Now the search engine game is very different yet very much the same. You have the media bombarding you about pay per click, sponsored listings, featured listings, ppc, cpa and don’t hear very much about natural search engine optimization anymore. You don’t know if there even is such a thing because most companies that perform search engine optimization of web sites are small and can’t compete with the large advertising budgets of the major search engines like Google and Overture. But the deeper you dig the more you realize the algorithms haven’t changed that much and getting to the top can be made simple. This leads us to two questions.

1. Does search engine optimization work anymore?
2. What kind of traffic can I expect to see from both methods?

We’ll start with the first question.

Does search engine optimization work anymore?
The answer is a resounding, ABSOLUTELY! Natural search engine placement and optimization is not dead at all. In fact, the industry is growing at a tremendous rate. The competitiveness over arguably the most competitive word on Google “search engine optimization” has drastically increased. As of the writing of this article there are over 1,620,000 results when you type in search engine optimization compared to only 560,000 two months ago.

Okay you say, that makes sense but give me more proof.

GlobalPromoter.com does no advertising other than natural search engine optimization and natural search engine placement in the major search engines. We spend $0 on pay per click campaigns or any other method of advertising yet our traffic rivals that of our competitors and we average an incredible amount of account signups on a daily basis. Our visitors / purchasers ratio is in upwards of 4.5% which is incredible in any industry. Why do we have such a high purchase/click ratio? Because people are looking for us, we’re not looking for them. When a user goes to Google and types in “search engine optimization tools” and finds us on the first page, they know we know what we’re doing and are compelled to click if only out of awe.

The secret of the search engines is the ability to be found not the other way around. That’s why the natural search engine listings in Google outperform the Adwords listings. Users know that sites listed in the Sponsored matches section or on the right side of the results means a business or individual is paying every time someone clicks on their site. That equates to advertising which is no different than radio, television, newspaper or magazines. That’s a company “pushing” their product onto the consumer.

But, when a user finds a site in the web matches section, they have more confidence. This site didn’t pay to get there, they are there because Google or Yahoo or AOL’s algorithm said their site is the most appropriate for my search based on the entire site’s content. This is “Pull” demand. Meaning, the user is looking for us instead of us looking for them. If you can get on the Pull side of advertising then you’ll experience much higher purchase / click rates on every visitor to your web site.

On to question 2.

What kind of traffic can I expect to see from both methods?
This question needs to be answered in two parts. First let’s look at the ppc method.

PPC search engine listings will give you as much traffic as there is demand for a given keyword or keyword phrase. Meaning, if there are 500,000 searches a month and your listing is appealing you can expect to receive approximately 2 - 5% of those searches. Let’s say you get an incredibly high click thru rate of 5%. That means you have .05 * 500,000 = 25,000 visitors at your disposal. But if a keyword has 500,000 searches in a month then that means it’s fairly competitive and it could easily be $1.00 to be in the top 3 positions for that keyword. So if you are paying $1.00/visitor and you had 25,000 visitors, then you paid $25,000 for the traffic one keyword would generate for your site.

I think you can see how risky and expensive ppc can be. Unless you know you can convert visitors into sales and your profit margin on the items you’re selling is incrdibly high, then Caveat Emptor (buyer be ware).

On the flip side, when your site shows up in the natural rankings you don’t pay a single cent for any of the traffic it generates. This means you have more money for developing your site, tweaking marketing tactics, making your product better, etc…

As far as the old argument that you won’t get as much traffic from natural placements vs ppc listings, that’s a myth. Several of our customers receive over 50,000 visitors a month on average from natural placements in the major search engines. In fact, when we optimize a client’s web site, one of their goals is to decreaes the amount of money they are currently spending on ppc advertising. After the completion of the optimization plan 75% of our clients completely abandon their ppc programs. This leads us to a general comparison of ppc vs. natural rankings.

Advantages of Search Engine Optimization
1. Up front fixed cost vs. fluctuating costs that can skyrocket with ppc advertising.

2. Long term listings and rankings with natural placement vs. Showing up only as long as your bank account has money.

3. Natural rankings have higher click thru ratios than ppc listings because natural rankings are pull demand vs. push demand.

In Conclusion
I’m going to close this article with an analogy. Most of you have been camping before and remember at least one cold night when you couldn’t get a fire started. So you went and got some lighter fluid and squirted it on the dry oak or whatever wood you used. Then you threw a match into the fire and began to warm up next to the fire.

The lighter fluid is akin to ppc advertising. When the lighter fluid is squirted on the fire the flames shoot high and bright and then vanish. Just like ppc advertising it’s short term because as soon as the money is gone so is your exposure. Whereas natural rankings are like the solid oak used in the fire. The oak will burn for hours and hours and keep you warm much longer than just lighter fluid alone. Like the oak, natural search engine optimization campaigns last in excess of 6 months in stead of one day. And if you learn the secrets to good web site optimization you can stoke the fire and make it last even longer with no added cost. Of course it takes a little longer to get the oak branches to light up but once you get them going they will last for a long time.

Many people see the solution to their search engine marketing campaign in pay per clicks because they’re easily set up and effective almost immediately. However, those that understand the principle of laying a solid foundation and building upon it can understand the long term benefits of natural search engine placement. It may take longer to get the same results but it will cost much less in the long run.

Author Bio:
Jason Dowdell is the founder and CEO of http://www.GlobalPromoter.com, a search engine optimization and marketing firm specializing in educating and empowering customer websites. Jason is also the founder of TurboPromoter.com, a web-based seo/sem project management suite comprised of professional seo tools, in-depth tutorials and an integrated help system.

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The first indication that there was a problem with a site was when the PageRank in the Google toolbar disappeared, seemingly over night. This happened soon after a new URL was put up on an existing site. We assumed, as is usual, that Google hadn’t been able to associate the new URL with the “old” content. That is - Google was still expecting to see the old URL associated with the content. We advised the client that it would likely take a few weeks to re associate the new URL with the site.

When sufficient time passed without progress, we had to dig deeper to see what the issues were. As I mentioned above, everything looked ok. Optimization was in place, and there wasn’t any over optimization happening. Internal linking was good, and there was good use of a properly constructed site map. So we had to dig deeper - going beyond on-the-page factors to see if we could figure out what else was causing the problem.

The first thing I looked for…
The first thing I looked for was the existence of a robots.txt file. In many cases, an improperly coded robots file will exclude some, or all, search engine spiders from indexing. In this case a robots.txt was not being used, so I ruled this out.

I then checked to see if there were robots Meta tags in the body of the HTML. These tags do the same as the robots.txt file. That is, they tell the spiders which pages they can and cannot index, but it is done on a page by page basis, rather than a site wide basis as in the robots.txt. Again, an improperly coded robots Meta tag can exclude part or all of a site from getting indexed. Again, this was not the case. Although this site does use a Meta robots tag it was coded properly. In fact, the same tag existed on the “old” site and wasn’t an issue then.

