~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
THE
SEARCH LIGHT
Guiding your web site to the
top of the search engines...
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
8
September 2001
Vol 1 Issue # 3
Editor
: Kalena Jordan, CEO, Web Rank Ltd
------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome
to the "THE SEARCH LIGHT".
You
are receiving this monthly newsletter because you
are one of our clients, you've
subscribed, requested
a free ranking report via our
site, sent us an FAQ to
be answered or someone has
forwarded it to you.
UNSUBSCRIBE instructions are at
the end of this
newsletter. (Replying to this
email WILL NOT unsubscribe you).
If
you like this newsletter, please forward a copy of it to any
friend or colleague who is responsible for a web site and
would like to improve their
ranking in the search engines.
------------------------------------------------------------
IN THIS ISSUE
------------------------------------------------------------
=> Sponsorship Notice
=> Feature
Article – How Compatible is Your Site With Search Engines?
Take
Our 5 Minute Quiz!
=> Industry
News – Yahoo! Express Submission Price Hike
-
Excite’s Final Curtain Call?
=> Search
Engine FAQ's – Limited Search Engine Budget
=> Site
Spotlight – Search Engine Compatibility Reports 60% Off
=> Customer
Feedback
=> Subscribe
/ Unsubscribe information
------------------------------------------------------------
SPONSORSHIP NOTICE
------------------------------------------------------------
Got
something to say? Got a great product to
sell relating to search engines? Want to reach
a more specific market? Then sponsor this
newsletter! Discounts given for bulk issues.
Contact us
for more details.
------------------------------------------------------------
FEATURE ARTICLE
How
Compatible is Your Site with Search Engines?
Take Our 5 Minute Quiz!
by Kalena Jordan
------------------------------------------------------------
Remember
those quizzes you used to see in magazines with headlines
like: “How Compatible Are You and Your Partner?” or “Are You Dating Mr
Wrong?” Well, we thought it might be fun to create a 5 minute quiz for
you to test the compatibility of your site with search engines.
Your
total score will give you an idea of whether your site is destined for
a “high ranking honeymoon” in the engines or headed towards separation
from the indexes. Pens ready?
Here
we go:
Q1.
The Home Page of your web site consists mainly of:
a)
Graphics
b)
Text
c)
A mixture of text and graphics
d)
Flash files
Q2.
Within the HTML code, does your site use:
a)
A Title Tag only
b)
A Title Tag plus a META description tag
c)
A Title Tag, plus META description and keyword tags
d)
You don’t know
Q3.
The content of your site includes:
a)
Text based on internal sales copy
b)
Text containing keywords and phrases you think are relevant
c)
Text containing keywords and phrases based on search engine research
d)
Little or not text
Q4.
The images used throughout your site:
a)
Use keyword-filled ALT IMG tags
b)
Don’t use ALT IMG tags at all
c)
Use ALT IMG tags that don’t contain keywords
d)
You don’t know
Q5.
Your Web Site was submitted to how many engines?:
a)
The top 10 search engines & directories
b)
The top 10, plus regional engines in your target markets
c)
None – don’t search
engines find sites automatically?
d)
You don’t know
Q6.
The links to internal pages within your web site are:
a)
Graphic buttons
b)
Text links
c)
Graphical text links
d)
Keyword-filled text links
Q7.
Your web page URL’s are mainly:
a)
Static URL’s (consisting of .htm or .html extensions)
b)
Symbol-free dynamic URL’s (e.g. .cfm, .jsp, .asp extensions)
c)
Symbol-filled dynamic URL’s (e.g. containing symbols such as “?”)
d)
You don’t know
Q8.
You track the following to your site:
a)
Number of visitors only
b)
What search engines they came from
c)
What search terms they used to find you
d)
All of the above
Q9.
You track your ranking in the search engines by:
a)
Conducting manual searches occasionally
b)
Receiving detailed ranking reports occasionally (less than once a
month)
c)
Receiving detailed ranking reports regularly (once a month or more
often)
d)
You don’t track your rankings
Q10.
