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B1)How
Do Search Engines Work - Web Crawlers
It is the search engines that
finally bring your website to the notice of the prospective customers. Hence
it is better to know how these search engines actually work and how they present
information to the customer initiating a search.
There are basically two types
of search engines.
The first is by robots called
crawlers or spiders.
Search Engines use spiders
to index websites.
When you submit your website
pages to a search engine by completing their required submission page, the search
engine spider will index your entire site. A 'spider' is an automated program
that is run by the search engine system. Spider visits a web site, read the
content on the actual site, the site's Meta tags and also follow the links that
the site connects.
The spider then returns all
that information back to a central depository, where the data is indexed. It
will visit each link you have on your website and index those sites as well.
Some spiders will only index a certain number of pages on your site, so don't
create a site with 500 pages!
The spider will periodically
return to the sites to check for any information that has changed. The frequency
with which this happens is determined by the moderators of the search engine.
A spider is almost like a
book where it contains the table of contents, the actual content and the links
and references for all the websites it finds during its search, and it may index
up to a million pages a day.
Example: Excite, Lycos, AltaVista
and Google.
When you ask a search engine
to locate information, it is actually searching through the index which it has
created and not actually searching the Web. Different search engines produce
different rankings because not every search engine uses the same algorithm to
search through the indices.
One of the things that a search
engine algorithm scans for is the frequency and location of keywords on a web
page, but it can also detect artificial keyword stuffing or spamdexing. Then
the algorithms analyze the way that pages link to other pages in the Web. By
checking how pages link to each other, an engine can both determine what a page
is about, if the keywords of the linked pages are similar to the keywords on
the original page.
2)Must Have Features
Your Web Site
Just don't focus on the home
page, keywords and titles.
The first step to sales when customers visit your site to see the products they
were looking for. Of course, search engine optimization and better rankings
can't keep your customer on your site or make them buy.
The customer having visited
your site, now ensure that he gets interested in your products or services and
stays around. Motivate him to buy the product by providing clear and unambiguous
information.
Thus if you happen to sell
more than one product or service, provide all necessary information about this,
may be by keeping the information at a different page. By providing suitable
and easily visible links, the customer can navigate to these pages and get the
details.
Understanding Your Target
Customer
If you design a website you think will attract clients, but you don't really
know who your customers are and what they want to buy, it is unlikely you make
much money. Website business is an extension or replacement for a standard storefront.
You can send email to your existing clients and ask them to complete a survey
or even while they are browsing on your website. Ask them about their choices.
Why do they like your products?
Do you discount prices or
offer coupons?
Are your prices consistently
lower than others?
Is your shipping price cheaper?
Do you respond faster to client
questions?
Are your product descriptions
better?
Your return policies and guarantees
better than your competitor's?
To know your customer you
can check credit card records or ask your customer to complete a simple contact
form with name, address, age, gender, etc. when they purchase a product.
Does your website give enough
contact information?
When you sell from a website, your customer can buy your products 24 hrs a day
and also your customers may be from other states that are thousands of miles
away. Always provide contact information, preferably on every page of your website,
complete with mailing address, telephone number and an email address that reaches
you.
People may need to contact
you about sales, general information or technical problems on your site. Also
have your email forwarded to another email address if you do not check your
website mailbox often. When customer wants to buy online provide enough options
like credit card, PayPal or other online payment service.
3) Submitting Your Website
to Search Engines
If you have a web-based business
or if a significant portion of your business is done on the web through your
website, then the best advertising and marketing is done by submitting to a
search engine. No amount of press release, newspaper or radio ad, banner ad,
spam email or newsletter will achieve the same results, although, maybe effective
in a small proportion.
Beware of companies that promise
automatic submission of your website to hundreds of search engines which are
but only false promises. The best way to submit your website for search engine
ranking and inclusion is to do it yourself or to hire an expert to do it manually,
by contacting the search engine companies and directories.
