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Position Pro
http://www.positionpro.com/
Position Pro is a powerful combination of tools providing you the ability
to analyze your entire Web site like a search engine would. Offers
search engine submission services.
SubmitPlus
http://www.submitplus.com/
Successfully promoting Web sites around the world since June 23, 1998.
Its programs and promotion packages were developed with the input of
major search engines to assure precise and search engine friendly results.
Microsoft bCentral Submit-It!
http://www.bcentral.com/products/si/default.asp
One of the oldest and most respected submission services, now operated
by Microsoft.
SubmitWolf
http://www.trellian.com/swolf/
SubmitWolf v6.0 is an easy to use, professional Web site promotional
tool, which automates the process of promoting your Web pages on
the Internet. It can dramatically increase the number of visitors to
your Web site. SubmitWolf v6.0 can automatically register your Web
sites with thousands of engines and directories plus over 500,000 link
pages.
Dynamic Submission
http://www.submission2000.com/products/ds7/index.html
Dynamic Submission 7.0 is multi-award-winning Web promotion software.
It was developed to offer Web site owners the ability to promote
their Web sites to the ever increasing number of search engines on the
Internet without any hassles or complications. It helps you submit your
Web site to hundreds of major search engines with just a few mouse
clicks and drive thousands of guaranteed hits to your Web site.
AddPro
http://www.addpro.com/professional_submission/
AddPro will submit your Web site URL to more than 120 of the most
relevant search engines and directories.
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152 101 Ways To Promote Your Web Site
AddMe Site Submission
http://www.addme.com/submission.htm
Basic submission to 14 search engines for free. Professional submission
to 1,500 search engines.
Submit Express
http://www.submitexpress.com/
Submit your Web site’s URL to 40 search engines, all for free. There is
also an option to submit your Web site to more than 75,000 search
engines, directories and links pages.
Although these services save a great deal of time, it is essential that
you be registered accurately in search engines and directories. For the
best results, register individually in as many of the top search engines as
you can before you resort to multiple-submission sites. There aren’t that
many search engines or directories that have long submission forms, so
submit manually to ensure the best results. If you have taken the time to
do the work described earlier, submit to the major engines yourself.
This way you can take full advantage of the legwork you have done
targeting the differences between the engines.
To summarize, each search engine is different. Know the unique
qualities of each before you submit.
Complete Your Site Before You Submit
Before you submit to any of the search engines and directories, take the
time to complete your site. Many of the major search engines and directories
are not fond of receiving submissions from people who have pages
that are not yet complete or that are full of sloppy code. You do not
want to spend your time submitting your page only to find out it has
not been added because it is still under construction.
Be sure to validate your HTML before submitting. You want your
site to be free of errors to ensure your success with submissions. A few
of the tools you can use to validate your HTML are:
W3C HTML Validation Service
http://validator.w3.org
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Search Engine and Directory Submissions 153
NetMechanic
http://www.netmechanic.com/toolbox/html-code.htm
Dr. Watson, v4.0
http://watson.addy.com
Search Engine World
http://searchengineworld.com/validator/
WDG HTML Validator
http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/
Get Multiple Listings
One way to have your site listed many times is to submit many times.
Because each page on your site is a potential entry point for search engines
and each page has a unique URL, you can submit each URL (each
page) in the various search engines, directories, and so on. Each page of
your site should be indexed to improve your chances of having your site
listed in the top ten search engine results. And because every page on
your site is different, each page should have a different title, a different
description, and different keywords. That way, you increase your chances
of being found by people searching for different criteria and keywords.
It is important to abide by netiquette. In some search sites, the previously
discussed practice of submitting multiple times is acceptable and
might even be encouraged. In others it is considered abuse and is discouraged.
Check each search engine’s rules, and use your judgment on
this one!
Some Final Pointers
Here are some important final pointers you should keep in mind. Always
read the submission guidelines before submitting. Search engines
and directories often provide a number of valuable tips that can help
you to achieve better rankings.
