Secret/SEARCH ENGINES

WHAT IS A SEARCH ENGINE?

A Search Engine is an automated program that collects, organizes, retrieves, lists, adds and makes suggestions for web site, and domain site listings when the user types in key words. In short, it is an automated search and retrieval web site directory for finding any topic on the Internet. The "phone book" of the Internet.

HOW DO SEARCH ENGINES WORK ?

While each search engine will have it's own specific software for running their system, they all basically work the same. You go to a box and type in a word or set of words you are interested in finding on the Internet. You hit find or search or go-to. Moments later you get a list of hot linked sites with those words highlighted in the text that you typed in. Usually these sites are arranged for you in the order of "probability" that this is what you are looking for. This is called "ranking." You may notice that the farther you move from the top ranked listings, the more pages seem to wander from your topic.

For example you may have typed in "children's day care" and the first listings are all Internet sites that take care of children. But as you progress, you might get some listings like "Pinkies Poodle Palace"and you wonder, What the devil does THAT have to do with children's day care? Why is that coming up on my search? The answer is easy, they share the same Meta tags.

WHAT ARE META TAGS?

Meta Tags are words that are inserted into the html header of a web page. These words cannot be seen on the web site because they are embedded at the top for one purpose, for search engines to pick up the subjects of interest listed on that page. Meta tags in the top of the web page need to be targeted to what you think someone will type in when they are seeking information about your site, product or project.

The meta tags you have listed on your site is a critical part of how you rank in the search engines and how fast your potential clients will find you. Without any meta tags, a client searching for your service or product will have to type in your exact address or the search will go sailing by your site in favor of those sites that do have meta tags.

HOW DO SEARCH ENGINES AND META TAGS WORK?

When you go to a search engine and enter your site address into their system, their system uses a "crawler" or "site search" program that automatically goes to your site. Once there, it pickings up address information and meta tag words on your site. Then it stores this information until someone types in your address or one of your meta tags words or word groupings. Some search engines also take the first few words in the visible part of your site too to prevent meta tag stuffing.

WHAT IS META TAG STUFFING?

Meta tag stuffing started occurring a few years ago when some discovered that by including thousands of words in header (Webster's unabridged dictionary!) that every time anyone typed in any word their site would come up in the listing. So you may have typed in "flowers" and ended up with several listing for totally unrelated topics. As a result of this, search engines have developed programs to prevent this and other "unfair" devices to gain the "top dog" spot in the search engine rankings. Many search engines have a meta tag "cut offs" and page sampling and other devices to prevent fraud in the search engines.

WHAT IS THE CORRECT WAY TO LIST MY META TAGS?

Take some time to think about what your site is about and what service or product you are selling or promoting. Then pretend that you are a customer at a search engine looking for your product or service. What words would you type in to begin your search? Now use that information and couple that with multi-word tags that your perspective clients might type in.

For example lets say that you have a web site that sells used videos your meta tags may look like this: bj's videos, VIDEOS, used videos, movies, CLASSIC FILMS, westerns, science fiction, romance, mystery, cheap vidoes, star wars, drama .....and the list can go on and on. Note that all listing are in lower case letters or capitals and it is a good idea to include a few misspellings too. Keep your tags under 100 words, so put your strongest calling words first.

WHERE CAN GET MY META TAGS GENERATED?

Yes, below is two places where you can generate your own meta tags for free. If you own a site in Integrity Tech City just forward the new generated tags to your City address. Put a note in the header: New Meta Tags: Attention Webmaster. If you do not own a site in Integrity Tech City send the meta tags to your webmaster or to your self if you are working your own site.

META BUILDER FREE. An extremely detailed meta tag generator better suited for domains and large web sites. The tags are generated and e-mail to you where they can then be copied and pasted into your html header.

META TAG GENERATOR FREE. A very simple meta tag generator that codes your typed in words into a html and then e-mails the tags to you. Recommended for Integrity Tech City Merchants.

HOW DO I GET TOP RANKING?