Before you begin to submit
your website to search engines ensure your websites are thoroughly designed
to the professional quality using the right key words, good graphics and pictures
and the relevant content. Don't submit websites that are incomplete. While submitting
to a search engine, make sure to provide information about your website, keywords
and any other information that may be pertinent, including the name and contact
information of your business.
Mere submission to search
engine companies does not guarantee that your site would be immediately listed
and the ranking will be high. Because there are thousands of new websites coming
up every day and it may take quite sometime before they take up your site for
review by human editors. One important factor to remember while submitting site
is to include a site map of your website which makes the crawling easy for the
web robots.
Search engines like 'http://www.google.com'
hardly considers submissions without sitemaps.
There are many online companies that accept search engine submission services.
You can choose to do it yourself with a software package and service like this
one:
http://www.webposition.com
Or if you want professional
help try the following sites:
http://www.addpro.com/professional_submission
http://www.submitawebsite.com/aboutus.html
Don't use the automatic submission
services.
Here is a list of the most
popular Search Engines and directory companies:
Search Engines
Go.com/InfoSeek AltaVista
Google, HotBot
Excite/Webcrawler
Directories
AOL Search Inktomi
Lycos Open Directory
4) The
Importance of Search Engines
It is the search engines that
finally bring your website to the notice of the prospective customers. When
a topic is typed for search, nearly instantly, the search engine will sift through
the millions of pages it has indexed about and present you with ones that match
your topic. The searched matches are also ranked, so that the most relevant
ones come first.
Remember that a prospective
customer will probably only look at the first 2-3 listings in the search results.
So it does matter where your website appears in the search engine ranking.
Further, they all use one
of the top 6-7 search engines and these search engines attract more visitors
to websites than anything else. So finally it all depends on which search engines
the customers use and how they rank your site.
It is the Keywords that play
an important role than any expensive online or offline advertising of your website.
It is found by surveys that
a when customers want to find a website for information or to buy a product
or service, they find their site in one of the following ways:
· The first option is they find their site through a search engine.
· Secondly they find their site by clicking on a link from another website
or page that relates to the topic in which they are interested.
· Occasionally, they find a site by hearing about it from a friend or
reading in an article.
Thus it's obvious the the
most popular way to find a site, by search engine, represents more than 90%
of online users. In other words, only 10% of the people looking for a website
will use methods other than search engines.
All search engines employ
a ranking algorithm and one of the main rules in a ranking algorithm is to check
the location and frequency of keywords on a web page.
Don't forget that algorithms
also give weightage to link population (number of web pages linking to your
site).
When performed by a qualified,
experienced search engine optimization consultant, your site for high search
engine rankings really does work, unless you have a lot of money and can afford
to pay the expert.
With better knowledge of search
engines and how they work, you can also do it on your own.
5)Tips
to Increase Ranking and Website Traffic
It is worth cataloguing the
basic principles to be enforced to increase website traffic and search engine
rankings.
· Create a site with valuable content, products or services.
· Place primary and secondary keywords within the first 25 words in your
page content and spread them evenly throughout the document.
· Research and use the right keywords/phrases to attract your target
customers.
· Use your keywords in the right fields and references within your web
page. Like Title, META tags, Headers, etc.
· Keep your site design simple so that your customers can navigate easily
between web pages, find what they want and buy products and services.
· Submit your web pages i.e. every web page and not just the home page,
to the most popular search engines and directory services. Hire someone to do
so, if required. Be sure this is a manual submission. Do not engage an automated
submission service.
· Keep track of changes in search engine algorithms and processes and
accordingly modify your web pages so your search engine ranking remains high.
Use online tools and utilities to keep track of how your website is doing.
· Monitor your competitors and the top ranked websites to see what they
are doing right in the way of design, navigation, content, keywords, etc.