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154 101 Ways To Promote Your Web Site
Periodically review your rankings in the major search engines and
directories. To make this manageable, I suggest you make a list of the
search engines and directories to which you have submitted. Divide
your list into four groups. Every week check your ranking with each
of the search engines and directories in one group. If you have dropped
in the ranking or don’t appear in the first couple of pages of search
results, then you want to resubmit to that particular search engine or
directory. The next week, check your ranking with the next group. By
doing so you can set a regular schedule for yourself, keep organized,
and determine which search engines and directories you need to resubmit
to. Sometimes your site may be removed from an index because
the search engine has flushed its directory, or maybe it is just
one of those things no one can explain—either way you will be on top
of things. If you make any significant changes to your site, you also
might want to resubmit. You want to be sure that your listing reflects
your fresh content.
Internet Resources for Chapter 7
I have included a number of resources for you to check out regarding
search engine and directory submissions. For additional resources on a
variety of topics, visit the Resources section of my Web site at http://
www.susansweeney.com/resources.html. There you can find additional
tips, tools, techniques and resources.
MAJOR SEARCH ENGINES, DIRECTORIES, META ENGINES, AND PPC ENGINES
Google, Yahoo! and Ask Jeeves/Teoma are largely regarded as the most
important search engines.
About.com
Site Address: http://www.about.com
Submission Address: Find a category and email the guide directly.
AlltheWeb.com
Site address: http://www.alltheweb.com
Submission Address: http://www.alltheweb.com/help/webmaster/
submit_site (Powered by Yahoo!)
AltaVista
Site address: http://www.altavista.com
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Submission Address: http://www.altavista.com/addurl/default (Powered
by Yahoo!)
AOL Search
Site address: http://aolsearch.aol.com or http://search.aol.com
Submission Address: http://search.aol.com/aolcom/add.jsp (Get indexed
by Open Directory)
Ask Jeeves or Teoma
Site address: http://www.ask.com, http://www.teoma.com
Submission Address: http://sitesubmit.ask.com
Business.com
Site address: http://www.business.com
Submission Address: See their Web site for advertising options.
Dogpile
Site address: http://www.dogpile.com
Submission Address: https://secure.ah-ha.com/guaranteed_inclusion/
teaser.aspx?network=dogpile
Excite
Site address: http://www.excite.com
Submission Address: https://secure.ah-ha.com/guaranteed_inclusion/
teaser.aspx (Gets you inclusion in Dogpile, Verizon, WebCrawler, NBC,
and MetaCrawler)
FindWhat.com
Site address: http://www.findwhat.com
Submission Address: http://www.findwhat.com/content/advertiser/index.asp
Gigablast
Site address: http://www.gigablast.com
Submission Address: http://www.gigablast.com/addurl
Google
Site address: http://www.google.com
Submission Address: http://www.google.com/addurl.html
Google AdWords
Site address: https://adwords.google.com/select/
Submission Address: See their Web site for advertising options.
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156 101 Ways To Promote Your Web Site
HotBot
Site address: http://www.hotbot.com
Submission Address: http://insite.lycos.com
LookSmart
Site address: http://www.looksmart.com
Submission Address: http://listings.looksmart.com/?sid=lsl100866
Lycos
Site address: http://www.lycos.com
Submission Address: http://insite.lycos.com
Mamma
Site address: http://www.mamma.com
Submission Address: http://www.mamma.com/info/submit/submit.html
MSN Search
Site address: http://search.msn.com
Submission Address: http://advertising.msn.com/msnsites/SubmitSite.asp
Netscape Search
Site address: http://search.netscape.com
Submission Address: http://dmoz.org/add.html (Get indexed in Open
Directory)
Open Directory
Site address: http://dmoz.org
Submission Address: http://dmoz.org/add.html
Overture
Site address: http://www.overture.com
Submission Address: See their Web site for advertising options.