So I then checked the log files to see if the spiders had been visiting the site and they have been there on a regular basis. As recent as a few days ago, as a matter of fact.

Seeing that everything was coded properly, and that spiders had been visiting the site peaked my interest. How is it that spiders are able to see the site (as indicated by their visits) yet the site is not showing up in the index and has a PageRank of 0 still, months after the change?

Some more digging…
So I did some more digging. I checked Google for the old URL. Upon viewing the cached version of the old URL, a theory began to form.

The cached pages are actually the current content of the new site. In other words, Google was somehow associating the old URL with the new site. So I did some more checking. I did a whois lookup and found that the old URL was still registered. So I decided to ping it, and found that it resolved to a new IP address, yet when I try to connect to it using my web browser it comes up as a 404 (page not found error).

I pinged the new site and the IP address is different, but it is the IP address that the site had when it had the “old” URL. This still doesn’t explain why the new site has no PageRank or indexed pages and the “old” URL is showing pages from the new site, but it does give me some clues.

We already know that in order to save time most search engines do not perform a DNS query when they visit a site. They tend to try and connect directly to the site via IP. If they don’t get a site via IP they then perform a DNS query to find the IP of the site.

In the case of this site, Google hasn’t needed to perform a DNS query as, from their point of view, the “old” site still exists. They can connect via IP to the site and are associating the “new” site to the “old” URL.

This also explains why the “new” site is showing a PageRank of 0 with no pages indexed. Because Google has also resolved the “new” site to the same IP which it thinks belongs to the “old” URL. Once it visits the new site it realizes that the new and old sites are identical it gives preference to the “old” site because it pre exists the new site.

Confused yet?
Let me put it in other terms. Since the “old” site has been around for longer, it has built up a reputation on the web. When the client replaced the URL they wiped out that reputation. But no one told Google that the old site was gone. Had Google performed a DNS query they would have found that the old site had in fact been moved, but since it found a site with the same content at the same IP it assumes that it is the site with the reputation.

Along comes a new site with the exact same content and no reputation and of course the first thing Google assumes is that the site owner is trying to spam the engine, so it penalizes the new site. Hence the lack of indexed pages and 0 PageRank value.

To resolve this issue we will try a variety of things. First will be either a 301 redirect (approved by Google to help spiders understand if a site has moved) or another on-the-page redirect, such as a Meta refresh or hyperlink on the “old” URL. These different efforts help enforce to Google that the “old” site has been replaced by the “new” site.

If this doesn’t work, our next step will be to request that the site be removed from the index. This is a last resort; as we would rather the engine figure it out on its own. If we find that Google still can’t figure out that there is a new site, we will definitely request the URL removal.

In addition, to try and help speed things along, we need to ensure that all other links, such as ODP directory listings, point to the correct URL and not the old domain. This will reinforce to the search engines that the “old” site no longer exists and that the “new” site is actually a valid site that isn’t spamming the engines.

Author Bio:
Rob Sullivan
Production Manager
Searchengineposition.com
Search Engine Positioning Specialists

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Overcoming The Lack Of Relevant Search Results
Even today, conducting a search on any of the major search engines can be classified as an ‘enter your query and hope for the best’ experience. Google’s ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ button, while designed to take you directly to the number one results, could ironically be a truism for its entire search results (process?). Enter your desired search words into any of the search engines and you often end up crossing your fingers and hoping that they display the type of results you were looking for. Since the recent updates of ‘Florida’ and ‘Austin’, complaints that Google, in particular, is displaying less relevant results have escalated (although mostly by those who lost important positioning that they had assumed was their right to maintain).

There is, of course, evidence that the search engines are trying to enhance their search results- so that they can better anticipate the intentions of the searcher. Search for ‘pizza Chicago’ at Yahoo, and you’ll see that the top results include names, addresses, telephone numbers and even directions to pizza restaurants in Chicago, a great improvement on previous results. Even when you take everyone’s favorite search term example, ‘windows’, you can see that the search engines are at least trying to determine your intent. While Yahoo and Google still display search results saturated with links discussing Microsoft’s pervasive operating system, enter your search over at Ask Jeeves and the chirpy English butler will ask you if you meant ‘Microsoft Windows’ or ‘Windows made out of glass’.

Future Search Engine Technology
Smaller search engines have also materialized over the past few weeks, each offering to improve the user experience. Grokker offers an interface that groups search results graphically, improving the way search results are segmented and displayed. Eurekster, combines the social networking elements that are used by sites such as Friendster, and provides results that can be filtered based upon what members of your group are searching. While all of these are interesting and provide a glimpse of the future of search, it will not be the small companies that change the way we search. With Google about to get an influx of cash from its upcoming IPO, Yahoo re-vamping Inktomi and Overture, and Microsoft finally jumping into the search arena, it will be these search engine powerhouses that enhance our search experience and take search engine technology to the next level.

So what is this next level? What technology is it that I speak of, that will revolutionize the way we receive our search engine results? I believe that the search results we receive in just a couple of years from now could make current search engine technology look as archaic and cumbersome as picking up a Yellow Pages book is today. However, in order to achieve this new search nirvana we, as consumers, must quell our fears and trepidations surrounding the protection of our privacy. In order for the search engines to develop technology that will be intuitive and anticipate our every need, we must first relinquish at least some of the privacy that we currently hold so dear. Let’s take a look at some of the ways that search technology could improve and you’ll soon get the idea why it will require us to cooperate with the search engine providers.

‘Windows’ or ‘windows’?
If you desire to be able to enter a term as ambiguous as ‘windows’ and expect to see relevant results, you’ll first need to give up some personal information to the search engines. Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask already have the means to collect an astonishing amount of information from us, by our use of their toolbars. Don’t panic, they currently allow you to disable this information gathering, and even if you do allow it, it is collected anonymously. However, with the technology already in place, why not unleash its full potential?

Let’s say I let Google track my online activities, allowing it to monitor the web sites I view and keep a log of all of the search queries I enter. This type of information could greatly improve the relevancy of the results displayed to me. For example, two years from now, I could search for ‘home improvement’ on Google. I then find the listing for Lowes.com and visit the site. While I am at their web site, I look at a number of different pages, but I spend a lot of time in the ‘house windows’ section, exploring the different styles and prices. Why not let Google capture all of that useful information? Then, when I go back to Google the following day and search for ‘windows’ it would know that glass windows is more likely to be the type of product I am seeking out. Google would simply have remembered my previous searches, read the HTML and Meta data, located on the Lowes.com pages, and used this to identify the intent of my new search for windows.

While I would have to give up some of my privacy, wouldn’t it be worth it if I could save myself time and energy by having search engine results more relevant to my desire?

