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Search Engine Tutorial

Search Engine Optimization Tutorial
===================================

by Christine Churchill

Part 1 - Why Search Engines Are Important To You . Learn how much
traffic you could be getting.

Part 2 - The Basics. What's the difference between Yahoo and Alta
Vista, and more?

Part 3 - How to get listed. What to do and what you can expect to
happen.

Part 4 - How to improve your ranking. Just being listed isn't enough.
Learn tricks to get a top ranking.

Part 1 - Why Search Engines Are Important To You
================================================

You've built your site. You've tested it. You're ready for business.

So where are all the people?

You need to get the word out about your great site, but with limited
resources and no advertising budget, you need some way to attract
visitors.

What can you do?

Try the No.1 way people find out about sites - Search Engines!

Surveys show that over 85% of internet users find new Web sites by
using search engines. Other surveys show that after email, search
engines are the most popular activity on the web.

Instead of blowing your limited resources on banners and ads galore,
use search engines to send motivated visitors to your site. Click
through rates on banner ads continue to drop, while search engine
traffic is on the rise and growing everyday.

Search engine optimization (techniques to improve how your Web site
ranks in the search engines) has been called the cheapest and most
effective marketing tool available. Expect to pay professional firms
that specialize in search engine optimization $2000 for a small site -
$10,000 is common for big companies. If you are in an extremely
competitive business, plan on shelling out $25,000 and up. Oh, and
don't be surprised if you have to sign a six month or even a year
contract. That's the norm for a professional shop.

You have an option to "do it in-house". With a little help from
NetMechanic, you can do search engine optimization yourself, improve
your site's search engine ranking, and save yourself a lot of money,
frustration, and time.

Search engine traffic is the kind of traffic you want.

Why?

Traffic you receive from search engines is already targeted. Visitors
arriving at your site from search engines have entered a keyword
relevant to your site, so they are already interested in your product
or service. This is the best source of potential customers you can
have.

Search engines are the number one way users find new sites. Surveys
show that over 85% of users rely on search engines to locate
information on the Web. If you optimize your site to do well on the
engines, then register your site with search engines, you should see
increased traffic to your site.

Search engines are free to users and users know where and how to use
them. One of the first things a novice to the Internet learns is how
to use Yahoo (actually Yahoo is a directory, but we'll discuss the
difference later).

Part 2 - The Basics
===================

Before you can position your site to do well in the search engines,
you need to understand search engine fundamentals.

A search engine is a giant database that lists sites on the Internet.
You access the database when you enter keyword searches and receive a
list of relevant sites.

Search sites are the Internet's Yellow Pages.

Think of a search engine as a giant, automated version of the yellow
pages. If you need information on "party planning" from the yellow
pages, there are several steps to retrieving it.

Go to the yellow pages and look under the alphabetized subject
 list for "party."

Note the subcategories: "party planning" "party - children's",
 "party - rental equipment", and so on.

Examine the companies listed under "party - planning" and decide
 which company best meets your needs.

You can repeat this process online using a search engine.

Search Engines Versus Search Directories.

People use both search engines and directories without ever realizing
there is a difference between the two.

Directories (Yahoo, LookSmart) have human editors who review web
 pages, rank them, and then organize them into categorized lists
 with brief descriptions. The categories and descriptions are based
 on submissions, but are edited by professional editors (real
 people in the loop reviewing the sites being submitted).

Search Engines (AltaVista, Excite, Google) have automated programs
 called spiders that index sites and score pages based on
 proprietary guidelines. There is no human judgment involved.
 Search engines index all the information on all the Web pages they
 find. The indexes are generated automatically, based on the words
 and phrases that are found on Web pages.

What is a Search Engine?

Search engines send automated computer programs (called robots or
spiders) to crawl the Internet in search of Web pages. Basically these
spiders follow links to travel from URL to URL. When they visit your
Web site, the robot indexes (or records) the text of your page or
pages (if it is a deep crawling spider) and stores it in the search
engine's index. Later, when a user enters a search query at the search
engine's Web site, the search engine scans Web pages in its index for
pages that provide the best match.

In theory, the search engine spider is supposed to be able to find all
the sites on the Internet. However, since new sites are being added
daily, it's risky to assume that the spider will find you. Expedite
the process by submitting your URL to the search engines.

Learn about search engine optimization.

Not knowing the difference between a directory and a search engine can
burn you!

What is a Directory?