WiseNut
Site address: http://www.wisenut.com
Submission Address: http://www.wisenut.com/submit.html
Yahoo!
Site address: http://www.yahoo.com
Submission Address: http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html
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Search Engine and Directory Submissions 157
Zeal
Site address: http://www.zeal.com
Submission Address: http://www.zeal.com/users/login.jhtml (You must
login to add a Web site).
SEARCH ENGINE SEARCH FEATURES AND SUBMISSION CHARTS
Search Engine Submissions and Registration Chart
http://www.pandia.com/optimization/submit-site.html
Search Engine Features for Webmasters
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/features.html
Submission Tools
SubmitPlus
http://www.submitplus.com/
Successfully promoting Web sites around the world since June 23, 1998.
Its programs and promotion packages were developed with the input of
major search engines to assure precise and search engine friendly results.
Microsoft bCentral Submit-It!
http://www.bcentral.com/products/si/default.asp
One of the oldest and most respected submission services, now operated
by Microsoft.
SubmitWolf
http://www.trellian.com/swolf/
SubmitWolf v6.0 is an easy to use, professional Web site promotional
tool, which automates the process of promoting your Web pages on the
Internet. It can dramatically increase the number of visitors to your
Web site. SubmitWolf v6.0 can automatically register your Web sites
with thousands of engines and directories plus over 500,000 link pages.
Dynamic Submission
http://www.submission2000.com/products/ds7/index.html
Dynamic Submission V7.0 is multi-award-winning Web promotion software.
It was developed to offer Web site owners the ability to promote
their Web sites to the ever increasing number of search engines on the
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158 101 Ways To Promote Your Web Site
Internet without any hassles or complications. It helps you submit your
site to hundreds of major search engines with just a few mouse clicks
and drive thousands of guaranteed hits to your Web site.
AddPro
http://www.addpro.com/professional_submission/
AddPro will submit your Web site’s URL to more than 120 of the most
relevant search engines and directories.
AddMe Site Submission
http://www.addme.com/submission.htm
Basic submission to 14 search engines for free. Professional submission
to 1,500 search engines.
Submit Express
http://www.submitexpress.com/
Submit your Website URL to 40 search engines, all for free. There is
also an option to submit your Web site to more than 75,000 search
engines, directories and links pages.
Note: If you haven’t already done so, be sure to review the resources for
Chapter 6. The information contained in Chapters 6 and 7 is closely
related, and their resources tie in well together.
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Developing Your Pay-to-Play Strategy 159
159
8
Developing Your Pay-to-Play Strategy
It used to be that you could simply optimize your Web site using traditional
organic search engine optimization techniques, as described in
Chapter 6, which would enable you to place high in the major search
engines and create a great deal of exposure for your product and/or
service offerings. This can still be accomplished, however, with thousands
of people competing for the top positions on a given search results
page, it is becoming an increasingly
more challenging task. This is why many
businesses are leaning toward PPC online
advertising models to generate targeted exposure
for their sites, and in turn their
products and services. So what options are
available to enable businesses to create targeted
exposure for their Web sites, and how
can businesses with minimal advertising
budgets utilize these advertising models to
increase their visibility on-line? In this
chapter, we cover:
• Maximizing exposure on Google
using the AdWords program
PPC
PPC, or pay per click, refers to
online advertising programs
than enable users to bid on
specific keywords or phrases to
present users with ads when a
user searches for information
relating to a particular topic.
When a user is presented with
an ad and decides to click on
that ad the advertiser is
charged a nominal fee for the
referral.
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160 101 Ways To Promote Your Web Site
• Expanding your reach using the Overture advertising network
• Expanding your reach with contextual advertising
• Geo targeting ads to better communicate with your target market
• Dayparting, and how you can capitalize on increased traffic levels
during specific time periods
• Developing effective landing pages for your ads.