You’ve Got Search In Your Mail
Another area with great potential for improving search engine results will likely be developed by Google. You may have heard the rumors that Google is getting set to launch an email client that many expect will be a free service similar to Yahoo Mail or Hotmail. Currently, Yahoo does an adequate job of making search available to all of its email customers. Each page within Yahoo Mail has a search box that makes it easy for you to conduct a search that might be sparked by an email you receive. But why not take it one step further?

Google has the technology to really take advantage of search within email. Why else would it even consider entering this arena? Imagine that, in order to use a free Google email account, you allow Google to provide advertisements and track your email activities. Google could change the way that search results and ads are displayed to free email users. For example, let’s say you receive an email from your brother, the content of which, among other things, gloats about the brand new P4 desktop computer that they just purchased from Dell. As part of the interface you use to read that email, Google magically displays paid search advertising for desktop computers, including a link that will take you directly to the appropriate page on Dell.com. This information would be quite beneficial to you, as you may be interested in seeing how you too can be a proud owner of a P4 computer. Fantastic targeted advertising for Dell, as they know that if you click on the listing, they are halfway there to converting you into another satisfied customer.

This idea is so much closer to reality than you may think. Google already has the advertisers with its AdWords service boasting 150,000 users, eager to spend their advertising dollars. It also has the technology to determine which results to show you within your email interface. Google’s AdSense can provide the contextual ad technology that would scan an email’s content to determine which ads are the most relevant to display. With this technology in place, a simple provision within any Google Email Terms & Conditions would give the world’s largest search engine the necessary permission to serve up relevant ads to all users of its free email service.

We could be offered the option of paying a monthly premium in order to not have ads shown when we read our email, but if they are relevant to the content of a received message, why would we want to block them?

From Desktop to Internet
Another development in search engine technology that I can see happening would come from the development of Microsoft’s new Longhorn operating system. While I must confess that I am not au fait with the intricate workings of this project, I do know that it will likely use the search technology that MSN is developing.

Imagine an operating system that monitors all of your activities — with your permission, of course. Every file, every image, word document, mp3, even e-books could be monitored by your computer as it endeavors to anticipate your every need. Not only could an integrated search engine allow you to search files located on your hard drive, but it could also use the information it has collected from these files to make your online search experience even more enjoyable.

It is quite possible that Longhorn or a future OS (Microsoft, Linux or Mac) could become intelligent enough to know that after listening to one of your favorite songs by the 80’s rock band, Heart, your consequent search online for ‘heart’ is more likely to originate from a desire to view the band’s fan site, than that pressing need to visit the web site of The American Heart Association. Your all-encompassing search engine would perhaps be a realization of the Ask Jeeves friendly butler, ready to anticipate your every need.

To Search Where No-one Has Searched Before
When you think about the future of search, it is easy to get excited. Millions (if not billions) of dollars are going to be filling the coffers of the largest search engine providers. They have some of the smartest people in the world working to develop the next great ‘thing’, which will enhance the user experience and serve up better, more relevant search results. Search engine technology is still most definitely in its infancy; how it grows will very much depend upon how much information and privacy the average search engine user is willing to give up. Personally, if I can view search results that more closely match my desired results, I’m willing to give up the name of my favorite pet, my place of birth and my mother’s maiden name!

Author Bio:
Andy Beal is Vice President of Search Marketing for WebSourced, Inc and KeywordRanking.com, global leaders in professional search engine marketing. Highly respected as a source of search engine marketing advice, Andy has had articles published around the world and is a repeat speaker at Danny Sullivan’s Search Engine Strategies conferences. Clients include Real.com, Alaska Air, Peopleclick, Monica Lewinsky and NBC. You can reach Andy at andy@keywordranking.com and view his daily SEO blog at www.searchenginelowdown.com.

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The answer to our puzzle is less than obvious but it lies in the typical behaviors of the two search tools. While there are a number of similarities between the two engines, most notably in behaviors of their spiders, there are also significant differences in the way each engine treats websites. For the most part, Google and Inktomi place the greatest weight on radically different site elements when determining eventual site placement. For Google, strong and relevant link-popularity is still one of the most important factors in achieving strong placements. For Inktomi, titles, meta tags and text are the most important factors in getting good rankings. Both engines consider the number and arrangement of keywords, incoming links, and the anchor text used in links (though Google puts far more weight on anchor text than Inktomi tends to). That seems to be where the similarities end and, the point where SEO tactics need revision. Once Inktomi is adopted as Yahoo’s main listing provider, both Google and Inktomi will drive relativity similar levels of search engine traffic. Each will be as important as the other with the caveat that Inktomi powers two of the big three while Google will only power itself.

2004 - The Year of the Spider-Monkey
The first important factor to think about is how does each spider work?

Entry to Inktomi Does Not Mean Full-Indexing
Getting your site spidered by Inktomi’s bot “Slurp” is essential. Like “Google-bot”, “Slurp” will follow every link it comes across, reading and recording all information. A major difference between Google and Inktomi is that, when Google spiders a new site, there is a good chance of getting placements for an internal page without paying for that specific page to appear in the index. As far as we can tell, that inexpensive rule of thumb does not apply to Inktomi. While it is entirely possible to get entire sites indexed by Inktomi, we have yet to determine if Inktomi will allow all pages within a site to achieve placements without paying for these sites to appear in the search engine returns pages, (SERPs). Remember, Inktomi is a paid-inclusion service which charges webmasters an admission fee based on the number of pages in a site they wish to have spidered. From the information we have gathered, Slurp will follow each link in a site and, if provided a clear path, will spider every page in the site but, pages within that site that are paid-for during the submission will be spidered far more frequently and will appear in the indexes months before non-paid pages. We noted this when examining how many pages Inktomi lists from newer clients versus how many from old clients. We have noticed the older the site, the more pages appear in Inktomi’s database and on SERPs on search engines using the Inktomi database. (This is assuming the webmaster only paid for inclusion of their INDEX page) Based on Inktomi’s pricing, an average sized site of 50 pages could cost up to $1289 per year to have each page added to the paid-inclusion database so it is safer then not to assume that most small-business webmasters won’t want to pay that much.

Google’s Gonna Get You
Google-bot is like the Borg in Star Trek. If you exist on the web and have a link coming to your site from another site in Google’s index, Google-bot will find you and assimilate all your information. As the best known and most prolific spider on the web, Google-bot and its cousin Fresh-bot visit sites extremely frequently. This means that most websites with effective links will get into Google’s database without needing to manually submit the site. As Google currently does not have a paid-inclusion model, every page in a site can be expected to appear somewhere on Google produced SERPs. By providing a way of finding each page in the site (effective internal links), website designers should see their sites appearing in Google’s database within two months of publishing.