Unlike the automated search engine process, each entry in a directory
is first reviewed by a human being. You submit a short description to
the directory for your entire site, or editors write one for sites
they review. A keyword search will only look for matches in these
descriptions, so be careful how you describe your site. Techniques to
receive a high search engine rating will not work with a directory.
While good content is necessary for search engines, both good content
AND visual appeal are mandatory in human-edited directories. Remember,
manual review takes time!

The typical time lag between free submission of a site and its actual
listing in Yahoo is five months. You can speed up the process at some
directories, but expect to pay for that service. This trend will
probably continue.

Yahoo's Business Express Program, offers express guaranteed
 consideration of your commercial Web site within seven (7)
 business days.

Looksmart moved to an exclusive pay for listing scheme - all new
 submissions must pay to have their site reviewed.

Open Directory Project is a free directory. (Hint: If you get your
 site listed here, it will help you later in Google.)

When you submit to a directory, do it by hand and take your time. You
need to impress human reviewers with your site so high-quality content
and design are critical to your success.

Search Engine and Directory Hierarchy.

There are literally thousands of search engines on the Internet, but
naturally you're most concerned about your ranking on the high-traffic
sites. Some of the smaller search engines may not bring you a lot of
traffic, but your listing gives you another source of links (which can
help in your overall link popularity building).

If you can do well on the sites listed below, you will probably do
well on others too.

Top Search Engines
Google
AltaVista
Lycos
Teoma
Overture

Top Search Directories

Yahoo
LookSmart
Open Directory
Zeal

Part 3 - How to get listed
==========================

Don't wait to be discovered! Submit your URL directly to the search
engine or directory.

Search Engine submissions.
There are two ways to submit to search engines and directories,
manually or using an automated submission tool. Here is a summary of
both methods.

Manual Submission - Use the Add URL form from the search engine
 site itself. This way, you have absolute control over where your
 site is submitted. However, this process is that it is a very time
 consuming and labor intensive activity. Some search engines bury
 their Add URL form so far down in the site that one wonders if
 they are intentionally trying to thwart potential applicants.

Automated Submission Tool - Fill in the data once and the tool
 automatically submits your URL to multiple engines. It is a fast,
 easy one step process and you only have to fill in the data forms
 once.

There are several features you should look for in an automated
submission tool.

1.  The number one item of importance is to make sure the
  submission tool does not submit to directories. If you look
  down the list of places the tool submits and you see
  directories listed, leave and do not look back! You can be
  assured that NetMechanic's Search Engine Starter only submits
  to search engines.

2. The second thing to look for in an automated submission tool
  is to find one that allows you to pick and choose which
  engines to submit to. If you are doing well in one engine, but
  not in another, you may want to submit to the search engine
  where you need improvement and not submit to the engine where
  you are doing well. Again, NetMechanic's Search Engine Starter
  provides the user the flexibility to submit any page on their
  Web site to their choice of 28 different search engines.

3. Find a submission service that monitors search engine spam.
  Because most submission services submit to many search
  engines, you may receive spam email by some of the smaller
  engines that occasionally sell their email addresses.

Note: It is not the submission tool company that is selling
the email addresses, it is the search engines themselves.
NetMechanic's Search Engine Starter allows you to use an
alternate email address when submitting your site.
Additionally, NetMechanic monitors the search engines it
submits to and purges spam-abusive engines from the submission
list.

Bottom Line:

Submit your site to directories by hand. Save time by using a
submission tool to submit to search engines.

How often do I submit?

Your best strategy is to submit weekly until your site gets listed.
Check your listing frequently. If your site disappears suddenly, you
may be the victim of a search engine database omission. Search engines
frequently have multiple versions of their databases and they aren't
always in sync. You may be listed in one version of their database and
not in another. Your only recourse is to resubmit your site.

To see if you have even been picked up in a search engine, go to the
search engine's site and do a search with your company's domain name
as the search query.

Directory Submissions.

Submitting to a directory is a much more involved specialized process.
Don't do it in a rush and don't use an automated submission tool. The
better submission tools, like Search Engine Starter, don't submit to
directories.

How long does it take to get listed?

These times vary with search engines and directories. The search
engines will optimistically report a very short time, but most sites
get listed within the following times:

Google

1. - 6 weeks

Lycos

1. - 6 weeks

WiseNut

1. weeks

The reality is that most search engines and directories are very
backlogged and slow to get listings added to their databases. Don't be
surprised if you experience waits much longer than these. As mentioned
earlier, you may wait over 5 months to see your site get listed on
Yahoo!, if it gets listed at all.

We recommend that if your site isn't listed within the time periods
above, that you resubmit your site to the search engine where you are
not listed.

