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Question: Sage, What are the
different kinds of search engines and how do they work?
Answer: There are 3
types of search engines. The first kind of search engine
is what is known as an Index. An Index is an automated list of sites
categorized by what is displayed on the pages of the site it
is indexing. AltaVista is a good example of an Index.
When someone submits a site to AltaVista, a spider (an automated
indexing program that scours your site) is sent to your web site
and indexes all of the material it can read. This is basically
all of the text on the site. Keywords, Image text tags, words written
in the site - anything that makes sense to the spider is inventoried.
Then all of this information is gathered together, applied
to a set of rules setup up by the search engine and then categorized
accordingly. So when you, the visitor go to search for the phrase:
'German Shepherd pups' the sites that meet the criteria for those
three words appear in the results.
The biggest downside to this kind of search engine is that
sometimes the results are inaccurate. This is because everything
is automated. I'm sure you've done a search that came up with 500,000
listings and even the top ten didn't all have what you were looking
for.
The biggest benefit to indexes are they are excellent resources
for finding very specific things. The more far-fetched your search
is the better an index will be for you. For example, if you
want to see every site that even mentions the cellist Yo-Yo Ma,
then an index is for you because one of these spiders has probably
indexed every instance of the phrase Yo-Yo Ma.
The next kind of search engine is called a directory. Yahoo!
is a directory. All sites in a directory are hand placed
by actual human beings. The greatest benefit of this is that when
you search in a directory you know that you are likely to find exactly
what you are looking for.
As a web site owner, however, you loose a lot of control over how
your site is displayed in a directory. The editors of a site like
Yahoo! have final say over what the title of your site is
and what the description of your site is. The end result of this
can be a rather boring but accurate description of your site.
Directories are ideal if you are searching for large sweeping topics.
Using our previous example of searching for Yo-Yo Ma in Yahoo! you
are going to find many fewer results than in AltaVista
because Yahoo! will point you in the general direction of cellists.
And only sites that are specifically about Yo-Yo Ma are going to
get any mention.
Yahoo! would be a better choice if you wanted to learn about
cellists in general and not specifically about one performer.
The third kind of search engine is a "pay for"
listing search engine. These work pretty much the way the name says.
You agree to pay a certain amount when someone clicks on your site
and they will gladly put you at the top of the list of any given
phrase you would like.
An example of this kind of engine is GoTo.com.
The biggest fear of this type of listing was that companies
would just buy every listing whether their product was appropriate
or not. The opposite turned out to be the case. Web site owners
realized that they didn't want to be in inappropriate categories
because they would be getting a lot of people that weren't really
interested in their product.
Pay for listing search engines are turning out to be good resources
for searchers and a quick solution for web owners that want
to be listed quickly at the top of their particular category.
Question: How important are
search engines in promoting my web site?
Answer: Your target
market is the determining factor when it comes to how people
find new sites like yours. If you sell nationally or worldwide,
the search engines are going to do you a world of good. This is
because the people who need your product or service know they can
get it anywhere so the most logical place to start on the internet
is going to be a search engine.
Question: What is the most
important search engine?
Answer: By far, the
most important search engine is Yahoo! It is the most used
web site on the Internet. More people search using Yahoo! than any
other resource. It's so well liked because the results it
yields are highly accurate and it tends to focus on sites
that have a good deal of information.
The downside to that is that it is also the most difficult
search engine to get on. Your site has to be highly informative
and very cleanly presented - no misspellings or 'under construction'
pages. And on top of that, when you go to list your site on Yahoo!
you have to choose exactly the right category.
All business oriented web sites must go in the Business and Economy
section. Your title must be simply the name of your company.
And your description has to be simple, to the point, and highly
accurate of what your site is offering. Without following all of
these rules you probably won't get listed on Yahoo!
And they probably won't tell you that they aren't going to list
you. You simply have to wait. On top of that, sometimes perfect
sites simply fall through the cracks. It is an extremely tricky
endeavor to get listed on Yahoo! But because the benefits are so
great, it warrants all of the effort.
As a rule of thumb, I wouldn't submit a site more than once
every 4 to 6 weeks. It's hard to be patient. But if you submit too
many times they might not list you just because you are annoying.
Question: What can I do to
get myself listed on all the other search engines?
Answer: This is really
the million dollar question. While Yahoo is terrific, you don't
want to put all your eggs in one basket. After all, you might never
get listed in Yahoo! and then you wouldn't have any search engine
positions.
The biggest problem I see is usually a lack of
focus on the phrases you want to rank well on and what is a
likely battle to win. Everyone would like to come up when someone
types in a single word. But realistically, even if you could get
ranked well on a single word, the people that found you wouldn't
be ideal customers anyway.
I did some work for a home builder in my town that wanted to come
up when someone typed in the word 'builder'. There are two problems
in this scenario. First, when people on the Internet are searching
for the word 'builder' they typically are searching for web site
builders, not home builders.
So even if he could have come up under the word 'builder' all the
millions of people that came across his listing would not be interested
in what he built or for that matter where he was building.
At that point, we came to the conclusion that perhaps 'home builder'
would be more accurate.
The down side to this phrase is, no matter how beautiful Medina
Ohio is, not everyone wants to move here. So the chances of someone
typing in the phrase 'home builder' and wanting to live here were
pretty unlikely. At that point we started to really consider how
people are searching for companies that do exactly what he does.
By focusing on a phrase like 'Medina home builder' or 'Medina,
Ohio home builder' he knows that anyone who is searching for that
phrase is looking specifically for a business just like his. So
he has pre-qualified them already before they have even seen
his site.