We Now Serve Two Masters; Google and Inktomi
OK, that said, how to optimize for both without risking placements at one over the other. The basic answer is to give each of them what they want. For almost a year, much of the SEO industry focused on linking strategies in order to please Google’s PageRank. Such heavy reliance on linking is likely one of the reasons Google re-ordered its algorithm in November. Relevant incoming links are still be extremely important but can no longer be considered the “clincher” strategy for our clients. Getting back to the basics of site optimization and remembering the lessons learned over the past 12- months should produce Top10 placements. SEOs and webmasters should spend a lot of time thinking about titles, tags and text as well as thinking about linking strategies (both internal and external). Keyword arrangement and densities are back on the table and need to be examined by SEOs and their clients as the new backbone of effective site optimization. While the addition of a text-based sitemap has always been considered an SEO Best Practice, it should now be considered an essential practice. The same goes for unique titles and tags on each page of a site. Another essential practice SEOs will have to start harping on is to only work with sites that have unique, original content. I am willing to bet that within 12- months, Inktomi introduces a rule against duplicate content as a means of controlling both the SEO industry and the affiliate marketing industry. Sites with duplicate content are either mirrors, portals or affiliates, none of which should be necessary for the hard-working SEO. While there are exceptional circumstances where duplicate content is needed, more often than not dupe-content is a waste of bandwidth and will impede a SEO campaign more than it would help.

One Last Tip
The last tip for this article is, don’t be afraid to pass higher costs on to the clients because if your client wants those placements soon, paid-inclusion of internal pages will be expected. When one really examines the costs of paid inclusion it is not terribly different than other advertising costs, with one major exception. Most paid-advertising is regionally based (or is prohibitively expensive for smaller businesses). Search engine advertising is, by nature, international exposure and that is worth paying for.

Author Bio:
Jim Hedger is the SEO Manager of StepForth Search Engine Placement Inc. Based in Victoria, BC, Canada, StepForth is the result of the consolidation of BraveArt Website Management, Promotion Experts, and Phoenix Creative Works, and has provided professional search engine placement and management services since 1997. http://www.stepforth.com/ Tel - 250-385-1190 Toll Free - 877-385- 5526 Fax - 250-385-1198

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List of the 5 Do’s
Do Number One:
Take all the time that it takes to do a careful research of all your keywords and key phrases for your site, on the products or services you are trying to sell. Proper keyword research can only be done using Wordtracker, the industry standard when it comes to professional keyword research. Trying to optimize a site without knowing your real keywords is like driving a car at night with no headlights! Some will tell you they use Overture’s free suggestion tool. Although that tool can help you to a limited degree, you should always use Wordtracker for the best results.

Do Number Two:
Make sure you write a short descriptive title tag of what each page of your site is all about, and make sure they are all different. Search engines use the information contained in that title tag, compare them to the text on that page and rank it accordingly. The short description in your title tags will also help your users. The idea here is to keep it as short and descriptive as possible. If you are creating a new page about ‘durable red widgets’ then call that page ‘durable red widgets’. Avoid the temptation of creating title tags that are longer than 30 characters maximum, since they might have a dilution effect in your rankings of certain search engines.

Do Number Three:
Write the main text on your page using the same keywords contained in your title tag. If you are working on a page with a title called ‘New houses in Baltimore’ then be sure that those important keywords are repeated at least two or three times in the main body of your text, without sounding repetitive. A well-designed and carefully written page will ‘read write’ and will not sound like you are repeating yourself. Search engines will rank your page higher if they see a keyword repeated a few times on a page, and will help them ‘build a theme’ throughout your site.

Do Number Four:
Make a complete sitemap of your site, which will help both your users and the search engines at the same time. Having a well-designed sitemap will ensure that each page of your site gets properly indexed by Google and the other search engines. It is important to call that file sitemap.html and not site-map.html or other variations. Additionally, make sure that your sitemap.html file is directly accessible from your homepage and that it uses link text. Link text is always a lot better than a picture or graphic, since search engines won’t be able to read them.

Do Number Five:
To increase your link popularity, participate in a link exchange program. Even in the aftermath of ‘Update Florida’, link popularity in Google today is even more important than ever. All else being equal, the higher your Page Rank, the higher your rankings. Increasing the number of links that point to your site will help you in the results pages. You should only link to sites that are in the same field as your site, and stay away from bad ‘neighbourhoods’ or from so-called link farms or ‘free-for-all’.

List of the Five Don’ts
Don’t Number One:
Don’t ever use cloaking mechanisms or software that need to know the IP address of a search engine spider or anything similar. Cloaking is based on the idea of serving a unique, optimized page for the search engines, while serving a completely different page to the ‘real’ users. Today, most major search engines prohibit the use of such techniques and you risk your site being penalized or banned altogether. Always play it safe and the search engines will treat you right.

Don’t Number Two:
Submit your website once to the search engines and then wait for at least 6 weeks! Don’t use software that automatically submits your sites on a weekly or monthly basis, since it might penalize you in the long run. Today’s modern search engines use automated crawlers or spiders to regularly index your site, so you don’t need to submit more than once. In the case of DMOZ (the Open Directory Project or ODP), you should always wait 8 to 12 weeks, since DMOZ rely only on volunteers to review and index your site. If your site still isn’t listed after 12 weeks, write them a friendly email explaining your problem and that should do it in most cases.

Don’t Number Three:
Don’t entrust your site to people that will submit it to ‘thousands of engines’. There isn’t that many search engines in the first place. There are only a handful of serious search properties you should submit too, and they are used by 99% of the people looking for information. Don’t waste your time or your money and only work with the serious search engines everybody uses.

Don’t Number Four:
Don’t develop your site using Flash technology or similar techniques that the search engines cannot read. As far as your rankings in the search engines go, the best way to develop a site is in using standard technology, such as HTML. Text written in the HTML format is proven technology that all search engines have long recognized and approved, since the beginning of the Internet. Using the right technology will always help your site attain a good position in the SERP’s.

Don’t Number Five:
Don’t deal with so-called SEO experts that promise you Number One or first-page rankings in some engines. There is no such thing as guaranteed number one placement. Ask for referrals and don’t be afraid to ask exactly what techniques your would-be SEO firm uses to achieve a good positioning for your site. Additionally, ask them to put everything in writing, before you sign on the dotted line, and before you give them some of your hard-earned cash.

Author:
Serge Thibodeau of Rank For Sales

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First, let’s recap the main effects of the Google Update Florida as well as my original predictions of the root causes. Then I’ll explain in more detail the root causes as I see them.

Here’s the skinny on the latest Google Dance (from: 11/18/2003)
• Called “Update Florida” because similar to the last Presidential election, it was full of controversy and tons of upset people.

• Many people that had worked hard to build up solid and reputable backlinks appear to have been punished for no obvious reason. Even though their inbound links contain their main keyword phrase and have content related to their site in the title of the inbound linked page.

• Rankings have dropped for main targeted keywords but have not dropped for more specific keyword phrases. Rankings are not just for search engine optimization firms but are for web sites of every kind and variety.