What is your site’s link popularity like? :
a)
There are less than 10 external sites linking to yours
b)
There are 10-50 external sites linking to yours
c)
There are over 50 external sites linking to yours
d)
You don’t track your link popularity
Q11.When
your search engine rankings slide, you:
a)
Don’t notice
b)
Re-submit your site to all engines
c)
Re-submit your site only to the engines where rankings have dropped
d)
Wait for the engines to re-index your site automatically
Q12.
Of all your web site traffic, search engines provide:
a)
Less than 10%
b)
Between 10 and 20%
c)
More than 20%
d)
You don’t know
Points
for each question range from 0 to 3. Results are:
Q1
a)1, b)3, c)2, d)0;
Q2
a)1, b)2, c)3, d)0;
Q3
a)1, b)2, c)3, d)0;
Q4
a)3, b)1, c)2, d)0;
Q5
a)2, b)3, c)1, d)0;
Q6
a)0, b)2, c)1, d)3;
Q7
a)3, b)2, c)1, d)0;
Q8
a)0, b)1, c)2, d)3;
Q9
a)1, b)2, c)3, d)0;
Q10
a)1, b)2, c)3, d)0;
Q11
a)0, b)2, c)3, d)1;
Q12
a)1, b)2, c)3, d)0;
Add
up the total points and scroll below to see how compatible your site is.
Score
of 12 or less
– Oh dear. There is virtually no chance of finding your site at
the top of the search results, because you haven’t made your site
technically
compatible with search engines at ALL. To give your relationship with search
engines
a chance, you need to make some changes, FAST! If you don’t know why your
site
is incompatible, or need step-by-step help to reverse the damage, request a
Search
Engine Compatibility Report:
http://www.high-search-engine-ranking.com/small_business_specials.htm
Score
of 13-20
– Lack of attention to your search engine relationship has cost you
traffic and your rankings are poor or non-existent. You have one or two of the
elements
in place to make your site search engine compatible, but you really need ALL
of them
to improve your rankings and increase the number of visitors to your site. With
81% of
Internet consumers relying on search engines to find web sites, it
is vitally important that
you keep the search engines interested in your site by ensuring it is
compatible with their
algorithms and indexed by their robots. If
you need help to make your site more search
engine compatible, request a Search Engine Compatibility Report:
http://www.high-search-engine-ranking.com/small_business_specials.htm
Score
of 21-29
– You are aware of the importance of search engines and have tried to
make your site at least partly compatible. You have probably achieved a few
listings for
your site on the major engines, but could be doing a lot better with a little
extra effort.
Spend a few days tweaking your site content to make it as attractive to
engines as
possible. Conduct a little keyword research to ensure you are targeting the
right
keywords and phrases. Consider hiring a SEO specialist to boost your rankings
and
get more customers to your site. The engines won’t pay attention to you if
more
compatible sites come along so do it NOW before the honeymoon is over.
Score
of 30-36
– Congratulations! You have taken many or all of the steps required to
achieve a high ranking on the search engines and are reaping the rewards in
resulting
site traffic. Your efforts to make your site search engine compatible are sure
to keep
them infatuated with your site for a long time. Keep it up!
-----------------------------------------------------------
The
above article may be re-published as long as the following paragraph
and URL link are included at the end of the article:
Kalena
Jordan, CEO of Web Rank Ltd, was among the first
search engine optimization experts in Australasia and is
well known and respected in her field. For more of her tips
on search engine ranking and online marketing, please visit:
www.high-search-engine-ranking.com
------------------------------------------------------------
SEARCH ENGINE INDUSTRY NEWS
------------------------------------------------------------
Yahoo!
Express Submission Price Hike
Following
in the footsteps of Looksmart, Yahoo has this week
increased the price of their Express Submission by a massive
USD 100 from $199 to $299.
With
two of the major search engines now demanding such high
fees just to review web sites for inclusion in their indexes, it
remains to be seen how small businesses can afford to have
their web sites indexed quickly, or even at all.
One
suggested way to “negotiate” the new fees is to submit
to Yahoo via their regional sites (e.g. Yahoo.co.uk, Yahoo.
com.au etc. Apparently there are more categories within the
regional sites that allow a choice of Express Submission and
Standard Submission (no time guarantees, but free of charge).