Is being listed in the search engines good enough?

Unfortunately no.

A listing won't automatically increase your traffic. A good ranking
may. You want to be listed on the first three pages of the search
engine results page. Most web surfers aren't patient enough to look
more than the first 20-40 listed links. In fact there is a
considerable drop off just going from the first to the second page.

Part 4 - How to improve your ranking.
=====================================

How do search engines rank pages?

Search engines use a ranking algorithm to determine the order in which
matching web pages are returned on the results page. Each web page is
graded on the number of the search terms it contains, where the words
are located in the document, and other criteria that changes
frequently.

All search engines have a different method of ranking. That's why you
might rank number 1 on one engine and number 25 on another. Robots
look for relevance and rank results on a secret ever-changing
algorithm. Some look at TITLE, some look at META tags, some look for
link popularity. Search engine optimization means optimizing the Web
site for the best possible positioning based on the page's keywords
and description.

NetMechanic's Search Engine Power Pack has a search engine
optimization package that will walk you through the whole optimization
process. NetMechanic has numerous experts who have conducted extensive
tests to help identify what techniques work to better your ranking in
the search engines. Additionally, we have identified what can get you
into trouble with search engines.

General tips to get a good ranking.

1. Create a good site with good content.

This is critical, especially as search engines grow in sophistication.
If your site contains worthwhile material, users will return to your
site and will recommend it to others. Other sites will link to you -
which will in turn help you by improving your link popularity.

2. Pick keywords visitors will actually use on a search engine query.

If you have keywords that are very competitive, consider narrowing
 your focus to improve results. The keyword "horse" will return
 thousands of responses and may not place you near the top, while
 "Appaloosa" is more focused and targeted to a particular query.

Consider using a keyword phrase instead of just one keyword.
 Visitors to search engines use phrases to narrow their searches.
 For example, instead of using a keyword like "horse" that would
 return too many responses, use a more specific keyword phrase like
 "Alabama Quarter horse."

Brainstorm a good list of list of keywords. Tap into other people
 - a fresh perspective can help uncover words you may have missed.
 This keyword analysis article offers some useful tips on
 brainstorming.

Don't just guess at which keywords are popular, get quantitative
 feedback using the Keyword Popularity tool included in Search
 Engine Power Pack. Remember, if you pick the wrong keywords, all
 your optimization will be wasted. See story on Keyword Selection.

3. Include keywords in your TITLE tag.

Pages with keywords appearing in the TITLE are assumed to be more
relevant to the topic than those without.

4. Use keywords in META Keyword and Description tags.

Using META tags will not hurt you in search engines that don't use
them, and they can definitely help you in search engines that do index
them. While they are not as important as the TITLE tag, META tags can
give you the edge over your competition since most web sites don't
even use them.

5. Use your keywords throughout your page.

Search engines will check to see if the keywords appear near the top
of a web page, such as in the headline or in the first few paragraphs
of text. They assume that any page relevant to the topic will mention
those words right from the beginning.

6. Have a good keyword density on your page.

Keyword density is derived by dividing the frequency of that word by
the total words on the page. Frequency is a major factor in how search
engines determine relevancy. A search engine will analyze how often
keywords appear in relation to other words in a web page. Those with a
higher frequency are often deemed more relevant than other web pages.
This can turn into a balancing act as too high a density can be
considered spam by some engines. Usually you are safe if your keyword
density falls between 1 - 5 %.

7. Continually work on improving your link popularity.

Listings on popular Web sites can increase your traffic significantly.
They do this in two ways:

They give potential visitors multiple paths to your Web site.

They can increase your ranking in search engines that use link
 popularity as part of their formula.

Most search engines use link popularity as relevance criteria. For
example, the Google search engine (not their new directory) is based
almost entirely on link popularity.

Summary
=======

Success with search engines and directories is not one magical thing
you do specifically. It is the culmination of your whole strategy. It
is a time consuming, labor intensive activity with great rewards.

Bottom Line:

Use Search Engine Power Pack at least once a month to help you get
more traffic from the search engines.

NetMechanic's Search Engine Power Pack is a search engine optimization
power house. It's a five tool bundle that can help you improve your
search engine ranking and bring more traffic to your site. Power Pack
walks you through the whole search engine optimization process. From
selecting your most effective keywords and building META tags, to
optimizing your pages for peak search engine performance, to
submitting your pages to the search engines of your choice and to
tracking your site's performance in the search engines over time.
NetMechanic has the one stop solution that will greatly improve your
search engine performance.

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