Your ranking with a search engine will depend on how that search engine lists words, what priority the listing comes in, how often you submit your site, the size of your site and how big your pocket book is. Since each search engine retrieves data a little differently, your best bet is to think out your meta tags very well. Some search engines give priority to domain sites, or larger sites first and then on down according to size. Some list according to the amount of traffic and size of your site, like Yahoo! Some list by topic only. Finally there is one search engine called GoTo.com that lists according to who puts in the highest bid for that meta tag. Then each time a web surfer clicks on your meta tag listing you pay GoTo.com the bid price for each click. Most bids are between .01 and $1.00 per click. Also if you have nice promotion budget you might consider paying for a banner to be placed at one of the search engines.

IS THERE ANYTHING I CAN DO TO HELP IMPROVE MY RANKING?

You can do everything right and still be listed as number 108952 in the rankings. That basically translates into "no one is EVER going to see your site." The reason for this is because over 10,000 listings are submitted to most search engines every month. So if you posted your web site lets say with Alta Visa on the first of the month and got a "top dog" ranking, chances are by the 30th your site will be back in Siberia. So the solution is that you must submit your site to the search engines EVERY SINGLE MONTH. This is something that you need to keep up with, because if you post your site only 20 days after the first posting, some search engines have a "lock out" program that will cancel your listing and prevent you from listing with them at all in the future. It is a way they are fighting programers that submit their site every day or week. So many search engines have automated programs to lock out these "greedy" web sites submitters. So be careful.

THE EVER POPULAR "WE SUBMIT YOUR SITE TO 1500 SEARCH ENGINES FOR $39.00! "

Sooner or later, if you do business on the Internet long enough, you are going to get one of these spams in your e-mail with the above header. Many of them pray on new business owners on the Internet that do not yet know the nature of the search engine beast. First you need to know that while their may be 1500 search engines out there, not all search engines are alike. The truth is that the top 10 search engines pulls 99% of all the traffic! So you need to ask yourself if are you willing to pay $$$$ to post your site to the lower 1% search engines located in Siberia. Also be warned about promises like "just once a year" or "never have to post by hand again" or "we guarantee top rankings for a year." Unless you got this e-mail from the search engine itself there is no way they can guarantee that. And one search engine cannot guarantee your ranking on another search engine that they do not control. Most of these "deals" are sent out by people that own software that automatically submits your listing to these "Siberian" search engines. Please note that if you are interested in this kind of software you can buy and use it yourself for about $150.00. See: Software

Internet is such a fast moving market that many web site go up and down in as little as 1 to 6 months. Because of this, many search engines purge their systems of all lower ranking sites that have gotten no click throughs after 2 to 6 months. Some are doing it monthly. So now you know that this kind of promise is impossible to keep with a "one time" submission. Save your money. In addition to that most of the top ranking search engine will not allow an "automated" submissions. So it is a good idea to spend about 30 minutes a month and post these by hand...that way your can be sure.

ARE THERE ANY SUBMISSION SERVICES THAT WORK?

There are many submission software program out there that do much more than just submit to search engines. Some programs also list with message boards, link services, banner services and listing services. You can buy some of these software programs (usually around $200.00) where you can customize each category and service you want to submit to, type in the data and let it run. The slow moving programs are the best. Because it tests each site before sending, sends the closed or bad sites into a separate file and only sends the good ones out over the internet. A submission program that works too fast could be identified by your server as "spam" and you could lose your account if you over load their e-mail system. This is why the better automated submission programs are slow running.

In Integrity Tech City we use one of these automated custom submission programs each month. The program takes from 4 to 12 hours to run and submits to a variety of promotional sites, links, message boards and other promotional categories which we customize to about 850 sites. So if you want to use this service or have this run monthly or every other month for your site. Give us a shout and we will be happy to do it for you for a very tiny fee. E-Mail us for details .

WHERE DO I GO TO POST THE TOP SEARCH ENGINES?

Click right here to go to the next page for hot links and tips. >> LINKS AND TIPS