.all4one.com/ . You can register free with over
400 search engines and link libraries with a single click
at http://www.submit4free.com/
Finally, make sure the copy on your web site is
interesting and makes customers want to buy. All the
traffic in the world won't earn you a dime unless your
web site converts visitors into buyers.
About the author ...
Kevin Nunley provides marketing advice, copywriting, and
web promotion. See his hew 49 Lesson E-Business Course
with free shopping cart at http://DrNunley.com/ . Reach Kevin at kevin@drnunley.com
Some information provided by EZ Wire at http://www.e-zinez.com
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