And secondly, he is going to have an excellent chance of
ranking well with that phrase because there aren't 100's of thousands
of companies vying for that particular phrase. He now gets queries
from all over the country from people who are interested in moving
to Medina, Ohio.
Question: What advice do you
have for ranking high on the phrases I have chosen?
Answer: I have three
tips that will get you ranked well on the search engines. First
and foremost, research your key phrases.
Picking phrases that are either too competitive or not commonly
searched is going to give you nothing but frustrating results.
Spend some time looking at your competitions' web sites. See what
key phrases they are using and start making a list. If you
start going to enough sites you will begin to see trends of what
phrases they are focusing on.
Ask friends who aren't in your business how they would search
for a business like yours. Or better yet, sit them down to
your computer and watch them search. Notice things like capitalization,
spelling and if they are using plural words. You will want to use
phrases exactly as they have typed them.
At this point you need to see if you can really compete well on
these phrases. You need to know how competitive the search engine
field is for the phrases you want. If the competition is
too fierce your likelihood of ranking well is pretty nil.
There are things you can do for highly competitive terms but it's
really outside of this discussion. If the field looks pretty open
then go for those words. For sites that include only a couple
pages start by choosing 3 key phrases and using them throughout
your site.
Second, use these phrases
all throughout each page. You will want to include them in
your title, description and keyword tags. Make a heading using these
keywords. Use them in your image alternative text tags. Put them
in a phrase that is an active hyperlink. And use them in the body
of your text through out the page.
If all of this sounds too technical just ask your web developer
to help you find exactly where these things are in your site. All
web sites have these things. It sometimes just takes a bit of time
to find where they are.
And then third, hand submit your site to the
top search engines. There are many programs that will submit
your site for you. But I have found that you are going to get the
best results if you go to each and every search engine and submit
your site yourself.
There are about 15 to 20 top search engines. Doing this the first
couple times will be slow going. But the process becomes much faster
with time and experience.
Utilizing these three steps is going to help you place
much better on the search engines right now.
Question: Should I do this
work myself or should I hire a professional?
Answer: Answering this
question depends on several factors. First, search engine optimization
is not cheap. Hiring a reputable company to place you well
on the engines is going to cost close to a minimum of $1000 wherever
you look. It's expensive because it is highly specialized work and
the industry is constantly in flux.
Search engines are continually changing how they determine
rank for sites. And decoding these algorithms involves a great deal
of experimentation and constant research. What worked last month
very well might not work this month.
Then you have to consider how interested you are in the
field. If the vagaries of search engines strike a chord of interest
in you then you might have a terrific time learning the ins
and outs of search engine optimization.
And finally how much time do you or someone on your staff
have to invest in learning about this field. The learning curve
could very well cost you more in time than simply hiring a company
to do the work for you.
If you are going to do the work yourself, make one person
on your staff the search engine expert. This approach will serve
you better than a committee. Just rely on this person to bone
up on all the intricacies of the search engines.
Learning the basics can take some pretty steady educating but once
they are up to par, maintaining a high level of proficiency
won't involve nearly as much learning on a daily basis.
Question: If I want to hire
a company to do this kind of work for me what should I look for?
Answer: There are many
search engine promotion companies out there. It won't be difficult
finding a bunch of different companies to evaluate - simply
type in 'search engine placement' as a start in any search engine.
Once you've looked over several companies that match your
price range and seem to offer what you are looking for then send
them an email or give them a call. The rapport you have with
an optimization company is going to be important because
you are going to be working with them for at least a few months.
You need to feel comfortable with them. They also need to be easy
to contact and willing to answer your questions because chances
are, you are going to have a lot of questions. Personally, I would
look for a company that offers email access and phone access too.
Any company that is reluctant to give you both of those could be
a potential risk. You might not need to worry if they don't
want to give you a street address. Many very capable optimizers
work from home and don't feel comfortable advertising their home
address.
After you feel comfortable with this person then ask for some references.
Try to get some web addresses of clients with whom they have dealt.
Email some of these people to see what they have to say. Did
the optimizer do what he said he would do? Was he courteous
and prompt at responding to concerns? This will probably be the
biggest factor in determining if the company is right for
you.
Next you will want to consider what
kind of guarantee the company offers. If a company guarantees
that you will be placed in the top ten in all the search engines
be very careful. They cannot guarantee this kind of thing. No one
can guarantee you a specific place in a specific engine.
Chances are, there is some fairly complicated fine print they
aren't telling you about. In fact, some of the top, most expensive
placement experts offer no guarantee at all. Their work speaks for
itself. The most ideal guarantee, in my mind, is to return
payment if the specified results are not met.
This way there is no risk on your part and you know also
that you are dealing with a reputable company that understands the
intricacies of the search engines. So just remember, do you like
them? Have they had good results with other companies? And what
kind of guarantee do they offer? Answering those three questions
is going to help you immensely in finding a search engine expert
that is right for you.
Thank you Sage for your very valuable insight.
If you have further interest in this subject you
can discover much much more valuable information on the Executive
Industry Interview Series cassette tape that I did with Sage.
Things like:
Question:
Search Engine companies use
a lot of different pricing models--what are the differences and
is one better than another?
Question: Some companies offer
Maintenance Packages. Do I need to enter into a maintenance
contract?
Question: I've got some positions
I really like. I've decided not to buy a maintenance plan.
Now what do I do?
Question: Should I submit all
of my pages to the search engines or just the main page?
Question: What are the most
common mistakes people make?
Question: What other things
can I do to promote my site?
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