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Search Engine Myths & Legends
| Myth #1: There
must be an easy way to get to the top of the major search
engines. |
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If it were really easy to figure out exactly how to
get placed on the first page, everyone would do it.
There is competition for those top positions. |
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People at the top of the search engines are the ones
who really, really, want to be there. They have spent
the money and they have taken the time to discover the
tricks. They continue to monitor their placement and
resubmit their pages to make sure that they are always
on top. |
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To stay ahead of the game, the major search engines
change their methods for determining relevancy rankings
every few month (this is usually when they discover
that a lot of people have learned the latest technique
and are all sneaking into a side door). They also try
to fool the tricksters, even putting irrelevant pages
at the top of the list just to cause confusion. |
| Myth #2: As soon as my site is
submitted to all the rest of the search directories,
everyone will find me. |
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It takes time for the computers to process all of
the hundreds of thousands of requests that they have
everyday. You're not going to see the web page show
up for several days or several weeks. Many people assume
it is something that happens instantly, probably because
of outrageous claims like "Put your site on 300
search engines for $39 dollars". |
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You will never be on all the search directories. There
are several hundred around the world. Even if you could
automate the submission process, you can't automate
the ranking process, since each directory has unique
criteria for sorting and listing the pages. |
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A computer is not able to determine which categories
would give you best exposure or rewrite your headline
to make it stand out on the page. As a result, many
useful resource sites are now simply depositories for
automatic submissions, and no one will ever find the
pages that are listed there. |
| Myth #3: There has got to be a
way that everyone can find my site without spending
any time or money. |
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Some companies use the "free" and "easy"
ploy as a come-on for an up sell opportunity.
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If you want the traffic and the exposure, you are
going to pay for the education or you are going to pay
for the service. There's no other way to do it. |
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It takes time, effort, knowledge, and continual monitoring
to keep the position you worked so hard to get in the
first place. |
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Please do not misunderstand: the competition is fierce
and severe for those top spots, which is why the search
engines can charge so much money to sell keyword banners.
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You must be passionate about being on top and you
have to learn to do it well. Anything else is not worth
doing. Remember though, you will not get any real return
until you do it properly. |
| Myth #4: We can submit your site
to over 300,000 search engines and directories every
month. (i.e. http://www.trafficmagnet.net) |
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The top 20 search engines get 95% of the traffic.
Nearly three-quarters of all search-engine referrals
come from the top four services--Yahoo, Google, MSN
and AOL Search--according to figures released in late
May by StatMarket, a rating service. |
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It's a pipe dream to believe you can buy a low-cost
program and have your optimization all taken care of.
Have you seen ads for software programs that claim they'll
"submit your site to hundreds of engines"?
Many of these programs are worthless, and could get
you labeled as a spammer. Other programs on the marketplace
create "junk" doorway pages that could also
get you labeled as a spammer. |
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Optimizing a site so it contains relevant search terms
is a better use of a Webmaster's time than trying to
get into 100,000 or places or more. |
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Pick three or four words you want people to associate
with your site, then make sure these words appear where
search engines look for them. |
| Myth #5: Search engines generate
100% of traffic to Web sites. |
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A new release from StatMarket has found that web users
are more likely to find web sites through direct navigation
than a year ago, but this gain hasn't been at the expense
of search engine usage. |
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As of February 6, 2002, about 52 percent of Internet
users found web sites via direct navigation (entering
a URL into a browser) or through bookmarks. This was
up from 46 percent, a year ago. |
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In contrast, "surfing" links to find web
sites dipped, dropping from 46 percent a year ago to
about 41 percent in the most recent survey. |
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Search engine usage stayed the same, when compared
to a year ago, with about 7 to 8 percent of Internet
users finding web sites via search engines. That low
percentage surprised people, when it first came out
last year, given how popular search engines are as a
web resource. More importantly, the "low"
figures don't reflect the importance of search engines
for people in initially finding web sites they like,
which they'll later visit directly. |
| Myth #6: I can be at the top in
search engines using only one general search word. |
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Over 100,000 web pages are listed on Yahoo when you
search for the word "business". You are shown
20 of them at a time. What makes one think they have
any chance of getting listed on the top versus the other
99,000 pages? |
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Unfortunately, search engines don't have the ability
to ask a few questions to focus your search. |
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Pick three or four words you want people to associate
with your site, then make sure these words appear where
search engines look for them. |
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Your target keywords should always be at least two
or more words long. Don't waste your time fighting the
odds. Pick phrases of two or more words, and you'll
have a better shot at success. |
| Myth #7: We can handle optimization
"In-house." |
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Optimization and positioning used to be fairly easy;
but not anymore. Some tactics that were ok (such as
submitting your site to search engines repeatedly on
a regular basis) will now get you in trouble as a "spammer"
and could cost you your rankings. |
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To learn just the basics of what works, you'd have
to memorize about 500 pages of instructions. To keep
up with changes, you'll need to read another 50 pages
a month and get in lots of hands-on experience along
the way. |
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You probably need outsourced expertise if any of
the following are true:
- You use your site for sales lead generation
- You have multiple products (or content articles)
- Your site features lots of Flash, graphics or
frames
- You sell in more than one country
- You fear your in-house person may have 'spammed'
search engines by mistake
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| Myth #8: Optimization experts
are too expensive. |
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Optimization is generally far cheaper by CPM than
any other marketing campaign you can conduct online
or offline. It costs less than direct mail, renting
broadcast E-mail lists, banner ads, print ads, booths
at trade booths, etc. |
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Confusion may arise because pricing is all over the
map in this profession. Some experts have six figure
price tags, some have cost just a few hundred dollars.
However, most cost a reasonable amount -- a few thousand
dollars can cover the cost of an entire site getting
optimized for and positioned in the 10 search engines
which are responsible for more than 80% of Web traffic
today. |
| Myth #9: You can't predict the
ROI of optimization. |
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Wrong again. Optimization and positioning are fairly
easy to budget for once you have three key figures:
- How many people search for words, terms or phrases
that relate to your products or services each month?
- Once a visitor enters your site (or special landing
page for a search term), what's your conversion
rate to turning them into a sale (or sales lead)?
- How much is your average sale?
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| Myth #10: Search engine traffic
isn't as good as visitors from other sources. |
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Companies spend thousands on direct mail, E-mail and
online advertising campaigns to drive targeted traffic
to their Web sites -- but according to CyberAtlas, 46%
of marketers spend less than .5% of their budget on
optimization. Could it be because they think traffic
from more expensive marketing campaigns is better?
Fact is, the companies that have optimized have said
repeatedly that both the sales leads and direct sales
they get from search engine visitors are equal or better
than what they get from more expensive marketing campaigns.
Optimize to get the Internet users who are online right
now actively looking for a product or service like yours.
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