How I reached #1 in Yahoo! by Michael Rock

How I reached #1 in Yahoo! by Michael Rock

How I reached #1 in
Yahoo!
 
  By accident, no all that reading and studying
statistics finally paid off.  I started out by reading articles from people with
opposing views and trying to figure out who was wrong and who was right.  To
find the right person to listen to I didnt only look at his educational
background, but was more interested in his results.  Good thing too, because
results I found.  And I hope people look at my results to help them reach #1.
  In the past I had a great working simple
traffic tracker on my site that started stated someone visited my site by typing
in online editor flash sites into Yahoo!.  I went to Yahoo! And typed in the
keyword phrase and found out I hit #1 out of 1,040,000 hits!  Two weeks later I
dropped to #2 and found out that my other site took #1.  Now I had the #1 and #2
position in Yahoo!.  My world changed forever and at that moment and never will
go back.  Today I have more sophisticated software, charts, data, articles, and
trends referenced for my webs posted on the wall.  I maintain contact with forum
discussions and receive up-to-date news in my email telling me of changes taking
place.  I have achieved the top 10 list in the top 3 search engines (Google,
Yahoo!, and MSN) and wish to educate you on how to do the same.
 
Part One:  Keywords and Keyword Phrases
 
SEO- search engine optimization; the process of
designing your site to achieve high rankings in the search engine
 
  Picking the right keywords is essential.  Step
into your customers shoes and think of what keywords they would use to find the
information on your site and write them down in a list.  Get your friends and
others with different opinions and ask them what they would type to find the
information that is located on your site.  Add these keywords and phrases to
your list.  Now check your competitors sites that have reached #1 status in the
search engines.  (Careful dont pick sponsored sites located at the top or side,
they got there by using a PPC (pay per click) ad campaign.  You want the
non-sponsored sites.  Right click anywhere on the page and select view source
to see the site in html format.  Under the header tag called name="keywords" content="keywords are here you will find the
keywords that the site used to get to the top.  Add these keywords to your list.
  Now you should have about 40 to 50 keywords and
keyword phrases in your list to research.  (By the way 2 or 3 word keyword
phrases are used the most today, when only a few months ago 1 word keywords were
used.)  Just following one of these three avenues (your list, your friends list,
and view source) will not get you to the top, you must use all three and
research the 40-50 words to get to the top.
  Now take these 40-50 keywords to the search
engines and type them in.  Do the results pertain to the information on your
site?  If not, cross them off.  You should have about 40 keywords left.
  Here is a good SEO (search engine optimization)
secret!  Visit these sites:  (http://excite.com,

http://teoma.com/index.asp,

http://www.lycos.com/,

http://www.webcrawler.com/info.wbcrwl/, and

http://www.bos2.alltheweb.com/ and reenter your 40 keywords and youll find
a list of keywords under the heading, Did you mean . . ., Other users typed in
. . ., and  Related links . . .  Using these search engines is an untapped
resource that should not be overlooked.  The list of keywords listed here are
the ones that Joe Q. Public used to find the information youre looking for. 
The average of all opinions of all the people browsing the
internet looking for the information you want them to find on your site.  Adding
the relevant keywords from these lists will improve your chances of getting to
the top immensely.  There is free keyword generators located on the internet to
help you add to your list.  The top two are Google Keywords (https://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=KeywordSandbox
) and Overture Tools (http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/ac/index.jhtml 
Click keyword selector tool.  Overture will tell you how many times that
keyword was type in during the last month.  Find these tools on the internet and
type in your keywords to see how they rank, and cross off the ones that dont
generate much traffic.  And guess what?  You get a list of more keywords that
will help your goal to get to #1!  They show up in the order from most used to
least used.  Add the relevant keywords to your list.
  You should now have a list of about 75 or more
keywords.  Remember:  The more research you do, the better your chances will be
to getting to #1.  What do you do with this large list of keywords now? 
Determine how often they are used by Joe Q. Public and relate it to how many of
your competitors use this keyword in optimizing their site.  This will give you
something called a KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index; compares the Daily World
Searches with the number of competing Web pages to pinpoint exactly which
keywords are good enough so you can use them while optimizing your site) rating.
  Part two of this article will show you how to
narrow your list to 10 of the most powerful keywords in the market to raise your
ranking in the search engines.  Be sure to look for part two coming soon . . .
 
