There's a common misconception among webmasters that simply submitting your Web site to hundreds of search engines will increase traffic to your site. In reality, it takes planning, hard work, and consistency to build search engine traffic.
You can't just push a few buttons and watch your hit counter go crazy. Promotion doesn't work that way in the real world and it's no different on the 'Net.
There are three facts to consider while developing your search engine strategy:
1. Most of your traffic will come from only a handful of search engines and directories. Over 90% of all search engine traffic comes from the top 10. Concentrate on the major search engines and directories. That's where most of the world is searching.
2. Search engine promotion is an effective LONG-TERM strategy for creating PERPETUAL traffic for your web site. It can take months to get listed at some search services. But once you build the traffic, it keeps on coming!
3. Search engine promotion is not a "quick fix." It takes time, effort, and patience to build the traffic. But the dividends are worth it in the end.
Following are eight basic steps you need to take while developing your search engine promotion strategy:
1. Optimize your site for submission to human-reviewed directories. If you prepare your site for Yahoo!, you'll be ready for any directory. See "How to Get Listed with Yahoo!" for more information:
http://submitpro.net/articles/yahoo.htm
2. Optimize your site for spider engines. Focus on one keyword for each page and make it easy for search engine spiders to crawl through your site. See "Optimizing Your Site for Spider Engines" for more information:
http://submitpro.net/articles/spider_engines.htm
3. Submit your site to the Top 100 search engines and directories paying close attention to the guidelines for each. Most of your traffic will come from the major search engines and directories. However, being listed with the minor ones will bring some traffic and improve your link popularity.
5. Verify that your site is listed with the major search engines and directories. Don't worry about the smaller engines. If you don't get listed within the allotted time, resubmit and follow up with an email or a phone call if necessary.
6. Create one keyword-focused page each day. Optimize it for search engines and include relevant content for visitors. Link all your pages together so spiders can crawl through them all.
7. Check your stats each month and resubmit pages that haven't received any traffic. I've found that some pages get found using keywords that the page was not optimized for in the first place. So checking your position for a specific keyword doesn't always tell the whole story. If a page gets traffic, leave it alone
.
8. Resubmit your home page to the Top 100 search engines every 2-3 months to keep them fresh. However, never resubmit to Yahoo! once you get listed.
Creating a promotion strategy for search engines (and sticking to it) is a vital aspect of your overall marketing plan. These guidelines should give you a good start towards making it happen.
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