· Use reports and logs
from your web hosting company to see where your traffic is coming from. Analyze
your visitor location and their incoming sources whether search engines or links
from other sites and the keywords they used to find you.
· Make your customer visit easy and give them plenty of ways to remember
you in the form of newsletters, free reports, reduction coupons etc.
· Demonstrate your industry and product or service expertise by writing
and submitting articles for your website or for article banks so you are perceived
as an expert in your field.
· When selling products online, use simple payment and shipment methods
to make your customer's experience fast and easy.
· When not sure, hire professionals. Though it may seem costly, but it
is a lot less expensive than spending your money on a website which no one visits.
· Don't look at your website as a static brochure. Treat it as a dynamic,
ever-changing sales tool and location, just like your real store to which your
customers with the same seriousness.
6) Use Keywords In Page
Titles
It is recommended to use keywords
in page titles itself. This title tag is different from a Meta tag, but it's
worth considering it in relation to them. Whatever text one places in the title
tag (between the and portions) will appear in the
title bar of browsers when they view the web page. Some browsers also append
whatever you put in the title tag by adding their own name, as for example Microsoft's
Internet Explorer or OPERA.
The actual text you use in
the title tag is one of the most important factors in how a search engine may
decide to rank your web page. In addition, all major web crawlers will use the
text of your title tag as the text they use for the title of your page in your
listings.
If you have designed your
website as a series of websites or linked pages and not just a single Home Page,
you must bear in mind that each page of your website must be search engine optimized.
The title of each page i.e. the keywords you use on that page and the phrases
you use in the content will draw traffic to your site.
The unique combination of
these words and phrases and content will draw customers using different search
engine terms and techniques, so be sure you capture all the keywords and phrases
you need for each product, service or information page.
The most common mistake made
by small business owners when they first design their website is to place their
business name or firm name in every title of every page. Actually most of your
prospective customers do not bother to know the name of your firm until after
they have looked at your site and decided it is worth book marking.
So, while you want your business
name in the title of the home page, it is probably a waste of valuable keywords
and space to put it in the title line of every page on your site. Why not consider
putting keywords in the title so that your page will display closer to the top
of the search engine listing.
Dedicating first three positions
for keywords in title avoiding the stop words like 'and', 'at' and the like
is crucial in search engine optimization.
7) Web hosting Services
and Domain names
Choosing an appropriate domain
name is very important. First and foremost, when it comes to domain names, try
to stay away from the silly, stupid, ridiculous or clever. Keep your domain
name simple and make it something your customers can remember if they lose the
link to your business website.
Take note that, while your
domain name on Geocities or AOL may seem like the least expensive way to go,
it may also get you dropped from certain search engines. Some search engines
ignore domain addresses that reside on these 'free servers' or on the 'cheap'
servers.
Even if your site is recognized
and considered by search engines, a professional domain name that uses your
primary company name or associated words is likely to get more attention and
be considered as a stable business by your prospective customers.
Purchasing domain names are
not that expensive which cost about $8-9 and there are many companies that can
register the name for you, provided it is available and has not already been
used by another company.
Using one of your keywords
in your domain name can increase your score on some search engines. For example,
solderingirons.com could be more effective as Electric-soldering-irons.com,
if that domain name was available.
You might also choose to establish
more than one domain name using keywords and then link your 'doorway' domain
sites to your primary site. But you will have to pay for each of the domain
name and also the monthly hosting fees. It all depends on the type and size
of your business and your competition.
Keep in mind that some search
engines disregard 'doorway' sites. So put at least a page of content on the
doorway site with some useful information and then link it to your primary site.
But don't design it as an empty page.
The other reason being, you
can have one, three, five, or even more email addresses that all contain your
business name, and give your business a professional feel. When customers get
emails from wealthmarketinginstitute@verizon.com they feel as if they are dealing
with a stable, professional business operation.
No need for customers to understand
how you manage all your email boxes on your domain. They just need to feel your
business is dependable and reputable.
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