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What
About Search Engine Submission?
Search engine submission is
a very complex topic. These days you see many web hosts offering
"free search engine submissions", and we do too.
(The tool to do that is located in your site control panel under the "Tools"
menu.) But we like to be honest about its worth!
If
you have no plans of ever selling globally, then free
submission will work fine for you, so go ahead and use the tool! All you
really need is for the engine to come up with your site either when your
business name is typed in directly, (in which case your site will be #1), or
when your business type along with the city, county and state is entered, (in
which case you should be in the first page or two.)
But, if you plan on selling globally one
day, then you simply must have a first page ranking on a product search alone!
And if you
want that good of a ranking, you absolutely have to
optimize your site before you submit it to the search engines, particularly the
directories like Yahoo, LookSmart and Open Directory. You can design the
most unique site in the world, and your listing for that
product or service will be about 15 pages back in any general product
search unless you understand optimization. In other words, useless. Most people find what
they're looking for on the first page, (usually 10 listings), of a search. And with the directories, they only rank and list your
page once. So if it's not right the first time, you're out of luck
permanently.
So how should you optimize
your site for good placement? Well, if you plan on doing it yourself, start learning. It's not really as complex as it sounds. A
good place to start is www.searchenginewatch.com.
You can also do a search in your favorite search engine for "search engine
optimization" and find plenty of info. There are software products
available the will do basic optimization for you, as well. But
bottom line here is learn first, then optimize, then submit.
If, on the other hand, you
feel the world is waiting for your product right now and you've no time to
waste, then we suggest you hire a "web positioning" company.
Many of them have years of experience in the field, and already know how to
optimize your site and how to get the best rankings on any particular search
engine. Their prices range from a one-shot, few hundred dollar deal,
(which is usually only marginally better than buying software to do it), to a
few thousand every month. Which simply points out again that submission is
both complex and critical for selling globally! If it wasn't, the market
wouldn't bear a few thousand a month price tag for keeping you in the
forefront!
Each search engine is constantly changing their criteria as to what constitutes
a high ranking web site to them. So keeping on top of that is a full time
job, and those who do it well earn their keep!
And FYI, we make no
recommendations as to who to use. We are not promoting some affiliated
company. No hidden agenda. We just want you to know what the
"big boys" already know before you waste your time or money, or make
an uncorrectable mistake. So you make the call, but there is one piece of
advice we'll give you. If you do go with an ongoing web positioning
campaign, never, ever allow the company to pressure you
into a long term contract right up front. All these companies are
NOT created equal. Some are great, some good, and some are sorry.
Test them first. Try to cut a 3 or 6 month deal, rather than a year.
You can always renew if they are all they claimed to be, and the little extra
you may spend by going that way is sound insurance against being locked into a
poor performer. Don't get trapped!
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