A funny thing happened the other day on my way to successfully
list my company on the major search engines. Not being a novice
to the search engine listing game, but never claiming to be an
expert, I read with interest an e-zine on obtaining search
engine position. The article was well written and basically very
helpful. But what I did next was very interesting.
Viewing Source Code
I went to the Author's web site and viewed his source code to
see if he practiced what he preached. To see the source code of
a web page all you have to do is select the "View" button in
Microsoft Explorer and click on "Source". Here you can view the
Title, Description and Keyword Meta files that are so critical
to high search engine position.
Indeed, the author did exactly what he was recommending to his
clients. His meta files were text book.. The HTML code had the
word search engine listed in the meta title section once, in the
meta description once and in the meta keywords three times. The
code was very clean and should produce good results using
keyword "search engine"
So the next thing I did was go to three main search engines,
AltaVista, Northern Light and Lycos. I typed in the keyword
"search engine" and what do you think happened?
Well, none of the three search engines listed the Author's Web
site in any of the first three pages of results. And everyone
tells you that if you are not on the first couple of search
results pages, well…just forget about being found.
Directory Listings
This brings us to the point of this article. Search engines are
not the only resource on which to list your site. Another option
is purchasing a listing with a directory. A directory is a Web
site where users search a limited number of web sites, not the
entire web.
Web directories include http://www.GoTo.com,
http://www.Stopsurfing.com, and http://www.b2bnow.com to name a
few. To find other directories you can go to
http://lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/search.html. This is a
pretty comprehensive listing, some sites are outdated, but it is
a good place to start.
Set a Budget for Directories
The next step you need to do is set a budget. Decide before hand
how much you want to spend on the directory. Yes, spend money!
Not everything on the Internet is free. Yes, you can register
free listings on the search engines but you can never guarantee
that you will get a high listing or even be listed.
So invest a little money with a directory so you don't have to
keep registering with the search engines every month. Your time
is valuable, so spend a couple of hundred dollars on directories
and just relax. This way you know that you will have some
guaranteed visibility on the Web.
Keywords
Next, you need to select a keyword or keywords that you want
your website listed under. Select keywords that best describe
the product that you are selling. If you are selling camping
equipment, you may want to select the keywords "camping
equipment" and "sleeping bag".
Two Type of Directories
There are two types of pay-for-listing directories. The first
like GoTo.com, allows you to set a bid price per click through.
You are ranked by bid, the higher you bid, the higher you appear
on the search results.
The other type like, Stopsurfing.com, charges a flat price for a
year. You pay one set fee no matter how many hits you get.
Just Click It
Whatever you decide to do about directory listings, Just Click
It and move on to taking care of your current customers. The
Internet moves at warp speed. You need to get visibility now.
Don't delay, get some directory listings in place while you are
waiting for your "Free" search engine listings to get your Web
traffic.
About the author:
James M. Duerr. He is the president, of
http://www.stopsurfing.com a Family Safe e-Shopping directory.
He credits his web marketing knowledge with on-the-job training,
having developed and operated a successful e-commerce site
http://www.buy-okidata.com. He resides in beautiful Corpus
Christi, Texas with his wife and two kids.