• Results appear to have been repopulated from data that looks to be about 6 months old.

Original Google Update Florida Predictions and Explanations
• Probable: Google is either testing an updated algorithm or they are not factoring in the backlinks created in the past 6 months.

• Not Probable: SEO techniques that could be considered SPAM to Google are being filtered out in an effort to provide more relevant results. I’m doubtful on this one since the results are from about 6 months ago and many of them are not very relevant.

• Probable: Google is doing yet another deep crawl, we haven’t seen on in about 6 months, and they want to build a fresher, more relevant search base from sites currently out there that the Fresh Crawl GoogleBots may not be picking up.

• Not Probable: Many sites that have dropped off will never come back to the top because they have been penalized. As far as we know Google doesn’t penalize sites, they simply list them or delist them. Just like God, there is no gray area with Google, it’s either black or white. If you’re considered a black hat then your site will not show up anywhere in Google’s index, not even for the most descriptive keyword searches.

And the Verdict is In!

Let’s start from the beginning with the first prediction and move down from there.

Prediction no.1
Google is either testing an updated algorithm or they are not factoring in the backlinks created in the past 6 months.

Verdict: I was right and wrong on this one.

I was wrong about Google not factoring in backlinks created in the past 6 months. I was right about them testing new filters. Google has not dumped their old algorithm by any means. Instead they have created new filters to penalize sites who’s pagerank was artificially inflated due to less than reputable linking practices. What are less than reputable linking practices you ask? These include…

• Exact same phrase or a high percentage of the exact same phrase (text links) and alt text (image links) in backlinks. This catches folks caught up in link farms because they don’t rotate the text used to link to their sites.
Solution: Create a link to us page that has at least 5 different links using different keyword phrases. This way you spread out the concentration of text across the general theme of your site.

• Links from sites that are of a different subject matter than the site being linked to. When there is no mention of your subject matter in the body, title, keywords and description of the page linking to your site.

• Links from sites that don’t show up in search results for the keywords used in the links. This is because it is widely accepted that Google as implemented a localrank technology that determines whether or not your backlinks are from sites that rank for similar keywords used in the backlink. If so, then you’re fine, if not then you’re going to have problems getting to the top even if you have a high pagerank.

Prediction no.2
Not Probable: SEO techniques that could be considered SPAM to Google are being filtered out in an effort to provide more relevant results. I’m doubtful on this one since the results are from about 6 months ago and many of them are not very relevant.

Verdict: I was right on this one

Google is not penalizing sites for being overly optimized or for having keywords in the title, description and keywords of the page or having them in the Heading tags or anywhere else. The penalization is only coming into effect when backlinks are overly optimized and not from other industry resource sites. The results appears to be old only because the sites that ranked well earlier weren’t part of the linking scams and they returned to the top for that very reason.

Prediction no.3
Probable: Google is doing yet another deep crawl, we haven’t seen on in about 6 months, and they want to build a fresher, more relevant search base from sites currently out there that the Fresh Crawl GoogleBots may not be picking up.

Verdict: I was right again.

Yes, Google did another deep crawl and refreshed the backlinks of sites and update their PageRank about 2 weeks later. But this deep crawl is done on almost a continual basis now and doesn’t affect the rankings like many thought it did. Rankings were affected due to the implementation of new filters and that’s the only reason why.

Prediction no.4
Not Probable: Many sites that have dropped off will never come back to the top because they have been penalized. As far as we know Google doesn’t penalize sites, they simply list them or delist them. Just like God, there is no gray area with Google, it’s either black or white. If you’re considered a black hat then your site will not show up anywhere in Google’s index, not even for the most descriptive keyword searches.

Verdict: I was wrong.

Well I guess nobody’s perfect. Google is not necessarily “penalizing” sites but they are “filtering” sites out based on whether or not certain filters are triggered by the site for a particular keyword search. While a site may show up for a very detailed search or an off topic search, it may not rank well for a highly competitive (typically commercial) term if they have tripped a filter for that term.

In order to understand my predictions and conclusions correctly I need to explain a few more things that have bubbled up from the Google Update Florida and how they affect search results that are delivered today on Google.

Not only did Google implement filters but they also implemented new features which make it seem like the old algorithm was thrown out and they started over from scratch. While many will tell you Google isn’t as relevant as it once was I will contest that they’re changing to remain the most relevant search engine out there. Here’s a rundown on the new features.

• Google Implemented Stemming Technologies: Stemming means taking a root word and determining all variations of engine for that word. Now a search for “game sites” may return sites optimized for “gaming sites” “gamer sites” “gamed sites”. This increases the number of results delivered for highly targeted keywords and increases the dependency on solid natural optimization.

You can disable stemming by adding the “+” sign in front of each word you want to disable stemming for.

• Google Implemented Plural Searches: This means that a search for “knitting needle” and “knitting needles” will return the same results. Thus increasing the competition again since more results are returned for all keyword searches.

• Implementation of LocalRank: Localrank is a technology that looks at the first (x) number of search results. It can be any number the search engine specifies but is typically around 100. After it looks at those results it determines whether or not any of those sites have linked to you and then ranks sites based on how many “popular” sites for a specific search term have linked to you. This is why it’s critical to have someone help you with your link popularity campaign that understands the intricacies of linking and can provide advice that will not hurt you in the long run. Short term link popularity plans from unrelated sites will do nothing to help out your cause. For more information on LocalRank read this forum at WebmasterWorld.

• Internal Links Discounted: Links from within your site to particular pages in your site do not count as much as they once did. While this doesn’t mean you need to change your site link structure it is worth noting.

Artificial PageRank Deflated: Sites that have more than one link from a particular site are experiencing the law of diminishing returns. No longer are 100 links from a single site weighted as 100 individual links. This just makes sense. I mean, if site A has 100 links from a single site and site B has 20 links from 20 individual sites, I can guarantee you that the 20 links to site B will count more than the 100 links to site A.

In Conclusion
Well I’ll conclude my ramblings with a recap. Google has made many changes and has implemented several filters as well as new algorithm features to ensure it has the most reliable search results set on the internet. In order to climb your way back to the top you need to understand LocalRank, PageRank changes, Proper Link Reputation and Link Popularity, and be aware of anti-spam measures that need to be taken. It all boils down to common sense. Make your site user friendly and easy to navigate, encourage others to link to you by giving them some form of incentive, don’t use the exact same phrase in your backlinks, use good titles that explain what each page is about and keep it simple. By following these rules you can weather any search engine algorithm change and remain at the top with a lot less stress.

Author Bio:
Jason Dowdell is the founder and CEO of http://www.GlobalPromoter.com, a search engine optimization and marketing firm specializing in educating and empowering customer websites. Jason is also the founder of TurboPromoter.com, a web-based seo/sem project management suite comprised of professional seo tools, in-depth tutorials and an integrated help system.

