|
Favorits •
Web Domain Directory •
ODP •
Annuaire FR •
Directorio ES •
Directory EN •
Diretório PT •
IT Katalog •
Czech Katalog •
Polski Katalog •
Maps •
Satellite Photos •
View Card
|
||
|
|
SEO |
|
|
| ||
 |
Google Slavery...Old Habits Die Hard
For the first few months after Yahoo decided to go their own way with natural search (and MSN decided to get serious about the search business), the search results provided by those two could only be described as bizarre. Enough time has now passed that the dust has somewhat settled and there are three main (from a traffic standpoint) sites for quality natural searches. The term "natural search" is to distinguish true searches, as opposed to paid advertisements which appear in the search results for many search engines these days. I guess you can't really fault the search engine companies from wanting to make some money (actually, BIG money) selling ad space, but the debate over the virtues of natural search versus paid advertising search is something that could take up a very large book and still have no clear resolution...much like arguments revolving around religion or politics. Like most people that have been working as online home business entrepreneurs for a few years, I was strongly conditioned to the need to "feed the 800 pound gorilla" of the search engine world. Basically, "if Google didn't love you", it was very difficult to get any meaningful natural search traffic to your website. Since Google was actually the search engine that was serving up the results for most of the popular search portals, if Google didn't look kindly upon your site and rank you well, you would not be ranked well for most of the high traffic search sites on the Internet. However, the search landscape changed dramatically early in 2004 and things have been very fluid and interesting since that time. Its not that Google has stumbled, or become ineffective as a search vehicle, its just that major players like Yahoo and Microsoft (via MSN) have decided to make a major thrust into the search business. Having been firmly conditioned (since shortly after 1998) that Google was the "supreme deity of search engines", I took the highly publicized search entries of Yahoo and MSN with more than the proverbial "grain of salt". Throughout a very recent two month period, one of my websites occupied the #5 position on Google, Yahoo, and MSN for a very popular and important (at least in my line of business) three word search term. This situation provided an opportunity to measure the current popularity of each of these three search providers. If asked "before the fact", I would have guessed that Google would still be the overwhelming #1 search choice and that Yahoo and MSN would be distant #2 and #3 choices. Therefore, I was somewhat surprised by the results that were tabulated during this recent 60 day period. For the period in question, the search popularity results were as follows: Google: 34% Yahoo: 31% MSN: 20% All others: 15% Granted, the above results are for a single search term over a particular 60 day time period, but the results clearly show that Yahoo and MSN are already important players in the search business. Webmasters that stick to the old ways and focus entirely on Google are missing out on a lot of search traffic these days if they are not also well ranked by Yahoo and MSN. Kirk Bannerman operates a successful home based business and coaches others seeking to start their own home based business. Visit his website at Legitimate Home Based Business for more details.
MORE RESOURCES: |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Google Loosing Fan Base? "Nothing last forever but the Earth and sky." - from Dust in the Wind by Kansas. SEO Trade Secrets - 8 Great Tools for Search Engine Optimization About 80% of website traffic comes through search engines. And research shows, if you're not on the first 2 pages, most people won't find you. Directories and Their Importance for Search Engine Rankings About directories:A directory is simply a web site that contains a categorized listing of links from around the web. They aid surfers to locate the 'best' and most informative links for a particular category. SEO Facts The internet is the largest market place on earth. It offers unparalleled access to an international base of consumers - and referrers. SEO Deadly Sins - Mistakes That Hurt Web Page Ranking The following are a list of mistakes can ensure that your site maintains a low ranking with the search engines. Avoid at all costs. Rock Your Rank With a Dynamite Text Link - Yahoo Directory Explodes Rankings Last week a client called me excitedly exclaiming that their Google PageRank had jumped a notch and their targeted keyword term now ranked #23 (up from #45) for their competitive search phrase. I asked the client if he'd been notified by Yahoo that his site was now included in the index after we had submitted it three weeks ago. Possibly The Biggest Misconception About Ranking Well In The Search Engines Onpage search engine optimization are things that you can change ON your webpage.* Title tag* Header tags* Bolding, Italicizing, Underlining* Alt image tags* Meta Tags* Etc. The Need of Popularity In very simple words, the link popularity of your site means the amount of links coming to you from another sites. Every major search engine heavily weighs the link popularity of sites when ranking sites. Do the Robot! Everyone should realize that the search engines (sponsored ads aside)are not tools for advertisement, they are meant to be tools for everday web users. Users who search the web are looking for information, thats it. How To Find Good Keywords Good keywords are frequently searched for (high demand) but not being targeted by many other websites (low competition). There are a number of tools out there that can help you find them. Complete Web-Site Optimization For Search Engines (Part 1) SEO or search engine optimization strategy now becomes widely popular among online business operators. Nothing strange about it as it allows to substantially increase your gross income, as a result of growing traffic or visitors flow. Five Ways To Win The Favor Of Search Engines You've got a cool new website with all the works: cool Flash presentations, eye-catching colors, informative text, easy-to-use layout, and an interesting topic. You think your site is amazing, and you know that others will agree with you. Content Is King Over the past few years, there have been many debates about different search engine optimisation strategies, though it is highly important that a range of strategies are pulled together as one to form the best optimisation program possible. There is one particular factor that is becoming ever more important when it comes to reaching number one in the search engine results pages. Search Engines: Different Types, Different Strategies There are four basic types of Search Engines: Free Search EnginesPay-For-Inclusion Search EnginesPay-Per-Click (PPC) Search EnginesDirectories Because each type does things a little differently, you need to adapt your strategy to take advantage of their differences.Free Search EnginesYou can submit your pages to these engines free, but be careful. Google Local Search And The Impact On Natural Optimization With the advent of Google Local, a service that helps Web users find local businesses by typing in a search term and a city name, many questions arise concerning its impact on Natural Optimization.Google Local tracks down local stores and businesses by searching billions of pages across the Web, and then cross-checking these findings with Yellow Pages information to locate the local resources Web users wish to access. Search Engine Musical Chairs News broke this week that Yahoo has purchased the Inktomi search engine for around US$235 million. This is an interesting development in the search engine industry that may impact greatly on exactly where sites get their traffic from. SEO -- Tips to Optimize Your Webpage to Compete for a High Ranking Search engine optimization (SEO) is very important to websites. If you rank high in search engines, your website are shown to a huge number of target users. Is Something Missing From Your Keywords Research? (Part 2) In my previous article, I raised the issue that proper keyword research must take into account countries. The reason for that was that the demand for keywords can vary between countries. 10 Ways to Make Sure Your SEO Goes Out of Its Way for You If they want to have success, companies should do everything they can to ensure that their SEO firm doesn't provide lousy service. Here are 10 tips to keep in mind:1. SEO and Google Indexing - Why It Requires A Complex Blend of Skills If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. Getting a company's name and products, or services, onto the first page of a genuine Google search isn't a trivial piece of work.
|