There's no denying it: Search engines are a dominating
force on the Internet, with millions of people going
online to search on their topics of interest every
single day.
In fact, it was revealed at a recent industry
conference that in June of 2003 alone, 5.5 billion
searches were conducted online. That's 5.5 billion
searches in just one month!
And people are not just looking for information...
Experts at the same conference said that roughly 25% of
all online purchases originate from search engines. So
it's crucial that your site gets the best possible
position in the searches for your keywords.
But according to Market Position, a whopping five
million pages are added to the Internet every single
day. So if you plan to outrank your growing competition,
you need to keep constant tabs on changes to how the
search engines rank web sites.
However, you should also know that statistics show that
most Web surfers never search beyond the top 30 results
they receive! So getting ranked 43rd in Google is almost
as bad as not getting ranked at all.
With that in mind, it's clear that top-ranking
positions in the search engines for the terms most
frequently searched by your target audience should be
the goal of any savvy site owner.
To achieve that goal, you must keep your finger on the
pulse of the search engine industry.
1. The Search
Engines Are Constantly Changing
The first thing you need to understand is that search
engine submission strategies that work this week may not
work a month from now -- or even two weeks from now! As
a result, submitting your web site to the search engines
and then forgetting about it is risky.
Your listing needs to be optimized and then maintained
if you want to generate the traffic that a top spot can
bring.
But as the search engine wars continue heating up
between the major players and competition becomes fierce
between competing search engine providers, deciding
which ones to submit your web site to can be a daunting
task.
Major shifts in search engine ownership, management,
and control are taking place all the time. The industry
is in a state of competitive flux, with heavyweight
companies like MSN, Google, and Yahoo! vying for
positions of power and attempting to trump one another
whenever possible.
So how can a small online business expect to survive in
the midst of all this chaos?
Well, start by getting to know the current state of the
search engine industry. Then stay as informed as
possible of the changes and updates. It's really not all
that hard, once you know where to look for
up-to-the-minute information.
2. Which Search
Engines Are MOST Important?
Not too long ago, by submitting your web site to the
top eight or so major search engines, you'd show up in
most people's search results.
But that has all changed...
Nowadays, believe it or not, you really need to focus
on TWO major search engines: Google and Overture.
Google and Overture together now make up such a strong
search engine presence that if you are ranked well in
both of these services, you will be found by well over
90% of people searching for topics related to your site.
Google is the only remaining "pure" search engine,
which means that its search results are entirely
computer- generated by their "spiders" that crawl the
Web and their algorithms that sort the information
gathered by the spiders to determine your ranking.
But not everyone goes straight to Google.com when
searching for information... Google also supplies the
majority of search results for Yahoo!, AOL, Earthlink,
and AT&T, plus some results for Infospace, iWon, and
Sympatico.
And that means that Google's "reach" on the Internet is
enormous. According to NetRatings.com, Google reaches
approximately 50+% of the online community.
Overture, on the other hand, is a "pure" pay-per-click
search engine, meaning that its paid results are not
mixed with editorial (unpaid) results. Instead, to
achieve a top ranking in Overture, you must simply
out-bid the next highest bidder for that particular
keyword.
Overture listings now appear as part of the search
results for so many different engines that it probably
has a more widespread presence on the Internet than
almost any other search service today.
While Google is certainly bigger (and used by more
searchers), Overture provides sponsored search results
for literally hundreds of minor search services, as well
as such major players as:
- Yahoo!
- MSN
- AltaVista
- InfoSpace
- iWon
- Lycos
- AllTheWeb (aka, FAST)
3. Keeping
Abreast of Changes
Competition between the major search engine providers
keeps the industry changing all the time. Yahoo!, for
instance, recently bought Overture, and also picked up
Inktomi earlier in 2003...
And now MSN is in the midst of creating its own crawler
(after Google rejected their bid to buy them out!)
called MSNBot, and they are looking to become a major
player in the search engine game.
What it all adds up to is that although Google is
hands-down the biggest pure search engine around, it is
constantly threatened by shifting ownerships, power
relationships, and new developments in technology. With
search engines, what's here today could truly be gone
tomorrow, so it's up to you to stay informed.
The best way to keep on top of the changes is simply to
subscribe to a couple of the excellent newsletters that
are available online, published by search engine experts
who make it their job to keep you informed.
Our favorites are:
Search Engine Watch
This site belongs to search engine expert Danny Sullivan
and is packed full of the most recent search engine
developments.
Planet Ocean
Planet Ocean is the publisher of "The Unfair Advantage
Book on Winning The Search Engine Wars" -- a leading
online search engine resource. The book is updated
monthly so whenever you buy it, it's certain to be
completely up to date.
Search Engine Guide
This site provides a wealth of information and articles
about all aspects of search engines. Weekly and daily
newsletters are offered, which compile updates and
information from across the industry.
These resources will keep you on top of the dramatic
changes you can expect to see in the search engine
industry over the next weeks and months.
For example, a new Open Source style search engine
called "Nutch" is on the horizon these days which could
take a lot of the mystery out of search engine rankings.
Open Source code, as some of you may know, is code that
is accessible to all for use, and programmers can make
suggestions, modifications, and additions whenever they
like.
This new search engine would function with the same
principles of give-and-take, with public access to
information about the way they work. This could be very
interesting -- especially since, at the moment, search
engines tend to be very secretive about the rules they
use to rank your web site!
4. Final
Thoughts
Keeping abreast of the most effective search engine
submission strategies can be a daunting task, especially
with the constantly changing climate of search engine
control and ownership.
While you're busy tweaking your web site to meet the
latest published search engine requirements, they're
equally busy updating their algorithms, perfecting their
approach, modifying their rules, and honing their
systems so that they can provide the most relevant,
accurate, and complete search results possible.
So it will be worth your while to keep on top of the
major industry shifts so that you don't waste your time
on engines that are no longer worth it, and you don't
miss out on the newest developments and hottest
opportunities.
After all, search engines -- no matter how much they
change -- can still be a powerful means of driving
qualified traffic to your site, so they can't be
ignored!
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