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But like all advertising, you need a good strategy to get your money’s worth. I find that too many people running their first PPC campaign make mistakes that can quickly turn expensive.

In this article I’ll offer some basic advice about bidding and keyword selection to help you run a smart PPC campaign.

Just What Can You Pay Per Click?
The most important thing to know before starting your PPC campaign is how much you can afford to bid for a keyword. High traffic keywords on Overture and Google ‘ the leading PPC providers - can cost $5.00 per click for a top ranking. Can you afford that?

Consider this: the typical e-commerce site converts about 2% of its visitors. That means you need to bring 50 visitors to your site before you make a sale. At $5.00 per click, you’ll spend $250 dollars to generate one sale. Ouch!

Keep in mind that you usually want one of the top 3 listings for a keyword. These are the listings distributed to most of the PPC engine’s partner sites. For example, a #3 ranking on Overture will place your listing on Yahoo, MSN and Alta Vista. A #7 listing won’t appear on any of these search engines.

So you’re caught in a catch-22: you want a high PPC ranking to get traffic, but the top rankings for popular words are too expensive.

Cast Your Net Broadly
The solution is to cast your net broadly, targeting a large number of less popular keywords. These words are usually less expensive and, taken as a group, can give you a considerable volume of traffic.

For example, suppose you run a ski resort. The keyword ’ski vacation’ currently receives over 60,000 searches per month. That’s great, but it costs $5.01 per click for the top ranking. Instead of competing head-to-head for that keyword, you would be better off choosing ’ski trip’ (4,771 monthly searches at $0.57 per click for the top spot) and ’ski lodge’ (4,244 monthly searches at $0.55 per click for the top spot).

By targeting a number of these less popular keywords, we get nearly the same traffic as if we had targeted ’ski vacation,’ but at a fraction of the cost.

Note that this is the opposite of the strategy you typically use in your search engine optimization campaign. In an SEO campaign, you focus on perhaps a half dozen high traffic words. That’s because it takes a lot of hard word to earn a top listing.

In contrast, it’s relatively easy to create a new PPC listing. Since you don’t pay unless someone clicks on your listing, there’s no added cost for doing this, so targeting a large number of keywords makes sense.

The word ’ski chalet’ only receives 930 searches per month. So what? At $0.52 per click, it’s worth adding to your PPC campaign.

It’s common for PPC advertisers to target dozens of keywords. I’ve managed PPC campaigns for clients using over 1,000 words.

Smart PPC Management
The downside of this approach is that it can be hard to manage such a large number of keywords. You’ll want to track your listings, making sure your rankings haven’t dropped. Plus, you’ll want to know which keywords are sending you traffic and converting visitors into customers.

Many businesses also use a PPC bid management software like Bid Rank or GoToast to manage their listings. These software packages track your listings, and can adjust your bid if you drop in the rankings.

Many companies also outsource the management of their PPC campaigns. Most SEOs now offer PPC management services. These options cost money, but they usually pay for themselves by running your campaigns more efficiently.

Keep in mind that you don’t have to use a software package or a consultant to start your PPC campaign. But you do need to know what sort of cost per click you can afford. If you decide that $2.00 per click is your maximum bid, then stick with it. Don’t get into an emotional bidding war if you lose a top ranking. It’s much smarter to look for new and cheaper keywords. Cast your net broadly and you’ll save money.

Author Bio:
Christine Churchill is President of KeyRelevance.com a full service search engine marketing firm. She is also on the Board of Directors of the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) and serves as co-chair of the SEMPO Technical Committee.

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In my continuing series on the effects of the Google “Florida Update”, in my previous article, I discussed how the OOP (Over Optimization Penalty) could in some cases have been applied to certain sites that could have in fact been overly optimized on some of their main keywords. Researching and reading on the Hilltop algorithm, I found out that it isn’t even new- it dates back to early 2001.

As you might expect, and as is always the case, Google remains very silent on any of this, so my analysis is based on many observations and some testing, using the Google.com search engine. But before delving into how all of this may affect your positioning in Google, let me explain what the “Hilltop” algorithm is all about and how it works in Google.

For those of you that may be new to search engine algorithms, I suggest you read on Google’s Page Rank algorithm, as a primer, and also “Anatomy of a large-scale hypertext search engine”, written by Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the co-founders of Google.
In its most basic form, the Google PageRank algorithm determines the importance and the relevance of a website by the number of links pointing to it. Following this principle, as an example, Google would rank a page higher if it has 100 links pointing to it, when compared to another page with only 10 links. So far, so good and this principle makes a lot of sense when you think of it.

Definition Of The Hilltop Algorithm
In contrast to PageRank, Google’s Hilltop algorithm determines the relevance and importance of a specific web page determined by the search query or keyword used in the search box.

In its basic, simplest form, instead of relying only on the PageRank value to find “authoritative pages”, it would be more useful if that “PR value” would be more relevant by the topic or subject of that same page.

In such a way, computing links from documents that are relevant to a specific topic or relevant document of a web page would be of greater value to a searcher. In 1999 and 2000, when the Hilltop algorithm was being developed by engineer Krishna Bharat and others at Google, they called such relevant documents “expert documents” and links from these expert documents to the target documents determined their “score of authority”. Again, it does make a lot of sense.

For more in-depth information on this important topic, read the Hilltop Paper that was written by Krishna Bharat himself and is available from the University of Toronto’s computer science department.

Using The Hilltop Algorithm To Define Related Sites
Google also uses the Hilltop algorithm to better define how a site is related to another, such as in the case of affiliate sites or similar properties. The Hilltop algorithm is in fact Google’s technology and ‘ammunition’ in detecting sites that use heavy cross-linking or similar strategies!

As a side note, Google’s Hilltop algorithm bases some of its computations mostly from “expert documents”, as noted above.

Hilltop also requires that it can easily locate at least 2 expert documents voting for the same Web page. If Hilltop cannot find a minimum of 2 such “expert documents”, the results it will return will be absolute zero. All of what this really means is that Hilltop actually refuses to pass on any arbitrary values that may be relevant to the rest of Google’s ranking formula and thus becomes inappropriate for the search term or keyword used in the search box by the user.

So, What’s In Store For Hilltop In 2004?
Since we are only at the beginning of the year, some of you may ask: “That’s all really cool, but what will happen to websites in 2004, in the aftermath of “Hurricane Florida”? That’s a great question, and many articles have been written on this topic in the last six to seven weeks.

Today and in the past, many search engines stopped valuing certain search factors subject to abuse from certain webmasters or site owners, such as keywords meta tags. For that reason alone and since its very beginnings, Google has always completely ignored meta tags altogether in the first place.

In contrast, visible sections of a website are less subject to “spam-dexing” (search engine spam), since these ‘visible pages’ (!) need to make good sense to the average human “real” visitor.

