Hi there,
There are two ways of improving your site's position in search engine
results:
1. Pay-per-click. By using the services of Google Adwords, Overture or
FindWhat, you can pay to be the first result that appears in the
sponsored link section which most search engine results have.
Depending on the keywords you bid on, it can be quite expensive, but
is a relatively quick and easy solution.
2. Search engine optimization. This involves changing your web site to
give it a better chance of appearing higher in search engine results.
This can take a lot of time, and incoming traffic can take a month or
more to increase. If you design your own web pages, it only costs you
your time.
1. Pay Per Click
================
Although there are hundreds of PPC search engines, there are three
which dominate - because they outsource their results to the major
search engines. Smaller PPC search engines usually do not have enough
traffic to bother with.
Your cost will vary depending on which keywords you target, but expect
a minimum cost of 5 cents per visitor.
The only three worth bothering with are Overture, FindWhat and Google
Adwords. They each have a huge audience. You don't have to pay dollars
per click - just look for keywords that are less common, where you can
get in the top 3 results for cheaper. This is worthy of spending a lot
of effort on. If your site is selling a specific product, it is quite
easy to compare how much you are paying for the traffic with how many
extra sales you have made. Many websites make a killing using pay per
click.
FindWhat
http://www.findwhat.com
FindWhat has many alliances, and will bring in more visits to your
site than anywhere else, except Overture and Google AdWords. Per click
it is generally much cheaper than those two. I have used them for
several years, and I have found managing my bids to be very easy and
efficient, and their customer relations are the best I've found on the
Internet.
Google Adwords
http://adwords.google.com/select/?hl=en
These are the ads which sometimes appear to the right of the Google
search results. Google allows an extraordinary level of fine-tuning
who gets to see your listing - you can choose individual languages
and/or countries. They put a lot of effort into making sure that the
ads are worthwhile for searchers to see, which means not only do they
have very rigid guidelines about what you can and cannot write in your
ad, positioning is based on a complex combination of bid and
click-through rate. Popular ads can rise to the top despite having a
lower bid.
Overture
http://www.overture.com
They are easily the biggest PPC search engine, and their results
appear everywhere - Yahoo!, MSN, Netscape, AltaVista, Lycos/HotBot and
many more. They are very professional. I used these guys for years,
when they were called GoTo. I stopped using them when the minimum bid
became 5 cents, with $20 minimum monthly spend, because I was (and
still am) spending 2 or 3 cents per click at the most. The minimum bid
rose to 10 cents recently.
Most webmasters who go the pay-per-click way are quite lazy. They
choose a couple of obvious keywords and pay top dollar. The trick is
to spend time figuring out the less obvious keywords, and bidding on
dozens of them. You can still get the same amount of visitors, but
cheaper.
Another important aspect is the wording you use. You don't just want
visitors, you want visitors that will pay for your product or
services. Write the text in such a way that you will only tempt folk
who are likely to buy.
2. Search Engine Optimization
=============================
There used to be different techniques for each targeted search engine.
However, since the rise of Google, what works for Google is tending to
the best way to go. The best techniques do not involve trickery, but
rather just making your site useful to visit.
SITEMAP: Create a simple site map, which contains links to every page
on your site. Use this when making free submissions to search engines,
and they will find all the other pages
INDEX PAGE: This should not be a "splash page" that is all graphics /
animations / Flash / sound. It should have lots of text, and lots of
links to other parts of your site. Try to minimize outside links -
they are better suited to other pages.
LINKS: Google uses links to and from your site as a way of judging how
good your site is. If it's a top site, then others are likely to be
linking to you. And a useful website should link to other good
resources, for this is what makes the web tick. Basically, the more
good sites that link to you, the higher your ranking will be. The best
links to have are from Yahoo and Open Directory. The next best links
pointing to your site are from other sites with high rankings,
preferably on the same topic as your site. Use the Google Toolbar to
see the ranking of other sites. Try and find sites that are not your
opposition, but are complementary to your site. Do not get listed on
FFA search engines, or any scheme designed to improve your ranking by
using some trickery of clever plan - Google knows most of them and can
penalise your site.
CONTENT: Search engine algorithms are secret, but as time goes on they
seem to be becoming better at judging "good content" in the same way
that you or I would. Write for your target audience, and reward their
visit to your site by supplying lots of interesting and useful
information. Write naturally - that way you will include lots of good
keywords without even trying.
PAGES: The more pages your site has, with more info on them, the more
Google will like your site. Sites with over 100 pages seem to rank
higher. Try to keep every page in the top level of your site - pages
within sub-directories rank lower.
KEYWORDS: The keywords that searchers use to find a site like yours
need to appear on your web pages. Try and place them in the title,
description, H1 tags and general text. Use the keyword suggestion tool
at Overture, and sprinkle your pages with a few popular phrases.
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
COMPETITORS: Work out how they get higher rankings than you, and copy
them. Don't copy their content, but rather dissect their web pages and
look for why they are doing better...
- where are the keywords?
- who are they linking to?
- who links to them?
DISCUSSIONS: There are many places where webmasters discuss how to get
high rankings. The best in my opinion is Web Master World
http://www.webmasterworld.com
Also try this brand new site, Cre8asite:
http://webworkshop.net/cre8asite/
Apart from the above, there aren't really any "tricks" to attaining a
high ranking. Just make your site the best it can be, and they will
come.
Search strategy: personal experience
If there are any specific aspects of my answer you would like me to
elaborate on, just ask for a clarification.
Best wishes,
robertskelton-ga |
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