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Search
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What is a Search Engine? More...
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Don't Depend on Search Engines More...
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How Do Search Engines Search and Rank Sites More...
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The Top Search Engines More...
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Advertising on Search Engines More...
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Search Engine Ratings: Which are the most popular? More...
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Advanced Search Engine Optimization More...
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How to Register in the Top Search Engines More...
What
is a Search Engine?
Simply
put, a search engine is a website people can go to to search
for information available on the web.
More
technically speaking, a search engine is something that compiles
listings (i.e. websites) and allows people to search a database
of these listings via software programs. In the case of the
major "search engines" and the way we usually use
the word, the search engines search through a database of
websites to bring up relevant results to the keywords entered
by a user.
There
are mainly 2 types of search engines:
- Crawler-based
search engines
- Human-powered
directories
These days, most search engines are a hybrid of some sort.
They use some kind of combination of a directory and crawler-based
index searching.
Crawler-based
Search Engines
Crawler-based
search engines are broken up into three major parts:
-
The "crawler" or "spider" searches
through websites by following links. Submitting your website
to a search engine is, in essence, submitting it to be
"spidered".
- Whatever
the spiders find, they put into the second part of the
search engine, which is the index or catalog. The index,
or catalog, is a copy of all the websites that were found
through the spidering.
- The
software program is the third main part of a search engine.
This searches through the index and brings back relevant
results based on the search requested.
Sometimes the results we get from our searches may not
be the most relevant, but it is amazing that within a
second or two a search engine can go through millions
of webpages and bring back ranked results. They may be
less than perfect, but amazing programs, nonetheless!
Human-Powered
Directories
Human-powered
directories are very different from crawler-based search
engines. These are directories where a person has reviewed
every website on their list. This means that only "useful"
and good sites should be in the directory and the "garbage"
that clutters many of the crawler-based engines is not present.
For this reason, many people prefer the human-powered directories
for the quality of the results.
YAHOO!,
looksmart, and dmoz are among the leading directories. These
directories have a group of websites that are organized
into categories. To do a directory search, you simply click
on the category you are interested in, and then click on
subcategories until you get to the category that most meets
your needs. Then you will find a group of websites in that
category for you to peruse. This is very similar to the
yellow pages.
The
main difference between directories and crawler-based engines
is that when doing a keyword search the content of the website
(i.e. text and keywords) does not matter. The directories
only search for the original submission request. So when
people do a keyword search on a directory, the software
program is searching the title and keyword description that
websites were submitted under, as well as the category they
were submitted in to (and in some cases, your web address,
too).
Keep
in mind that if you are doing a directory submission a person
is looking at your submission and can either change your
title, and/or keywords, or not accept your site at all.
Therefore, the more accurate your description is, the more
it incorporates good keywords, the better chance you have
at success.
Don't
Depend on Search Engines
Part
of the reason for the level of success you have achieved is
because of the amount of work you have put into it. Depending
on the search engines to bring you business is extremely risky
considering you have virtually no control over them. It is
far more effective and important to focus on integrating your
web address into your current advertising and marketing which
you control. We are not saying you should forget them, just
be sure you have incorporated your web address into all of
your other traditional marketing methods first, as well as
practicing some online marketing techniques.
There
are three main reasons why we do not want our clients to depend
on search engines:
Every
Search Engine Is Different
They
all have different methods of indexing, searching for, and
ranking sites, so it is impossible to cater your site to
all search engines.
Search
Engines Change Frequently
They
have continuously changed their methods of indexing, searching
for, and ranking sites, and they continue to do so very
often. The search engine industry as a whole is volatile
and the engines you invest in today, may be gone tomorrow.
Competition
Can Be Tough
...and
prices can be high. Understand that as your competition
gets online, (if they aren't already), you are all competing
for the same spots. Prices for GOOD search engine optimization
can range from $1,000 to $10,000+ a year depending on the
competition, your goals, and the size of your site.
