Part 4: Search Engine Strategies

If you've used the Internet before, undoubtedly you've come across one of these. Whether it’s Yahoo!, Excite or Google, these search engines are pretty much your doorway to that vast cyberspace known as the Internet. They help you find the information that you're looking for.

What’s a search engine?

Search engines are essentially programs on the Internet that gather all the web pages that they can find and index them all together. They use specialized applications called spiders, which allow them to search all through the web for web sites to index.

But don't think that just because these search engines are out there looking for new web pages day and night that you can create a web site and wait until it gets indexed. And who knows, with the millions of web sites on the Internet today, it might take years for a spider to find yours. The best way is to submit your site yourself, or through a submission tool.

Compared to other forms of promotion on the Internet today, search engines still provide the best way to get traffic to your web site. It is one of the cheapest ways to generate new visitors in whatever niche market you're currently in. The downside to this is that search engine promotion is getting more and more competitive as the Internet continues to evolve. But don't worry, there’s still some great ways to get huge traffic through these services.

Different Types of Search Engines

Pay-Per-Click Search Engines

Pay-Per-Click search engines are a bit different than regular search engines, such as Google and Looksmart. Instead of the Search Engines indexing and ranking your site based on content, they actually allow you to bid for keywords. Here’s how it works:

1. You set a price for how much you're willing to pay for keywords that visitors may find you under.

2. When someone searches for that keyword, you're site comes up in the search.

3. If that visitor decides to click on over to your website, you have to pay for that click.

A good thing about Pay-Per-Click search engines is that you only have to pay for the traffic that the search engine sends you, not like a random banner ad that a visitor may not even look at. You also don't have to wait so long to rank high for your chosen keywords; all you have to do is bid higher than everyone else and you'll be on the top of the rankings. If you want to check out how this works, visit some of the following Pay-Per-Click Search Engines:

Overture - http://www.overture.com

Kanoodle - http://www.kanoodle.com

7Search - http://www.7search.com

Directories

Directories, despite what other people may say are not the same as other search engines. They do not use automation tools such as spiders. They are actually run and created by people, who review web sites that are submitted to them, and place them in their proper criteria. A good example of this is Yahoo or DMOZ.

Meta-Search Engines

If you want to be able to search different search engines all at the same time, use these. Meta-Search engines go out and get search results from a number of different search engines and shows them all in one shot. Makes it a whole lot easier on you, so that you don't have to visit each search engine separately just to look for whatever it is that you need. Example: Dogpile.

How do I submit my website to all these search engines?

Submitting your website can be done in 3 ways: Manual, Submission Tool, or through a Professional Submission Service.

1. Manual - Will take the most time to do, especially if you want to submit your site to more than a handful of search engines. The good thing is, it’s free.

2.Submission Software - automates your website submissions to hundreds of search engines, all at the click of a button. You can easily submit any page you want without having to visit each search engine and typing all your information manually. Fast and Easy. The downside to this is you normally have to buy the software/tool to do the submitting for you.Some examples of submission software are:

- Internet Business Promoter - http://www.axandra.com

- Web Position Gold - http://www.webposition.com

3. Professional Submission Service - The most expensive of the three, but the most thorough. Professional consultants will not only submit your web sites to the search engines, they'll even optimize your website for high search engine rankings, and guarantee you a top position in a number of different search engines.

Link Popularity And Page Rank

One particular topic I would like to raise also is the importance of Link Popularity. Link Popularity has become a very important aspect that search engine companies use to determine just how high your search engine rankings get. The theory behind it is that the more relevant and related links that point to your website from other web sites, the more important your status is and the higher your keyword matches will be. That's why it's becoming increasingly necessary to make sure you have a good reciprocal link strategy as part of your Internet marketing plan.