How to promote your website -part 4- Now for the search engi

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Now for the search engines

Now you have worked your way through the web directories and hopefully got a good few links under your belt. I suggest you wait about 10 weeks between submitting to directories and moving onto the search engines. Lets start with the most important search engine good old Google. go a spin on your browser to google.com and type in your site url.


Google will then tell you if it has your site in it's database. If it does it will display your site title and a description with a few other options below such as view cache, find sites that link to. If your site was listed then you do not need to re-submit. To be honest I would recommend you do not re-submit your site if it is already listed with Google. It is best to just let things flow at this stage. If your site is not listed then click on the add site link from the Google homepage and follow the instructions from there. Repeat this process every 4 weeks until your site gets listed. Once your site is listed you should not re-submit.


Here is a page from the ODP that lists search engines. dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Searching/Search_Engines/


Work your way through the search engines page carrying out the same process as mentioned above. This will take some time but is well worth the effort. It is well worth printing out the page and scoring off the ones that list your site. This way you only need to re-submit to the ones that did not list you. Work through the list once every 4 weeks until you get as many as possible.


Below are a selection of other adverting methods that I do not have enough experience with to be able to add to in much detail. They are paid methods to attract users to your website.


Pay for inclusion


Some search sites directories and search engines offer what is knows as a pay for inclusion service. This means that you require to pay to be listed. The return you receive on your investment is dependent to a large extent to who your users will be. It has to be said that a lot of people only use PFI for the page rank that will be passed through.

PFI engines and directories come in all shapes and sizes. Don't be surprised to fins some of the smaller topical directories asking for a listing fee. You just need to think in terms of ROI (return on investment) If the on topic directory receives decent traffic then it may well be worth the expense. The page rank will also be a welcome addition.


Cost per click


Cost per click is becoming more and more popular as an advertising model. With cost per click you only pay for users who click through to your site. One of the more popular CPC advertising sources is Google adwords. Google adwords are the small text links that appear at the right hand side of the main search results. The great thing about adwords of you can receive targeted click through and only pay for users who actually visit your site.


Affiliate programs


Affiliate programs can be a great way of making sales. They are based on the principle of other sites marketing your product or services; if a user clicks through from an affiliates site they are then paid a percentage of the sale. This is great because the affiliates are only paid when a sale occurs and you receive additional marketing for your brand.




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Copyright Alistair McIntyre 2003.

Used by Velnet with permission from Alistair McIntyre.

Alistair McIntyre is a Search Engine Optimisation and website promotion consultant, his website address is: www.click4choice.com