Generating Targeted Traffic Using PPC Advertising
At the end of the day the success of your search engine positioning
strategy boils down to one thing—results! Over the last several years
many search engines have adopted various PPC advertising models that
enable advertisers to pay for exposure on their search results pages,
based on targeted keyword sponsorship. Businesses can bid on specific
keywords or phrases to have their search engine listings appear only
when a searcher conducts a particular query using their engine. If the
searcher clicks on a particular listing the business pays a nominal fee for
the click, but receives a targeted lead for the fee.
The key is that the lead is “targeted.” Using traditional organic search
engine optimization techniques can cause your site to appear at the top
of search results, generating targeted traffic to your Web site, but even
the leading search engines often return results that are not exactly what
the searcher desires. What if your Web site always appeared when a
searcher conducted a query using a targeted keyword relating to the
product or service being promoted on your site? What if you could
ensure that everyone interested in your products or services had the
opportunity to click on your search engine listing to learn more about
what you have to offer?
These are the true benefits of developing your PPC or pay-to-play
online promotional strategy. By participating in PPC, you generate targeted
traffic to your site and you increase brand awareness for your
organization, which ultimately results in increased sales for your organization.
Over the years some programs have proven successful while
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Developing Your Pay-to-Play Strategy 161
others have failed, but at the end of the day, two PPC programs have
proven to be extremely successful. These programs are:
• Google AdWords (http://adwords.google.com)
• Overture (http://www.overture.com).
Exploring Google AdWords
Google AdWords (see Figure 8.1) has quickly become one of the premier
online advertising vehicles for businesses for several reasons. First
and foremost, why wouldn’t you want to place targeted ads on the
Internet’s top search engine to generate exposure for your products and
services? In addition, by sponsoring keywords and phrases on a cost per
click basis on such a prominent Web portal, you are guaranteed one
thing—targeted exposure.
Some PPC programs provide businesses with the opportunity to outbid
each other for top placement of their ads. This means that busi-
Figure 8.1. Google AdWords is quickly becoming one of the most popular
PPC advertising channels.
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162 101 Ways To Promote Your Web Site
nesses with large advertising budgets can dominate the
top placements using these particular programs, which
is not exactly fair to those businesses that cannot afford
a high CPC.
Google AdWords helps to create a level playing field
for all advertisers, meaning that even small businesses
with a minimal budget can compete with large enterprises
for premium listings. Businesses can set their CPC
for particular keywords well above their competitors’,
but this doesn’t mean that their ads will appear above
the competitions’. AdWords ranks each ad based on a
combination of the ad’s CPC and the ad’s click-through rate. What this
means is that if a business with a high CPC creates an irrelevant ad that
does not generate any clicks, that ad slowly moves to the bottom of the
listing of ads that appears on Google’s search results page, and is ultimately
removed. This enables businesses with a lower CPC, but more
relevant ads, to position higher—at no extra cost!
How AdWords Works
Setting up an AdWords account can be accomplished in 15 to 20 minutes
by following a few simple steps. When preparing to launch a campaign
with AdWords, you first determine where you would like your
ads to appear on Google’s network of Web sites, and which languages
you plan to target with your ads. You can choose to communicate your
ads to the masses, or you can opt to geographically target your ads to
specific locations—even locations within a specific distance from your
business’s physical location. Now that’s targeted advertising!
You then need to design an Ad Group for your campaign (see Figure
8.2). An Ad Group is a collection of one or more ads that you wish to
display on Google’s network of sites. Each ad consists of a headline and
description that, if designed correctly, relates specifically to the keywords
that are associated with the overall Ad Group. Once each ad in a
given Ad Group is designed, you select targeted keywords that you wish
to be associated with the Ad Group.
Why does an Ad Group contain one or more ads? The AdWords
program is designed to work effectively for advertisers, weeding out ads
that are not generating targeted traffic for them. To illustrate, assume
that a given Ad Group consists of five different ads relating to a specific