CopyrightMichael Rock


Web development contractor (Web Design and Hosting)
Internet Presence
www.TheInternetPresence.com
About the Author
The owner of this registered company has twenty years experience with DOS, windows business applications, numerous programming languages, artistic development, and web design. Other areas of interest include web marketing, web promoting, and business marketing and development. After the persuasion of those praising his work, he decided to go into business himself and highly suggests everyone else to do the same.

Along Came a Spider (Part One) by Julia Hyde

Along Came a Spider (Part One) by Julia Hyde

So, your Web site is up and running. It looks great and on its first day you're excited about getting your first order. But your excitement soon turns to weariness as that one order is the only one that comes in for a whole month. And worse, your Web site statistics show a disappointing hit rate. So much for the perception that if you build it, they'll come.

Every Web site owner wants people to visit their site, but very few understand the role search engines play in getting those people there. And fewer still, understand how relevant content can not only attract the search engines, but convert your visitors into paying customers.

Have no fear. This guide will help you understand the relatively simple steps you can take to make sure the search engines send targeted traffic to your site, and increase your sales.

But before we begin its important to understand how search engines work, and make the distinction between crawler-based search engines like Google and a directory like DMOZ.

Part One - Understanding the difference between search engines and directories

Crawler-based search engines.

Crawler-based search engines, or spiders, literally crawl the Web looking for content. Theyre able to do this because of the way pages on the Internet link to other pages by way of hyperlinks. Anyone whos sat down at the computer for five minutes to find information has experienced this linking systemhours later youre still there, completely off track, clicking away from one page to another to another.

The search engines use this linking system in much the same way as human users. For example, when Google sends its spider (fondly known as GoogleBot) to crawl the Web it follows links from page to page indexing the content it finds along the way. The information is then stored in a huge database somewhere at Google. Later, when someone enters a particular word or phrase into the search box, Google scans its database for possible matches. It then displays pages that contain, or relate to the word or phrase in an order it considers most relevant.

There are really only two major crawler-based search engines, Google and Yahoo. The others, with the exception of several smaller engines such as, Ask Jeeves/Teoma and engines based outside the United States, get their results from these two. See below to find out which engine supplies and which engines receive.

While Google and Yahoo crawl the Web in much the same way, the results you receive from each can vary greatly. You can see an example of this by searching for direct mail packages on both Google and Yahoo. As of today, (and this is certain to fluctuate on a daily basis) a test page from my site (www.juliahyde.com) with the title Sales Letters and Direct Mail Packages hovers around number 12 on Googles results. Perform the same search on Yahoo and the page ranks number one. It also ranks number one on MSN, but thats because, until MSN officially launches its own search engine, Yahoo supplies its results.

Contrary to popular belief theres no need to submit your Web site pages to the crawler-based search enginesif your site is built with the search engines and your visitors best interests in mind, the crawler-based engines will find it on their own. Ill talk about this in more detail in a future chapter.

The two major crawler-based search engines supply results for:

Google - AOL, Netscape and iWon

Yahoo (synonymous with Inktomi) - MSN, Alta Vista and AllTheWeb

Online Directories

Directories are like giant yellow pages that compile, rank and organize listings into different categories and sub-categories. They do not crawl the Web looking for content but rely on submissions from web site owners. Professional, human editors generally edit directories. Most of them work something like this:

 You want to buy a pair of jeans so you go to a directory like DMOZ and click on the main shopping category.
 Then you click through the sub-categories, apparel retail jeans and so on, until you find exactly what youre looking for.

Top Directories include:

 The Open Directory (supplies directory services to Google)
 Yahoo
 Looksmart
 Gimpsy
 Zeal
 JoeAnt

Although submitting your site for inclusion in directories will drive some visitors to your site, you should not necessarily base your decision to submit on how much traffic you think youll receive from the directory. But, rather, view the submission as an opportunity to obtain a link to your Web site. Why? Because a directory listing will allow the crawler-based engines to follow a link to your site and help get your site indexed in their database quickly. It will also give your site a good quality incoming link (more about this in later chapters).

Next month: Words. Words. Words.

About the Author
Julia is an independent copywriter and consultant specializing in advertising, search engine optimization and search engine marketing services. To learn more about how Julia can help boost your company's profits visit her site at www.juliahyde.com. You may also like to sign up for Marketing Works! Julia's monthly ezine. Visit www.juliahyde.com/form.html to sign up or email Julia at info@juliahyde.com for details.