A recent Georgia Tech study found that 85% of people discover new web sites through search engines. Getting your site listed on the first few search results pages that are displayed when users type key search words related to your product or service can lead to large numbers of new customers and sales. The trick is determining how to make this happen.
 

Background

• Most popular search engine sites include Google, AOL, MSN, Excite, Lycos, HotBot
• If your site is not listed in the first 2 or 3 pages of search results (20-30 listings), you won’t be found
• Different search engines use different ways to index and rank sites
• To keep up with search engine developments, try www.searchenginewatch.com which also offers a subscription newsletter to stay current
• Learn from the top-ranked pages. Use the search engine you seek  to be listed in and perform a search using the keywords you plan to use to describe your site. View the source of pages that are found, especially competitors, to view the Meta Tags, especially the keywords and title, that they used. These appear at the top of the source code.
   

Registering

• Enrolling your site with search engines involves going to each, filling out an online Add URL form and submitting it. Crosslinkz.com offers links to the Add URL pages for many search engines.
• Yahoo - Submit directly (docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest) and pay an “express” fee to have human review your site and add it to Yahoo’s database. Non-express site submissions take 9-12 weeks to be listed.
• Google - Ranks sites based on external links to it from other sites. This itself is a strong reason to use link exchanges.
   

Automated Registration Services

You can also register your site by using semi-automated submission services such as submitit.com ($59 per year to submit your site to over 400 search engines, addme.com (Free registration for the top 15 search engines) or registerit.com. Make sure they submit your site info each month and provide an activity record. Costs will range between $100 and $150 per year.

Meta Tags

Meta tags describe the contents of a web page and are used by search engines to index and rank sites for search purposes. The three main meta tags are Title, Description, and Keywords.

• Title - Each page on your site should have a title, which identifies your site to the search engines. The title should summarize your site and should be limited to 20 words. It is the most frequently searched component and your most important keyword. Most search engines will not register longer titles.
   
• Description - Short sentence that describes what is on a web site page.
   
• Keywords - Common terms a customer might use to find your site. Use specific terms including your site’s name, product names, and ingredients, that are unique to your site.
• Make sure the most important key words also appear in the title meta tag
• If your site ranks low in the search rankings, change some keywords, add them to your page text, then resubmit your site to the search engines to see if your ranking has improved.
• Brainstorm possible keywords you think people would use to find a site like yours using a search engine. Interview staff and customers and narrow the list down to 25 words.
• Different pages will have different keywords.

Software that assists you in being listed in search engines

• Major Submit (Red Lazer Technologies) - Submits your URL to some of the higher-end search engines (Alta Vista, Excite, Hot Bot, Infoseek, Lycos, Northern Light). You enter your name, email address, URL and select the sites you wish to submit to.
  Cost: $0 (Shareware)
• AddWeb Web Site Promoter (Cyberspace HQ) - Complete suite of web site promotion tools: Submits web pages to search engines, analyzes and optimizes pages for optimal search engine ranking, manages link trading, tracks site traffic statistics (where visitors came from and what keywords they used), tracks your ranking on the search engines, provides an interface for pay per click site banner ads
  Cost: Free 30 day trial, $70 to buy
• Rank Insight (Pwqsft) - Search engine ranking algorithm analysis software. Helps you analyze top-ranking pages on Google only. (Note: Google now handles over 73% of internet searches). Provides insight into why a page is ranked highly. Can search all links indexed by Google and automatically analyzes each link’s page rank.
  Cost: Free 30 day trial, $129 to buy
• Web Position Gold 2 (Web Position Gold Software) - Offers nine tools to help boost your web pages into top 10 rankings. Supports over 85 search engines. Submits pages to search engines regularly. Generates six different management reports on your site’s rankings. Generates optimized doorway pages for high rankings. Tracks visitors and where they come from. Automatically checks your site’s rankings.
  Cost: 30 day, 3 search engine trial - Free
             Standard version - 5 search engines - $149
             Professional version - Unlimited search engines - $349