Search Engine 2000 Checklist

Written by James T Kendall


Check your web site for search engine readiness with this quick overview about what to do and what not to do for effective listing inrepparttar search engines. This list in and off itself is notrepparttar 128055 true path to millions of hits, but it can help you towardsrepparttar 128056 goal of appropriate, effective search engine listings.

- Keyword Phrases

Identify your most important keyword phrases and design your site around them. In our experience keyword phrases are much more attainable than individual keywords for a high search listing. In addition keyword phrases are more descriptive than single keywords so they produce more targeted traffic. For example "Handmade Furniture" is not only more descriptive than "furniture" but is also easier to getrepparttar 128057 top spot in search results.

- Title Tags

The title tag should berepparttar 128058 first thing afterrepparttar 128059 head statement and should say what you do, not who you are. In most search enginesrepparttar 128060 title of your document carries a lot of weight, in many they arerepparttar 128061 most important part of your document. Think of it this way - how many times do you think "Tamara's Terrific Teas" is searched for? A lot less than "organic tea", so which should be in your title tag.

- Where to Be Listed

We believe thatrepparttar 128062 most important place to be listed is in Yahoo! Pay very close attention torepparttar 128063 instructions and write a description with zero hype if you are lucky, you might get listed. Next we suggest getting all your pages listed inrepparttar 128064 Inktomi database that handlesrepparttar 128065 spill over search results for Yahoo! and also powers HotBot, Direct Hit, Canada, Anzwers, and others. Finally we suggest getting all pages listed in The Open Directory Project, AltaVista, Infoseek, Lycos, Excite, Northern Light in that order.

- Getting into Inktomi

We've noticed that it's easier to get listed in Inktomi if you submit your pages to Canada or Anzwers then if you try to add them to HotBot itself. If you get them intorepparttar 128066 Inktomi database they'll show up in HotBot searches in around 7 days.

Search Engine Optimization - Do-It-Yourself or Hiring Someone

Written by John Buchanan


Anyone who has had a website for any length of time has already come torepparttar realization that to succeed, you need traffic, and to get traffic, unless you have some pretty deep pockets for more traditional forms of advertising, search engines arerepparttar 128054 most effective form of obtaining that traffic.

The next realization that comes is that simply being listed is not enough. To get traffic fromrepparttar 128055 search engines, you must come up at or nearrepparttar 128056 top ofrepparttar 128057 results for those searches that relate to your site.

Some call it search engine optimization, others search engine placement, and others search engine promotion. Regardless ofrepparttar 128058 name, it is all reallyrepparttar 128059 same thing. It isrepparttar 128060 art of getting traffic fromrepparttar 128061 engines.

Search engine optimization is a big business, and understandably so, butrepparttar 128062 question is, "Is it worth paying a firm to promote your site or is it truly something you can do yourself?"

Unfortunately, there is no cut-and-dry answer to this question as it is going to differ from person to person. In some cases, it can be well worthrepparttar 128063 money to hire an outside firm for your optimization needs, in other cases, you may be better off doing it yourself.

First let me answer a few questions and dispel a few myths that some ofrepparttar 128064 less reputable firms like to promote.

Q - Can I dorepparttar 128065 optimization myself? A - Yes, and in many cases be extremely successful.

Q - Is search engine optimization hard? A - Yes and no. As with any new skill, there is a learning curve involved, but unless you are in an extremely competitive area, just having an understanding of howrepparttar 128066 search engines work and rank pages, can be enough for you to design some good ranking pages.

Q - Do I need to have any expensive software or programming skills? A - No. Anything and everything can be done by hand. All you need to be able to dorepparttar 128067 optimization yourself is a basic understanding of HTML.

Q - Don't I just need to put my keywords inrepparttar 128068 Title and Meta tags? A - Unfortunately, while this was true a couple of years ago, it is a bit more complicated than this now. Meta tags, play an extremely small role in optimization in todays search engines.

Now that we have a few ofrepparttar 128069 most common questions out ofrepparttar 128070 way, let's take a deeper look at which option may be right for you.

First let's start with hiring an optimization firm and look atrepparttar 128071 pro's and con's involved.

Pro's

- Optimization firms will already be trained in getting your site torepparttar 128072 top ofrepparttar 128073 engines. - The will know what is required and you will often see results fairly quickly andrepparttar 128074 results will often be better than if you were doingrepparttar 128075 optimization yourself. - You will haverepparttar 128076 free time to devote to other aspects of your business. Con's

- Optimization firms can range from moderately expensive to extremely expensive depending on your target market andrepparttar 128077 number of search terms you want to target. This could mean you may initially spend anywhere from $1,000 up to $5,000-$10,000 to hire a good firm and then a maintenance fee of near that amount monthly to maintainrepparttar 128078 rankings. - As with all firms, some will be top-notch, and some will be less than stellar. You could easily end up paying a few thousand dollars with little or no results ever seen. - No one will ever haverepparttar 128079 same enthusiasm for your site's success as you do. Many ofrepparttar 128080 less reputable companies will often use tactics that will work inrepparttar 128081 short-term, but may have some very negative long-term effects. - Many optimization firms will create a new site that funnels traffic to your current site. The firm generally owns this site, which means, that you are trapped into paying this firm for your traffic. If you stop paying them, you stop receivingrepparttar 128082 traffic.

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