Here is the followup to the Top 10 Article.
Click on the links below for more information.

Tell Me More About Search Engines?

In the first article, my goal was to give a small overview of Meta Tags and help everyone understand how those Meta Tags are interpreted by the Search Engines. In this article, I will expand a little and try to explain what services are needed for your site and what things to avoid and why. If you need more personalized help with your website, in the areas of promotions, website design or development, please call 402-477-8300 or email us.

When the Internet was young and Search Engines were new, there were many contenders for the best search engine. As time has moved forward and the Internet matured, many of the search engines have merged with one another or have disappeared entirely. As of this writing, it is reported that as much as 87% of all of the Internet searches done everyday are done on Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com) or Google (www.google.com). Because they have such a command of the market, these are the two engines I will concentrate on to give you more information.

Google has rapidly become the premier Search Engine. Google itself is free and will eventually put your site within their listings; but with the huge number of new websites coming online everyday, the estimates are that it may take as long as a year before they will get to yours. One way to get your website listed sooner is to signup for the Inktomi Inclusion program. Google has a contract with Inktomi ( www.inktomi.com) to provide them with a list of websites that has changed recently, so that Google can evaluate those sites first and more often than the standard website out on the Internet. If you signup with Inktomi, they will tell the Google spiders that your site has changed every 48 hours for an entire year, even if you never change any content. At the current price of $39 per URL, this is a great way to get your site listed right away and also have Google visit your site more frequently. We only suggest placing your home page with them, since the spiders will follow every link and evaluate all of the pages of your site once they are on your home page.

Yahoo! and Google both offer Pay-Per-Click services, in which you can join a program that will allow you to buy "sponsored results" or "sponsored links" so that your website can come up on their results page ahead of all the other website listings. I am not going to go into any detail on this form of promotion, because it is complicated and time consuming and will only help a very small percentage of the website community. The websites it will help are the ones that are selling to a very specific market, therefore a very specific keyword or phrase. It you would like more detail or help deciding if Pay-Per-Click is right for your website, contact me via phone or email.

Overall, Google, Yahoo! and Inktomi are recommended for anyone that has a website and wants to get more traffic. As a word of caution, as with anything else, avoid any program or offer that promises (guarantees) to put your website into the Top 10. In nearly all cases, these are simply programs to separate you from your money. If you read the fine print carefully, most of them that have a guarantee that says if they do not accomplish getting your site into the Top 10 like they said they would, they will continue to service your website for an extended period of time. I have never seen one that would actually give your money back if they did not do the job. Also, stay away from the submitting services, these are usually legitimate services, but the service they perform is unnecessary since less than 13% of the possible searches are being done on any engine other than Yahoo! or Google. If your goal is to be listed with as many search engines as possible, join the least expensive submitting service possible and only pay for the shortest period of time they offer. I hope this gives more insight to Search Engines and what is important.

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