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Registering your site will get you more hits, but it will take weeks or months
for the increased traffic to become noticeable. After you register your site with a particular search engine or directory, it can take anything from 5 seconds to 5 months for them to actually list you, if in fact
they actually do. Registering at a particular directory doesn't guarantee that you'll actually be listed; many directory (or indexes) are very selective and only list a small percentage of the submissions they get.
What's the difference between a Search Engine and a Directory
A search engine (e.g. Google) is a database of webpages. You submit your URL,
and they read your page, extract relevant information from it, and store it in their database. Many search engines also run "spiders" that roam around the net looking for new pages wheras a directory or
index (e.g. Yahoo) is a database of web sites. Your listing in a directory depends on what you tell them in your submission, not what is on your page.
How long do I have to wait?
Fact is, for all the hype about the immediate results from the Internet, about
huge profits after being online for 2 weeks, online marketing has to be measured over a long period of time. We approach the campaign in a systematic manner. That means there are steps that we have control over and
then there are the search engines.
How do search engines index the web?
There are two methods that search engines use to index web pages on the Internet.
The first method is when a web site administrator submits a site to the search engine. In other words, you ask the search engine to add your site to its index.
The second method search engines use to index web sites is through the use of spiders.
Spiders are software applications that automatically roam the web, locate web sites, and index those sites.
When a search engine indexes a web page, it looks at both the page title and content. For
example, if a web page title is "Cycling in Kent," and the words Kent and cycling also are used in the content of the page, then the search engine indexes the page under "Cycling" and
"Kent." In fact, the search engine indexing is very sophisticated and can index many words for a given web site.
Some search engines (like Yahoo!) index web sites manually by having a person review the
site before it is added to the index. This results in better quality results, but has the drawback that web sites are being added to the Internet at a rate much faster than Yahoo's staff can index, resulting in a
less-than-complete listing of web sites for a given topic. These methods for indexing web sites will require you to take steps to ensure that your web site is indexed with the main search engines.
Should I be concerned with Link Popularity?
Yes. Link Popularity refers to the number of links a website has from other
websites. These links point back to your page. It has become an extremely critical element on the web today, especially when using Search Engines as a marketing tool. Engines like Google will not even list you
UNLESS there is at least one other site which references your site. That's why Position Agents 'free' link building service has received so much praise from our clients. We create portal pages which list your sites
URL and a description of your sites content.
Why are keywords so important?
Keyword selection is the most important part of your promotion strategy. If you
choose the wrong keywords, no amount of submitting or page alteration will bring you the quality and amount of traffic that you desire. Keywords must be related to your site content. If your content is about beer
bottles and your keywords relate to travel, the search engines will index your site, but not rank it at all. Your keywords define your desired target audience. Position Agents will guide you in your selection of
keywords. This is one of the first things we do before we actually commence submission of your site to the search engines.
You should also make sure that your target keywords appear in the crucial locations on
your web pages. The page title is most important. Failure to put target keywords in the page title is the main reason why perfectly relevant web pages may be poorly ranked. Search engines also like pages where
keywords appear "high" on the page. To accommodate them, use your target keywords for your page headline, if possible and have them also appear in the first paragraphs of your web page. We also recommend
using headings and font alterations like bold throughout the page. Engines tend to look for anything that may 'lend importance' to keywords on a page.
How long will it take to get listed?
These times vary with search engines and directories. The search engines will
optimistically report a very short time. The reality is that most search engines and directories are very backlogged and slow to get listings added to their databases. Don't be surprised if you experience waits much
longer than these. You may even wait over 3 months to see your site get listed on Yahoo Web Pages, if it gets listed at all. Note, that Yahoo's Directory now charges for listings. Non-subscription based
engines such as Google will return more relevant results.
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