The Search Light Newsletter
The Search Light Newsletter
  Guiding your site to the top of the search engines | 29 Dec 2003-Vol 3 Issue #10  

In this issue...

Organic SEO:Patience for Long Term Ranking Results

Google Expands Language Support for AdSense

LookSmart UK to Shut Down

Google Says "No" to Drug Advertisers

Sponsorship Notice

FindWhat and Espotting Delay Merger

Search the Printed Word With Google



Organic SEO:Patience for Long Term Ranking Results
By Daria Goetsch of Search Innovation

When does long term SEO show ranking results? It takes time for optimization to produce targeted traffic to your website. Organic SEO requires time to take effect, just as it takes time for your web pages to start showing up in the search engine results.
 
Clients regularly ask me about the timing of a search engine optimization campaign and when those results will be seen in the search engine listings. A long term marketing campaign based on search engine optimization takes time: patience is the name of the game.
 
Optimization Timeframe
 
SEO's timeframe depends on a number of factors. Part of this involves the accuracy of keyword phrase choices: is the keyword phrase one your visitors would use to find your product or website? If your keyword phrases are targeted to your audience, you will gain optimum results. Did you use Paid Inclusion and/or PPC services? The best combination for success involves using a combination of SEO, Paid Inclusion and PPC services. If you do not use Paid Inclusion or PPC, using organic SEO only, it takes more time to achieve results.
 
Paid Results
 
When you use Paid Inclusion or PPC (Pay-Per-Click) bidding, your results show up sooner than traditional SEO. Paid Inclusion submissions state the time-frame in which your page will be indexed by the search engine robots when you sign up for services. PPC bidding results show up as soon as searchers start clicking on your PPC ads. This type of search engine marketing requires an annual budget to renew Paid Inclusion submissions and payment per month for PPC click- through costs. If you are paying too much for your PPC services, organic SEO combined with PPC often helps to keep the prices down for the paid service. By generating additional targeted traffic on those costly terms you may be able to bring the bidding prices down in your PPC campaign or even eliminate some keyword bidding.
 
The timeline given for paid submissions means the search engines are generating income through this process. Paying for results also gives you a guarantee the listings will be relatively stable in the database.
 
Paid Inclusion submissions will always take precedence over free submissions because the company makes money from Paid Inclusion. For this reason most search engines will implement free search engine submissions over a longer period of time than paid submissions. When using SEO without the paid submission choices, the process is the same but the optimized pages take longer to be processed into the search engine databases.

Organic SEO
 
Organic SEO works differently. The best reason to use organic SEO is that it is a low-cost method to promote your website. It can take up to three to six months to see the full results of optimizing your website, especially if you are only using organic optimization. The plus to an organic approach is that once you optimize your pages, the main part of the work is done. You may tweak your keywords and text here and there, but unless you completely re-design your pages, you have what you need in place to begin drawing in targeted traffic. Continue checking your ranking status and reading your log statistics, especially for new keywords visitors are using to find your website.
 
When using free submissions, expect a three to six month wait before seeing most of the long term results showing in the search engine listings. If you build on a link popularity program and have links pointing back to your website, the search engine robots will find your website through the links, eliminating the need for free submissions. Look at it this way: you pay once for basic optimization and over time the results improve to optimum level. You don't have to keep paying for this service because, unless search engine databases drops your free submission pages (which is not often these days), you will be visible and present to the search engine users when they search on your targeted keyword phrases. Over time you should see a progression in your ranking, depending on how competitive your keyword phrases are.
 
Budget SEO
 
What if you can't afford Paid Inclusion or PPC services? Organic SEO is a great way to increase targeted traffic to your website over time. If you do not have a budget for Paid Inclusion submissions and PPC programs, organic SEO will give you good results if you are willing to wait instead of gaining immediate results. Combine organic SEO with plenty of good content and a solid link building program for optimum results. Remember, the search engine listings may entice visitors to come to your website, but you must give them a reason to stay once they arrive. Build your content to keep your new visitors at your website.
 
Patience Pays Off
 
Organic SEO is "common sense" promotion. Not a lot of fancy bells and whistles, and it takes time. The addition of good navigation, good content with your keyword phrases throughout the pages and topical sites pointing links back to your website equals long term success.
 
Practice patience when going organic for your SEO campaign. It may take time but it will be worth the long term results you reap.

Daria Goetsch is the founder and Search Engine Marketing Consultant for Search Innovation Marketing, a Search Engine Promotion company serving small businesses. She has specialized in search engine optimization since 1998, including three years as the Search Engine Specialist for O'Reilly & Associates, a technical book publishing company.
 
