There's only 3 search engines you need to worry about... not thousands!

There are literally MILLIONS of search engines out on the web and it would be impossible to get decent ranking on any number of them. Thankfully however, you don't need to worry about the majority. The search market is dominated by three main players, google, yahoo!, and live (formerly MSN). These sites make up the majority of search traffic globally (with google as the biggest player), so much so, thats its not worth devoting time to any of the others.




A further reason is that many of the other search engines are outsourcing their search to these three big players, i.e. alta vista, the big name in search when I first started using the internet, runs off the yahoo! engine. And apparently, AOL uses google.




In a more personal example, an associate of mine operates a regional information/business directory site. The search function on that site uses google's search technology. This is the case with many sites, and the big players are making it easier and easier to integrate their technology into other sites.




So, if you get an email from a company, or come across a site that offers to submit your site to hundreds or thousands of search engines for $X, you need not be impressed. You can manually submit to each of these major players within a few minutes and it is absolutely free.

To add your URL to google, go to

http://www.google.com/addurl/

To add your URL to Yahoo!, go to

https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit

To add your URL to Live, go to

http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx

I made a (SEO) mistake...

When it comes to your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) efforts it is REALLY important to keep your site updated with new and relevant information. This is one of the pillars of SEO or SEM - Search Engine Marketing.

And I made a mistake... I went overseas for more than a month for my wedding, visiting family, and having a holiday, and I didn't employ any contingency plan for updating the blog or business site. I had limited internet access during this time, but google's spiders are unforgiving. Luckily my ranking didn't suffer too much for some categories and keyword searches, but everyday that you are not improving your SEO, your competitors are. They are creeping up in the rankings, and before you know it, you have lost that first page rank, to be banished to the oblivion beyond page 1. And if you are not on page one, then you might as well be on page one thousand.

Show me the money...

So, you have gotten yourself an awesome looking, gasp producing, beautiful flash animated site. A splash page, intro video, music all of the bells and whistles, and you just paid a small fortune for it.

The all important question is, 'does it produce revenue for your business?' For all the looks, can you check your stats and produce reports instantly. Can you track if its working or not? Do you know what your conversion rate is? Do you have a plan for website success and are you implementing it?

Sometimes, the most flashy looking websites are not actually the most effective when it comes to search engine optimisation and ranking. Sometimes the coolest multimedia features can actually be harmful to your marketing objectives.

Ultimately, if your website doesn't 'show you the money', then its not worth anything.

To find out how to make the most effective use of your online communications email to consultant@thompsonmarketing.com.au and stop wondering.

You have a website, but do you have a plan?

How many times have you come across a site when searching for something on google, yahoo or live only to find it irrelevant to your search? What is your reaction... do you click back to your search results never to return? When you search for those keywords again, and see that you have been there before, did you click on that site again? If you haven't found the information relevant, the answer is probably not!

When implementing an online marketing strategy you need a plan, and a plan for success. You need to get your site ready to receive traffic, BEFORE you start driving traffic to it. Otherwise all of your time and effort spent climbing the SEO ladder will be wasted. You need relevant and compelling content, and a way of capturing your visitors details and engaging with them. You need to prove to them that you are the expert, that you have the answers that they are searching for, otherwise, you will just be associated with irrlevance.

contact us info@thompsonmarketing.com.au for more information about your personalised Integrated Website Success Plan, tailored to the needs of your business.