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| 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 MSN 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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