The Reasons Behind A New Algorithm At Google
Since the inception of the Google search engine in 1998, the PageRank algorithm has been pretty much the benchmark used at Google to determine search relevance and importance. However, there is a fundamental design weakness and certain limitations involved in the PageRank algorithm system and Google has known about it for quite some time now.

PageRank’s ‘intrinsic value’ is simply not paramount to search terms or specific keywords and therefore a relatively high PR web page that only contained a reference to an off-topic search term or keyword phrase, often got a high ranking for that search phrase. This is exactly what Google is trying to eliminate with its Hilltop algorithm. Google always tries as best as it can to make its search engine as relevant as possible.

Coming back to Krishna Bharat, he filed for the Hilltop patent in January of 2001, with Google as an assignee. Thus, Google recognized the important improvements this new algorithm could bring to their search ranking features when combined with their existing PageRank algorithm.

Google’s Hilltop algorithm could now work in conjunction with its older technology (PR). It is my observation that Hilltop could have gone through many improvements from its original year 2000 design before the current implementation, notably the one that Google started to deploy on or around November 16, 2003, at the very beginning of its November update (Florida update).

In the past two years, I think that Hilltop has been “fine-tuned” by Google and now represents a serious contender to the PageRank algorithm, originally developed by Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, back in early 1998.

Hilltop And Google’s Massive Index Of Over 3.3 Billion Pages
Since its very beginning, Google has basically been operating most of its search engine through about ten thousand Pentium servers (some call them inexpensive personal computers), evenly distributed mostly through some major data centers located anywhere on the planet. That is basically how Google has built its hardware technology, from the ground up.

Coming back to the Hilltop algorithm, if we make an observation on how about 10,000 servers can have the dynamic processing ‘intelligence’ to rapidly determine and locate “expert documents” from hundreds of thousands of different and ‘topical’ Web pages, it is clear that Google’s Hilltop algorithm is at work in such a formidable task.

From what I can see and from what I know of search engines, since November 16, Google is now running a form of batch processing (similar to the mid-seventies days of computing, using bulky mainframe computers the size of large refrigerators, except that today, those 10,000 servers replace those mainframes) of frequent keywords, key phrases and search terms. Google then stores these results in its massive database, ready to be used as soon as a searcher makes a query using those search terms.

How Google does this is very simple: it has immediate access of the most popular and frequent keywords used and in the search terms used daily from its large database, and in real time, collected from actual searches used by everyday users, as well as actual keywords and key phrases used in its AdWords PPC (pay-per-click) ad program.

It is my observation that Google has apparently set a certain arbitrary threshold value to the actual number of searches a real-life search keyword needs to have in practice before it triggers a set limit in the Hilltop algorithm, and is then sent to a temporary buffer for later batch processing in its whole complex system.

Looking back to the ‘old days of the monthly dances’, it would appear that Google’s Hilltop algorithm operates on the combined total of most popular search terms used once a month, hence the old “Google dance effect”, prior to November 16, 2003.

Additionally, and this is something I have noticed even before the Florida update, incremental and smaller bits of batch processing is likely being done more frequently by Google on certain search terms that increase in popularity much faster, such as a major news event, for example when the US captured Saddam Hussein in December 2003. Such short-term events or news would qualify for the short-term “buffer” and would be processed as such by Hilltop.

More ’standard’ and ordinary results for the longer term would be timed in with the 10,000 servers about once a month, which again, would make perfect sense. Search terms that do not qualify to kick in the Hilltop algo continue to show you the old Google ranking.

Conclusion
In concluding this topic, as Atul Gupta and myself have written in some of our previous articles, webmasters and site owners need to think ‘out of the box’ if they want to thrive and continue to have sites that return favourable ROI’s. As always, link popularity is even more important now than ever before.

Additionally, try to get a listing in as many directories as possible, beginning with DMOZ (the Open Directory Project). Avoid FFA (Free for All) or link farms in every respect. Those are a thing of the past and might even get you penalized.

If your budget allows it, get into a good PPC ad program, such as AdWords or Overture. You might also want to consider some good paid inclusion search engines that deliver real value for your investment.

Note that since January 15, (and as expected) Yahoo has completely dropped its listings with Google, so you may also want to look at the possibility of a paid listing in Yahoo as a safety measure. Yahoo is now taking its results from Inktomi, which is also in the Yahoo family of search properties, since Yahoo bought Inktomi last year.

Author:
Serge Thibodeau of Rank For Sales

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PADI - The way the world learns to dive
PADI Americas - English, PADI Canada - English, PADI Europe - English, PADI Nordic - English, PADI International Limited - English, PADI Japan - English, PADI Asia …
Description: The largest and most recognized diving organization around the world with courses ranging from Snorkeling…
Category: Recreation > Outdoors > … > Dive Organizations > Training Agencies www.padi.com/ - 9k - Dec 27, 2003 - Cached - Similar pages

Oops! …oh, well - at least their Description, taken from their editor-assigned ODP directory description, is relevant - but their snippet leaves something to be desired.

Can the snippet entice users to click?
Can the snippet be changed to entice users to click on your listing?

Of course, this is important because potential site visitors are judging whether to click or not based in part on those snippets. So, how can one go about changing Google’s snippet advantageously? Let’s take a look and see.

For starters, we’ve found that Google actually pulls the snippet description from several different places on your Web page. Let’s think about this for a minute. If we could determine where Google is pulling our description, perhaps we might be able to change that wording to “produce” a description that more accurately describes our page.

Where is Google pulling the snippet description?
Currently Google is pulling the snippet from any one or combination of the following areas:

1. META description tag (although Google doesn’t use contents to determine relevancy). 2. First ALT text found on the page. 3. First text found on the page (which may be a heading tag, body text, etc.). 4. Additional heading tags on the page. 5. Additional body text found on the page. 6. Additional ALT text on the page. 7. Navigation bar on the left-hand side of the page (which is rarely a relevant description of a site!). 8. Copyright information at the bottom of the page. 9. Wherever the keyword phrase is found.

Important Note

One thing that’s very important to note is that the snippet is determined by the search term. In other words, if you search for your company’s name, you’ll get a different description than what you would get if you search for a keyword phrase that is relevant for your site. Generally, Google appears to be pulling the description from areas of the page that surround the usage of that particular keyword phrase. The obvious question is, Is it the first usage of the keyword phrase? Usually, but not always.

Another Important Note

Since most people aren’t going to be searching for the name of your business, don’t try to change your Google snippet description based on a search for your company name. Instead, search for the most important keyword phrase for each important page of your site, and then make changes accordingly.