So
for those who are not just looking for a quick buck and
understand what it takes to create longevity in a business,
you can see how depending on the search engines is a poor
long-term business model to plan on. Still don't believe
it? See what this Internet marketing expert has to say about
search engines being overrated as a long-term business model:
Internet
Marketing Challenge
The
free search engines are like a lottery ticket, and, of course,
if you could get a free lottery ticket on the way to work
you would take it, and that's why we have a basic search
engine package for $99 to submit you to the free search
engines. But even with that lottery ticket, you would still
go to work everyday and that is why Offline and Online marketing
are the first steps to your success on the Internet. That's
also why we do research every day to give you a complete
marketing package like you have on this website.
How
Do Search Engines Search and Rank Sites?
Remembering
that every search engine searches differently and that each
engine can change frequently, here are some generalizations
on how or what search engines search for. This is for crawler-based
search engines:
Meta-Tags
These
are hidden in the HTML code of your website. There are 4
main meta-tags that matter the most: the Title tag, the
Description tag, alt-image tags, and the Keyword tag. Meta-
tags aren't nearly as important now as they used to be,
yet there is still the prevailing myth that working on your
meta-tags will fix your search engine placement woes.
Site
Content
This
is the visible text on your page. Because people used to
use meta-tags that would get them good placement without
having a site that matched those meta-tags, many search
engines are using the visible text on your site more often
than the meta-tags now. It is believed that what the website
is displaying is what is most applicable/ relative to your
business. Therefore, many search engines rank your placement
based on the visible text on your site. Some believe that
certain engines will see if your keywords (meta-tags) match
with your content.
Link
Popularity
This
tries to determine how many other websites are linking to
your site. The idea is that the more sites that link to
your website, the better your site must be. Therefore, if
you have a high link popularity rating, this can help your
ranking in some search engines (like Google) that rely on
link popularity.
However,
it is important to note the difference between the quality
vs. the quantity of links. The more links to your site that
have similar and/ or relative content to your industry,
the better the link is. A website that is unrelated to your
business is not as good of a link to have. A recent trend
has been for some people to join a link exchange program
to increase their link popularity - this simply does not
work that well anymore- and, in some cases, may even penalize
you. Getting into Directories such as YAHOO! and Looksmart
will also raise your link popularity rating.
One
last note is that for a search engine to recognize that
someone is linking to you, your friend's site must be in
the index of that particular search engine (which can be
accomplished by you linking to their site and the search
engine spider following that link when crawling your site).
Domain
Names and File Names
This
is probably the least important, but if you have a domain
name that contains keywords, that can help in some search
engines. For example, you might have www.My-Business-San-Diego.com;
this could help you when someone does a keyword search for
"San Diego My Business".
File
names can also help, but again, to an even smaller degree
than the domain name. Each page of your site has a separate
file name. For example, there may be a page with your resume
on your website. If your web address is www.My-Business-San-Diego.com,
the file or page that has your resume on it may be labeled,
www.My-Business-San-Diego.com/my_Resume. This can help if
someone is doing a search for "My Business in San Diego",
each image also has a separate file name that can help.
IT
IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE that the marketing aspect of your web
address, meaning a name easily remembered (pertains to your
business), and easily spelled, should always take precedence
over search engines when choosing a web address for your
site. If you then decide to seek GOOD search engine placement,
using a second web address solely for the search engines
is usually the best idea.
***
The above info is not everything, just the major ideas. Again,
it is very important to remember that every search engine
employs different methods and equations to search for sites,
as well as to rank them given the "relevant" results
they find for your keyword(s). So while some may use some
of the above, or all, some may rely heavily on content and
link popularity, while others don't use any of the above in
the case of human-compiled directories.
The
human-compiled directories (like YAHOO!, & dmoz) use very
different site indexing methods. When people do a keyword
search on these human compiled directories, the directories
only index the title (from submission), description (from
submission), and category that your site is put in to (from
submission). In some cases, they may use your URL.
The
Top Search Engines
Because
search engines change so often, we have decided that linking
to an expert's site here is the best method. The following
links are to SearchEngineWatch.com and Clickz.com.
Simply
click a link below to find out more information on the topic
of your interest:
- Major
Search Engines
- Paid
Listing Search Engines
- International
Search Engines provided by SearchEngineWatch.com
- International
Search Engines provided by Clickz.com
Advertising on Search Engines
There
are two ways to buy your way into the search engines directly.
