Search Engines And Links For All

What's the story about search engine positioning? It seems to be the holy grail of every webmaster out there, or should be. You hear everyone talking about it.

What's the big deal?

Quite simply, the higher up your web page is in the search engine rankings, the better chance someone will find it, and visit your web site. If they use a search engine, and type in the keywords they are looking for, you want your site to be listed - preferably in the top 20 positions.

But here is the funny part - many people have never registered their web page with a search engine. That is like putting up a billboard in the middle of the woods. Sure, an occasional hiker or hunter may stumble across it, but it surely won't do what you had intended.

So your first step is to submit your site to a search engine and see where you wind up in the listings. You must use Keywords, of course, and other tricks of the trade to try to improve your rating. This can be a time consuming process if you do it yourself, and costly if you contract with a company that does this.

Let's digress for a moment. Did you know that it's estimated, that link exchange programs are at least equal to Search Engines in attracting people to your web site? Many Web Sites exchange links with other compatible (usually non- competing) Web Sites. When you are surfing the net, look for sites like these and send an offer to exchange links with them. You might be surprised at the positive reaction you receive.

Many sites maintain what are called "Free for All Link Pages". These are places where you can go and place a link to your web site for free - usually no exchange is required. You can however, expect to get an E-mail from them thanking you for the submission, and oh, by the way, did I mention it might include their ad . This can be a time consuming project as well. There are hundreds of these available on the web.

So it would seem that trying to get full exposure like this could be a mammoth task - one that would require someone working on it full time. Well this might very well be the case, but there are alternatives. There is software that will submit your site to the search engines and link pages. You do however, have to be very careful with the product you select as that can be costly as well. If you purchase this software, it can be obsolete before you receive it, as the number of sites changes daily. If you do purchase software of this nature, be sure they have either a dynamic updating capability, or a periodic update (which is normally a chargeable item) available of new sites and search engines.

We recently purchased software of this nature, and at this point are pleased with the results. It will take time however to fine tune our web pages and keyword list to get the maximum exposure. Most people recommend that you submit your pages at least once a month. Well, that used to be the case. I am submitting my pages once a week. Granted, some search engines will reject the submission because one is already up there, as will some link exchange pages. But, many will not. As a test, I submitted a page and it was accepted by over 750 search engines or link pages. As soon as that submission was complete, I resubmitted the exact same page and it was accepted by over 200 sites. Elapsed time - probably 15 minutes.

We are currently providing free search engine and link page submission by those involved in advertising their product or services with us. Anyone who has a free ad on our Web Page, and is in the Auto-Renewal Program, has an ad in this Newsletter, or has a "Flash Ad" on our Web Page is entitled to this free submission. We have designed a simple template which is available at submit@adv-marketing.com to be used for this purpose. When complete, it is E-mailed to us at bob@adv-marketing.com and we insert the information into our submission software. These submissions are made every Friday morning. Any advertiser who is not taking advantage of this is missing a great bet.

The software that we selected dynamically updates our data base with new search engines or link pages every time we use it. This ensures that we are always working with the most current list.

I get a real kick when I see people join a program that gives out a free web page to help them promote their service. They think they are just going to sit back and let their web page generate a steady flow of customers - Wrong Answer!!! Their web page URL usually has their ID# appended at the end. If people go to the company page instead of theirs, they get zero business. They must publicize THEIR page, which is usually a carbon copy of the company page. The only way they will earn is if the customer comes from their page.

In a future edition, I will discuss keyword selection and other "tricks of the trade" that you can use to improve your ratings. Did you know that if you are using personal web pages such as are available from AOL, Prodigy, etc., your search engine submissions may be automatically rejected. But that is another story to be covered as well.