The
cost of search engine marketing has skyrocketed in the
past 12 months and doesn’t seem to be slowing. While Yahoo
and Looksmart believe the costs are justified due to market
share, the increases reflect a move in the entire industry
towards pay-for-performance and PPC strategies.
More : http://help.yahoo.com/help/express/
Excite’s
Final Curtain Call?
Rumours
are rife that Excite, currently the oldest of the
major crawler based search engines, is about to become
extinct. It seems Excite’s operators, Excite@Home, are
heading towards bankruptcy, with creditors calling in their loans.
Should
Excite fail to rally, AltaVista will step in to claim the
title of oldest crawler, joining Google, Inktomi and FAST as
the only remaining crawler-based engines trawling the web.
And
it seems Excite is not the only search engine struggling at
present. FAST Search has laid off a second round of staff,
following initial lay-offs earlier in the year. More:
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20010823/3568889s.htm
*-----------------HOT TIP------------------*
As well as your company name, include
a couple of keywords or phrases
within your title tag to add relevancy
to your site within search listings.
*-----------------HOT TIP------------------*
------------------------------------------------------------
SEARCH ENGINE FAQ'S : Limited Search Engine Budget
-----------------------------------------------------------
Web
Rank answers your search engine questions.
Please submit your FAQ's
From:
Joseph Maldive [email address withheld by request ]
I
am responsible for a large corporate website and we have
a limited budget when it comes to search engines. We have
already paid to ensure it is compatible with search engines
but there are hardly any funds left for paid submission or pay
per click engines. Do you suggest we put all our remaining
budget into a Yahoo! Express submission or would a combination
of PPC be better?
Joseph
~~~~~~~~~~
Kalena's Response ~~~~~~~~~~
Hi
Joseph
With
Yahoo receiving the bulk of the search traffic (over 80% at
last count), I strongly advise ensuring your site is submitted to
their index. Whether or not you can afford the Express Submission
is up to you, especially now with their price hike. But the
investment is bound to pay for itself quickly in the form of more
traffic.
If
you don’t mind waiting a few weeks for them to index the site,
you may like to try submitting using their free option (assuming
your chosen Yahoo! category allows both options).
PPC
options can be expensive and difficult to track. I believe
you would achieve better value for money by using Inktomi’s
Search/Submit option, which, for a reasonable fee per URL,
ensures your pages are indexed and refreshed in Inktomi’s
database every 48 hours. With Inktomi providing results on
AOL, iWon, MSN,
HotBot and NBCi,
you’d be surprised how
effective (and relatively inexpensive) this method can be,
particularly if you’re satisfied your pages are well optimized.
I have been using the service since it began and believe
it is excellent value for money. More info here:
http://www.inktomi.com/products/search/pagesubmission.html
Best
of luck!
Kalena
Please submit your FAQ.
We can't give a
personal reply, but we will do our best to answer as many
questions as possible via our newsletter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
------------------------------------------------------------
SITE SPOTLIGHT: Compatibility Reports 60% Off!
------------------------------------------------------------
Ever
wondered how compatible your site
is with search engines? Want to optimize
your own site but not sure where to start?
Are you restricted by a small budget?
Web
Rank has dropped the price of Search
Engine Compatibility Reports by 60% down to
USD 99! That’s right, Just $99! Click Here for info:
http://www.high-search-engine-ranking.com/small_business_specials.htm
------------------------------------------------------------
CUSTOMER FEEDBACK OF THE MONTH:
------------------------------------------------------------
"I
did four initial consultations in the past week
and a half which is very encouraging. Web stats
show a big jump from the tiny blips (of) prior weeks.
Many thanks".
Andre
A. Moore
A Psychotherapy Group in the
Village
http://www.am-psychotherapists-new-york-city.com
------------------------------------------------------------
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
------------------------------------------------------------
The
information presented in The Search Light has been compiled from
various sources for the benefit of our clients. You should not rely on
the information contained within this newsletter as detailed advice.
No part of this newsletter may be copied without permission from
Web Rank Ltd, the copyright owners 2001.
You may forward this
newsletter, as long as it's kept in its entirety.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Web
Rank Ltd, Search Engine Ranking Specialists
Visit our web sites : www.high-search-engine-ranking.com,
www.webrank.biz