Pay-Per-Click
Popularized
by Overture.com (formerly GoTo.com), the basic idea is that
you bid on placement for various keyword phrases. Let's
say you are going for "My Business in San Diego".
You would pay a fee (perhaps 20 cents) every time someone
types in that keyword phrase and then clicks into your site.
If there are many businesses trying for this same phrase,
the pay-per-click price will increase (supply and demand).
Another fairly well known pay-per-click search engine is
FindWhat.com. For a list of pay-per-click engines click
here.
Banner
Ads
These
are popular forms of advertising on many engines. The concept
is that if a searcher types in "My Business in San
Diego", you will not be a numbered listing, but you
will have a banner ad at the top or side of the page making
your web address more visible, and therefore, more likely
to be selected.
. . . . .
Search Engine Ratings: Which are
the most popular?
Ranking
the top search engines is not an easy task. There are a few
ways to do it. One way is by how many hits a search portal
gets, but this includes people going to YAHOO! -and others
like it- to check their e-mail or maps or other services that
major portals offer.
Another
way is to tally the amount of search queries done in each
search engine.
Another
way is through companies like hitbox.com that offer free tracking
programs for website owners. Hitbox.com can take stats from
a given day and determine where their clients' hits came from.
This produces a total such as: 30,000 hits came from msn.com,
20,000 came from Yahoo, etc.
All
things considered we would venture that, Google, YAHOO!, MSN,
and AOL Search are the four engines that run the most traffic.
It
is important to note that Looksmart is not a huge portal itself,
but it does provide listings for MSN, AltaVista, iWon, and
over 300 Internet Service Providers. Looksmart is said by
many to have just as much importance as any of the above for
audience reach. Unfortunately for Looksmart, AltaVista seems
to be falling out of favor, which may bring down Looksmart's
importance. However, people are also starting to use Looksmart
itself more often, so the two may balance each other out.
Advanced
Search Engine Optimization
We
have developed some programs for Search Engine Optimization
and pay-for-inclusion programs. These packages generally run
about $500-2,000 for our services and the pay-for-inclusion
programs at the actual search engines range from $299-800.
Contact
us at submissions@moversites.com for more information on these
programs as every case is specifically customized to you.
If
you are one of the rare few that have a budget of $3-10,000
for search engine optimization or you just want to see typical
industry rates, then we would recommend you contact an outside
search engine professional. While we cannot recommend specific
specialists, here is a sure-fire way to find the best in the
business:
- Go
to each of these four major search engines: google.com,
yahoo.com, MSN.com, and search.aol.com.
- Do
a few of the same searches on each for words such as "search
engine placement", "search engine optimization",
"search engine companies", etc.
It would make sense that the people that turn up at the top
in many of these engines are the best in the business because
they are all competing against each other in the same game
that you are hiring them for. This method should always work
- you just need to make sure you are doing the searches on
all of the most popular search engines and not the more obscure
ones.
Please
be cautious of using automated website submission programs.
These programs are becoming less and less effective, in general,
because they lack the personal touch. What good is it to be
listed in 300+ search engines when approximately 95% of the
traffic runs through the top 10-15?
Also,
these companies cannot submit to human-reviewed directories,
which are becoming the dominant force in the world of search
engine optimization.
How
to Register in the Top Search Engines
Manual
Registration
To
send a registration request to the top search engines, click
.
For
the Best Submission Possible
When
it comes to directory submissions, it is important to know
that when people do keyword searches your site's ranking
is not dependent on the keywords embedded into your site
(or any part of your site for that matter). The directories
only index the title and description that you submit, the
category you are in, and sometimes your web address.
Therefore,
it is critical to write a keyword rich description, while
keeping it honest, because a human will review your entry
and your site to be sure they correspond. This person can
choose to either change your description or simply not accept
your site. Also, keep in mind that people doing the searches
determine whether they click on your site by reading your
description, so your description has to describe what they
are looking for - it has to explain to them the benefit
of visiting your site.
If
you would like more info on pay-for-inclusion programs that
we offer, contact us at submissions@moversites.com.
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