| Search engines use indexing software programs,
called robots or spiders. These software programs are programmed
to constantly crawl the web in search of new or updated pages.
They will go from URL to URL until they have visited every web
site on the Internet. When visiting a web site, a search engine
spider will record the full text of every page found (including
sub-pages). After that, it will continue to visit all external
links. The URL of a web page is the address of a web page. By
following external links that point to your web site, search
engines are able to find your site. The search engine spiders
will then revisit your site periodically to refresh the recorded
information. Search engines rank your web pages based on mathematical
formulas. |
| More than 80% of all Internet users find
new web sites through search engines (Source: Georgia Tech/GVU
Users Survey). That means that about 650 million people use
search engines to find web sites. |
| Search engine users are some of the most
qualified and motivated visitors to your web site you will ever
have. After all, they have taken the initiative to hunt for
online resources on a certain topic. And then they clicked your
link to learn more. |
| Which search engines are
important? |
| Currently, there are only three major players:
Google, Yahoo and Bing Search. They are responsible for most
of the search engine traffic that you can get, because they
also power other search engines, for example the search engine
on AOL.com displays Google results. Then there are search engines
that are not as popular but can bring you some additional visitors,
for example Ask Jeeves and Teoma. In addition, there are country
specific search engines. If you have a German web site, you
should also submit to the popular German search engines, for
instance Fireball.de. |
| Search Engine Optimization |
| It is important that you do the right things
in the right order if you want to have high search engine rankings.
It is not enough to submit your web site to search engines and
to wait for the results. Successful search engine optimization
takes some time but the results are worth the effort. |
| SEO Short for search engine optimization,
is a process of increasing the amount of visitors to a Web site.
SEO helps to ensure that a site is accessible to a search engine
and improves the chances that the site will be found by the
search engine. |
| Can SEO companies guarantee
high rankings? |
| Some SEO (search engine optimization) companies
guarantee that you will get a special search engine position
if you let them do the work for you. Actually, this is not possible.
No company can guarantee search engine listings. |
| If a company makes such promises, take
a closer look at the small print. The catch is often that the
company selects the search terms. You'll be listed for obscure
search terms that nobody searches for. |
| If you have a unique company name or a
unique product name, it's relatively easy to get high search
engine rankings for that term. |
| Keywords are the words that web surfers
enter in search engines to find web sites. It is important that
your web site has good search engine rankings for popular keywords
that are related to the theme of your web site. It's pointless
to optimize your web pages for keywords that nobody uses in
the search engines. In addition, in order to get targeted visitors,
the keywords must not be too broad or too general. If you want
to successfully promote your web site on the Internet, you have
to choose the right keywords. If you target the wrong keywords,
your web site promotion efforts will be in vain. |
| For a successful online marketing campaign,
you have to target the right keywords. The keywords you use
should be relevant for your web site and web surfers should
be searching for your keywords. Most people use a two to four
word phrase in a search, so phrases are very effective. |
| Single words cannot be promoted effectively.
For example, it is not likely that someone looking for "free
software download" is going to type just "software"
into the search box. |
| Avoid the most popular keyword phrases
because you'll be competing with millions of other pages for
a search engine's attention. It is unrealistic to think that
a new web site could rank number one on a popular phrase like
"mp3". More established companies who have been on
the Internet for several years will have the big advantage of
high link popularity. |
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