Search Engine Promotion - your options explainedWritten by Carl Hruza
Most people have limited knowledge when it comes to search engine ranking and various types of services on offer. We all know that having top 10 positions on some of leading engines can bring all traffic we can handle, and then some. But how do we get those top 10 listings and what should we expect to pay to get them? A simple way to approach this is to look at your competition. Do a quick search on one of leading engines like Google or AltaVista, using a search phrase that people might use when looking for your products or services, and see what comes back. As a basic 'rule of thumb' guide - Between 100 and 5000 puts you in a 'low competition' category. Between 5001 and 25000 puts you in a 'medium competition' category. Between 25001 and 250,000 puts you in a 'high competition' category. Over 250,000 puts you in a 'Extremely high competition' category. Here are some examples we found on AltaVista:- "detroit real estate" - 2.7M "curtain fixtures" - 817,000 "auto parts" - 130,000 "mortgage loans" - 84,000 "coin collecting" - 14,000 "wedding accessories" - 9,000 "florida vacations" - 5,000 "model railways" - 5,000 Based on above, determine competitiveness of your category, then research level of service necessary for your site. Once you have determined level of competition for top positions in your business category,
| | META TAGS ARE NOT A MAGIC SOLUTIONWritten by windsong
Meta tags are useful in getting better listings in search engines. However, not all search engines support meta tags. This means that some search engines ignore them. But include meta tags in your document for engines that do use them. It will significantly increase your rating.There are many, many different meta tags. The only ones you need to be concerned with are "description" and "keyword" tags. (And "title" tag, of course.) The description tag provides a summary which appears when your page comes up on a search. Without this "description" search engine will create one. It will generally use first few lines of text at top of your page. Meta tags are to be placed inside head tags. Here is what your meta tags should look like: Web Site Utilities for Webmasters Search engines that read everything on your page will include alt tags and links to a banner that is at very top of your page. This is why it is not a good idea to have a banner at top. The beginning of your page should be a title (use keywords here) and text. The first paragraph should be heavy with keywords, but not so heavy as to make it difficult to read or understand. You want to work keywords in so it sounds natural for them to be there. If your site is heavy on graphics and short on text, then you need to use meta tags. Otherwise, you have very little chance to come up on search engines. Consider meta tags as tools that make up for a lack of text on your site. Your best option, however, is to have a site that is heavy in content and text. You will not only get a better ranking in search engines, but you will please people who visit your site. After all, isn't this name of game? "Keywords" tags provide keywords for search engine to associate with your page. It gives your page a chance to come up if someone is searching for one or more of your keywords. Choose your keywords carefully. Try to imagine what searcher will enter for their search. Do NOT use keywords that are not relevent to your site. Many people think that because "sex" is one of most common keywords used for a search, that it is good to include it in their keyword list. This is just another form of spam. Don't do it. You could get a lot of hate mail. Key words should always be two or more words, in other words, key phrases. If you only use single keywords you are likely to get lost in crowd. For example, if you have a site that specializes in 'free business opportunities', list that as a keyword phrase instead of listing each word ie: free, business, opportunties. It is not likely that someone looking for 'free business opportunities' is going to type in just 'business' into their search. Can you imagine all sites that would come up if that were case? You would be lost in crowd. Be specific with your keyword phrases. Put yourself in place of person doing search. What are they likely to type in as their search?
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