Let’s look at some examples
If you search for “search engine seminars” (no quotes) at Google, you’ll find these results:

Search Engine Seminars–your path to success on the Web!
… Search Engine Seminars. Is your Web site achieving the success that you want, or that it deserves? … At our Search Engine Seminars . . . you learn by doing. …
www.searchengineworkshops.com/articles/search-engine-seminars.html - 8k - Cached - Similar pages

Here’s the first text on the page:

Search Engine Seminars

Is your Web site achieving the success that you want, or that it deserves? Are you getting any traffic? Is that traffic converting to sales? Have you considered attending a search engine seminar to learn how to take a struggling Web site and bring it to the top of the rankings?

Search engine seminars, conducted by Search Engine Workshops, are held at various locations across the globe. These seminars are totally different than attending a large search engine conference, where you listen to a speaker discuss theories from the front of the room.

At our Search Engine Seminars . . . you learn by doing

And, here’s the section of that page, which shows the META description tag:

Search Engine Seminars–your path to success on the Web!

The META description tag is obviously not being used as the snippet description for this page under the keyword phrase, “search engine seminars.” Could it be because the plural version of the keyword phrase, which is what we searched for, isn’t found in the META description tag? Possibly.

So where is the snippet being pulled from?
Here’s the snippet description again:

Search Engine Seminars. Is your Web site achieving the success that you want, or that it deserves? … At our Search Engine Seminars . . . you learn by doing. …

In this example, the snippet appears to be pulled from the first heading tag (”Search Engine Seminars” at the top of the page), followed by the first sentence in the body text, followed by the next heading tag (”At our Search Engine Seminars . . . you learn by doing . . .”). Notice that the second heading tag is not the second instance of the usage of the keyword phrase. In the second paragraph of the body text, the keyword phrase is used as a hyperlink.

So what am I going to do with this knowledge?
In this example, nothing, because the description accurately describes the Web page. I’m not going to change a thing.

If the snippet description of your page accurately describes the page, leave it alone!
(Continued in Part 2. For the complete article, write to robin@searchengineworkshops.com)

(Writer’s Note: This article offers tips for changing your Google description in order to increase the click throughs to your site. However, this has nothing to do with trying to increase your page’s search engine rankings.)

Author Bio:
Robin Nobles with Search Engine Workshops teaches SEO strategies the “stress free” way through hands-on, search engine marketing workshops in locations across the globe and online search engine marketing courses (http://www.onlinewebtraining.com). Visit the World Resource Center, a new networking community for search engine marketers. (http://www.sew-wrc.com)

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Wait To Change
So were you an innocent bystander caught in the onslaught of sites dumped in the Google Florida update? Many people lost their hard-earned ranking, even though they did nothing “wrong”. Many websites that follow Google’s rules for optimization to the letter were still caught up in the carnage. Unfortunately, many businesses were devastated by these changes, especially heading into the holiday months.

What to do? As difficult as it may have been to make sense of Google’s changes, for many, the simplest course of action was to simply do nothing. While perhaps contrary to a normal “it’s broken so I need to fix it” approach, for many webmasters “do nothing” has proven to be the correct course of action. Since the update, many sites that were exiled to search engine Siberia have returned to nearly their former ranking, shaken but intact. From all appearances, Google simply changed their algorithm and may not have gotten it quite right. Additional “tweaks” subsequent to the Florida update seem to have brought some sanity back to their results.

Who Will Stay Tops In The Search Engines?
You never know who will become the leader in search engines. It was only a few years ago that directories were the major force–until the upstart search engine Google came along. Google got its start about five years ago and hasn’t looked back. As long as Google provides good results for its users, it is in a good position to stay on top. However, with MSN working on the creation of its own search engine and Yahoo’s acquisition of Overture (which includes AllTheWeb and AltaVista), things could get interesting in 2004. Microsoft is always a force to be reckoned with, and Yahoo certainly has the tools to become a major competitor to Google.

Inktomi’s New Role
Inktomi may play an important role in this growth since it is now owned by Yahoo. Keep an eye on this engine: it provides secondary results for MSN and will probably replace Google in supplying primary results in Yahoo. Inktomi’s importance may also increase in MSN once the Microsoft property stops using LookSmart for its primary results.

To see which pages you have listed in Inktomi, use the Inktomi Pure Search function from Positiontech. Inktomi often adds a few free pages to its databases. Check first to see which pages you may already have in their database for free before using Paid Inclusion for your most important pages.

Other Ways To Promote Your Website
Keep your eye on search engine news. Google was an up and coming engine a few years ago, you never know what will happen in the industry so stay on your toes. Continue to promote your website through links in topical directory listings. Search for websites that contain topics related to yours. Link when it “makes sense”. Don’t forget traditional means of marketing your website: print ads, brochures, magazine articles and more may help to make a difference. One of the best ways to promote yourself online and increase your link popularity is to write articles on your subject. Find websites that accept free content and submit your ezine, articles or newsletters to those websites to build your link popularity. Newsletters, forums, FAQ’s, blogs and tips on your subject are all viable means to inform your visitors and bring in new traffic to your website. Don’t forget to archive your newsletters and articles on your website, which works to build your site size and increase link popularity through your authoritative knowledge of your subject. You aren’t a writer? Consider working with a copywriter to help build your good content.

Paid Inclusion And Pay Per Click
If you haven’t ventured into using Paid Inclusion or PPC services, consider using them to help balance the changes in your traffic. Use a Paid Inclusion subscription for your most important pages, or submit dynamically generated pages that aren’t being picked up by the search engine robots so they will appear regularly in the search engine database. You can start your PPC bidding in small doses. Look for some of the secondary smaller terms that don’t cost as much but will still bring in traffic your competitors may miss. Take a look at some of the smaller PPC engines available out there, a little traffic from a lot of places can add up.

For more information on choosing keyword phrases, read our article Finding Targeted Keyword Phrases Your Competitors Miss.

Content, Content, Content
The biggest mistake I see webmasters make is creating a website with little content. Don’t rely on a few paragraphs of text with optimization to convince search engine robots to stick around. A skeleton website does not make a good impression on anyone. Build the content of your website. Google’s new algorithm may be a sign of search engine robots getting a little smarter when it comes to understanding what your website content is about. Build information that will keep your visitors at your website. Become an authority on your subject so other websites will naturally link to you because your information is invaluable. Remember, Google is interested in serving those who use its search capabilities, just as you should be interested in serving your visitors. Give as much real content information as able to your visitors, they will thank you with return visits.

And In The End…
In the end, the information you give is often equal to the response you receive. Make the effort to become an authority site on your subject. Building the groundwork of your website with quality information and broadening your methods of marketing will help sustain you during the search engine wars upcoming.

Author Bio:
Daria Goetsch is the founder and Search Engine Marketing Consultant for Search Innovation Marketing, a Search Engine Promotion company serving small businesses. Besides running her own company, Daria is an associate of WebMama.com, an Internet web marketing strategies company. She has specialized in search engine optimization since 1998, including three years as the Search Engine Specialist for O’Reilly & Associates, a technical book publishing company.

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