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My name is Art Derfall and I'm your average sole-proprietor commercial site owner who reached the point of frustration two months ago. I had good products and a nicely designed site but not enough traffic and sales. Does this sound like you?
- You have a website, perhaps professionally created
- The designer or you are submitting it to 1,500 search engines every month
- Your "Field of Reality" is "You've built it and they don't come"
Well, that's my reality too! And it's probably the same for millions of other site owners. That's why I want to share with you a real solution I've discovered.
For the past two months I've spent considerable time getting educated and have begun to achieve success. I'm not a DOT.COM millionaire and probably will never be one. However, if you consider my suggestions that follow you will better your chance of success, avoid the mistakes that I've made (I'm correcting them), and save yourself a lot of time.
An Overview
Why do people visit your site? It's what they want that's important.
- To find information
- To network
- To be entertained
- To make a purchase
It's also what the search engines and directories want that's important.
The task at hand is Search Engine Optimization, or what I call the "Goldilocks Task". The design of the site, the related pages, links, and submissions have to be done in such a manner so as not to be "too hot", "too cold", but "just right". Unfortunately, each search engine and directory embodies a different Goldilocks, each with somewhat different tastebuds. The better the match, the higher your ranking when someone searches for sites matching their keywords or keyword phrases. The trend of making you "pay to play" by the search engines is forcing web site owners to budget more money or concentrate on fewer search engines for ranking.
Keyword searching is the most often used method of reaching a web site. The higher your ranking in the results, the more visitors you will get. A content rich site is of utmost importance. The right visitors translate into sales or success.
The Basics
- Search engines and links from other sites are the #1 and #2 ways people find web sites.
- You only need to concentrate on perhaps 10 search engines and 4 directories. Work first with the AltaVista, Excite, Google, HotBot, Infoseek, and Lycos. Yahoo! is the most important directory and is where most searches are done. Yahoo! also shows results from Google.
- You're going to have to pay $199 for Yahoo's Business Express Program for them to consider your commercial site. It's important to be listed, but you have to know what they require for submission or you could lose the $199.
- You're going to have to consider other paid submissions. Inktomi Search Index is one and is used by HotBot, AOL, and MSN.
- Search engines review your site by computer "robots"
- Directories are edited by humans
- Most search engines have a relationship with directories. Visit searchengines.com, searchenginewatch.com and searchengineforums.com for details.
- Pay per click search engines are worth considering. They can bring in business and increase your link popularity. GoTo.com is the big one. Visit payperclicksearchengines.com.
- Keyword and keyword phrase selection and relevance on your website are very important. Which ones, how often, how many, and where placed. Visit wordtracker.com. You should subscribe, even for a short period time.
- Search engines are looking for sites with themes. justball.com and my own, toysnotjustforkids.com, are two examples.
- Optimizing your site from the start in terms of design and copywriting is the best advice you can take.
- Good copywriting for a website is different from good copywriting for other media. You have to keep both your visitors and the search engines in mind.
- Link popularity is becoming more important. Primarily links from sites with the same keywords and theme as yours. The more popular their site, the better your ranking.
- Google.com's PageRank technology incorporates a sophisticated linking algorithm. You should download the Google Toolbar (Internet Explorer Only). Good ranking on the PageRank feature appears to be an indicator for good ranking on other search engines.
- Free hosting sites are penalized by the search engines. Quality hosting is not that expensive. If you must use one or want to practice designing a web site go to Bigstep.com. Reduce the search engine penalty by getting your own domain name.
- Get your own domain name. marksonline.com and domainguide.com are worth visiting.
- Doorway Pages (now being called "Information Pages") are of equal importance to good site design and link popularity. Doorway pages are specially optimized pages for one search engine and 1 to 3 keywords (preferably keyword phrases). Doorway pages are also known as gateway, or bridge pages. Companies use doorway pages to achieve higher search engine rankings by giving each search engine what it wants. It is expensive to hire others to create your doorway pages, but you can learn to do it on your own through the use of Web Position Gold software. An email I received regarding this software was the beginning of my two month quest for additional information into the whole concept of search engine optimization.
Sites you need to visit for a search engine optimization education
- 1stplaceranking.com - Check your web site's ranking here for free. You can purchase Web Position Gold here. Their downloadable WPG training video is a must. I've viewed it at least eight times.
- Accurateonline.com - a wealth of well laid out information. Be sure to view the FAQ area. An example of a very well designed web site.
- Webposition.com - The home of Web Position Gold software. Try the free trial. Absolutely worth the $150.
- Marketposition.com - related to webposition.com, the parent site of Web Position Gold. An important site.
- Searchengines.com - Budget a couple of hours for this site.
- Searchenginewatch.com - Probably the best site for in-depth information. They have a paid subscription area that is worth the money.
- Searchengineforums.com - Where the experts and amateurs meet.
- Wordtracker.com - There is a free trial available, but subscribe even for a week. I haven't found another keyword site that can match it.
- Softnik.com - FREE software: Good Key Words, Good Bid Words, Domain Name Analyzer.
- Marksonline.com and Domainguidebook.com - information regarding domain names.
- Rankwrite.com - great information regarding writing copy for web sites.
- Websitesthatsuck.com - good design taught through bad examples. Buy the book of the same name.
- Jimtools.com and Jimworld.com - read the Gazette. The site offers good looking web site templates for free.
- Wilsonweb.com - a great site for "marketing on the Web" information
- Searchenginecourses.com - The JER Group offers excellent on-line training. You will want to take the web positioning certification course bundled with Web Position Gold ($285). You save $100. I highly recommend the Professional Developers 2 course combo bundled with WPG for $475.
- Bonus suggestion: the free capture tool at Mixm.com for Internet Explorer only.
Firms to consider hiring for site design, copy, and positioning
- Labkoweb.com - A full service firm. Donna Kopitsky taught my first course from Searchenginecourses.com and has proven her expertise to me. Ironically, I am not currently using labkoweb.com's services because of contractual reasons, but will in the future. Thanks to her course I can do a lot of the search engine optimization on my own, but Donna keeps me out of trouble with her informational emails and periodic chat rooms.
- Copywriting.net - copywriting and positioning services. Scott Smith taught my second course which offered great advice in regards to "copy that sells".
- Highrankings.com or Successwks.com - Jill Whalen and Heather Martin's sites. They write the Rankwrite.com articles. Their approach is "get the web site right and you won't need doorway pages".
Books you should own - Available from Amazon.com
Conclusion
These suggestions and recommended sites are just a start. The concept of search engine optimization is clear but the rules keep changing. You will need to visit key sites often, especially Searchenginewatch.com
My name is Art Derfall and I live in Billerica, Massachusetts. My three ecommerce web sites (soon to be four) are:
I'm still in the process of taking my own advice but have seen results already. My sites are no longer invisible to the search engines and orders are steadily increasing. Web Position Gold software is a wonderful tool for search engine optimization but it does require skill and time. It's great if you have the budget to hire a good full service firm, such as Labkoweb.com, but you can do the basics on your own. The Reporter feature of Web Position Gold alone, is worth the price of the software.
The two courses from Searchenginecourses.com have resulted in my achieving search engine optimization certification. I have enough confidence to expect to see results over the next few months in regards to my own sites and will help friends with theirs. With enough practice, I may be able to offer SEO as a service. At the moment I'm an "amateur-expert".
 work at home
get paid to shop
write articles for traffic
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