Copyright © 2003 Search Innovation Marketing All Rights Reserved.

   Dear Reader,

Seasons Greetings! I hope you all had an enjoyable holiday season and recovered well from your Christmas celebrations.
 
My husband and I spent the day sleeping in, having ham on toast for breakfast, extricating the cat from the Christmas tree, unwrapping bad gifts from well- meaning relatives, over-indulging in the Christmas Feast and having to take a nap mid afternoon. All in all, an enjoyable day! And of course, being Down Under, the weather put on a great show, with a typically gorgeous New Zealand Summer day of 25 degrees celsius. Just perfect for sitting out on the deck with a glass of bubbly, watching the boats sail by. But, it's back to business as usual now *sigh*.
 
This month's newsletter features an excellent article from SEO expert Daria Goetsch about the need for patience when planning your "organic" search engine optimization campaigns.
 
Our newsletter sponsor this month is the fast-growing Gimpsy Directory. Don't miss their special anniversary offer for guaranteed site inclusion.

Enjoy this issue and remember to visit our daily Search Engine News Blog for the latest industry news and gossip.
 
Till next time - wishing you high rankings...

  • Google Expands Language Support for AdSense
  •    Last week, Google announced the introduction of expanded language support for AdSense publishers.
     
    This expansion includes dedicated email support and account pages in French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish. New applications to join the AdSense program can now be submitted in any of these five languages or in English. In addition, provided that pages comply with Google's Terms and Conditions, AdSense ad code can now be placed on pages with content in any of these languages.
     
    Existing AdSense advertisers can now view their account information and receive technical support in five languages.

    Blog version...

  • LookSmart UK to Shut Down
  •    LookSmart has announced the impending closure of their UK business early in 2004.
     
    According to a company spokesperson, the announcement is a direct result of MSN's recent decision to end their partnership with LookSmart in January. An FAQ on the LookSmart UK site states:
     
    "Following MSN's decision to end their relationship with LookSmart as of 15th January 2004, we have reached the conclusion that we will be unable to operate profitably in Europe next year. We have therefore decided to close our office in London in early 2004."
     
    LookSmart UK advertisers are being advised that although their listings won't be shown on MSN UK after mid January, they will continue to be seen on the LookSmart UK site for "the time being", with no click- through charges after that date.
     
    LookSmart's other international offices in Australia, US and Japan apparently remain unaffected and open for business. But the question is, for how long?

    Blog version...

  • Google Says "No" to Drug Advertisers
  •    Google recently declared that they will no longer be accepting unlicensed pharmaceutical dealers as advertisers on their search sites and partner sites.
     
    The announcement follows similar moves from Overture and MSN in an attempt to crack down on unlicensed prescription medication sales over the Internet that breach drug regulations set down by the US federal government.
     
    All existing and future pharmaceutical-related AdWord ads will be verified by a third party hired specifically by Google for the task.

    Blog version...

  • Sponsorship Notice
  •    Gimpsy Anniversary Special Deal!
     
    To celebrate our first immensely successful year, Gimpsy announces a special offer to site owners:
     
    > Your site listed in 72 hours
     
    > Promotion to a top position for 90 days
     
    > Full money back guarantee!! (ALL your money back if not listed)
     
    > All this for just 40 USD - one time fee
     
    This is a limited time offer!

    Click here for more info...

  • FindWhat and Espotting Delay Merger
  •    The proposed merger between pay-per-click search engines FindWhat.com and ESpotting has come to a grinding halt this week. The two firms have come to a mutual agreement to postpone the merger deadline for one month, taking it from 31 December, 2003 to 31 January, 2004.

    Blog version...

  • Search the Printed Word With Google
  •    Thanks to Google, you can now search the printed word. Google Print BETA was launched last week and enables searchers to browse the contents of offline books via keywords, just like regular web pages.
     
    To use the service, simply go to Google and type in 'print.google.com' followed by your search topic. Results will feature a tag reading "BOOK - BETA". Clicking on these links will take you to excerpts from related books, plus links to retail sites from where you can purchase them, e.g. Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million. Despite the links to retail sites, Google claims it does not profit if users buy a book as a result of a search.
     
    The content for Google Print BETA comes from thousands of books, individually scanned by software. However the idea is not a new one. Amazon.com launched a similar "search inside the book" feature a few months ago. Amazon's version is thought to be extensive, featuring some 120,000 titles from 190 publishers, or 33 million pages of searchable text, whereas Google has not yet revealed the number of titles indexed by their service.

    Click here for a full text/print version of this newsletter...


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