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"How to Protect Your Search Engine Placement by Keeping Up-to-date on Industry Changes"

by: Ash Kawa

There's no denying it: Search engines are a dominating force on the Internet, with millions of people going online to search on their topics of interest every single day.

In fact, it was revealed at a recent industry conference that in June of 2005 alone, 10.5 billion searches were conducted online. That's 10.5 billion searches in just one month!

And people are not just looking for information...

Experts at the same conference said that roughly 25% of all online purchases originate from search engines. So it's crucial that your site gets the best possible position in the searches for your keywords.

But according to Market Position, a whopping five million pages are added to the Internet every single day. So if you plan to outrank your growing competition, you need to keep constant tabs on changes to how the search engines rank web sites.

However, you should also know that statistics show that most Web surfers never search beyond the top 30 results they receive! So getting ranked 43rd in Google is almost as bad as not getting ranked at all.

With that in mind, it's clear that top-ranking positions in the search engines for the terms most frequently searched by your target audience should be the goal of any savvy site owner.

To achieve that goal, you must keep your finger on the pulse of the search engine industry.

1. The Search Engines Are Constantly Changing........

The first thing you need to understand is that search engine submission strategies that work this week may not work a month from now -- or even two weeks from now! As a result, submitting your web site to the search engines and then forgetting about it is risky.

Your listing needs to be optimized and then maintained if you want to generate the traffic that a top spot can bring.

But as the search engine wars continue heating up between the major players and competition becomes fierce between competing search engine providers, deciding which ones to submit your web site to can be a daunting task.

Major shifts in search engine ownership, management, and control are taking place all the time. The industry is in a state of competitive flux, with heavyweight companies like MSN, Google, and Yahoo! vying for positions of power and attempting to trump one another whenever possible.

So how can a small online business expect to survive in the midst of all this chaos?
Well, start by getting to know the current state of the search engine industry. Then stay as informed as possible of the changes and updates. It's really not all that hard, once you know where to look for up-to-the-minute information.

2. Which Search Engines Are MOST Important?

Not too long ago, by submitting your web site to the top eight or so major search engines, you'd show up in most people's search results.

But that has all changed...

Nowadays, believe it or not, you really need to focus on TWO major search engines: Google and Overture.

Google and Overture together now make up such a strong search engine presence that if you are ranked well in both of these services, you will be found by well over 90% of people searching for topics related to your site.

Google is the only remaining "pure" search engine, which means that its search results are entirely computer- generated by their "spiders" that crawl the Web and their algorithms that sort the information gathered by the spiders to determine your ranking.

But not everyone goes straight to Google.com when searching for information... Google also supplies the majority of search results for Yahoo!, AOL, Earthlink, and AT&T, plus some results for Infospace, iWon, and Sympatico.

And that means that Google's "reach" on the Internet is enormous. According to NetRatings.com, Google reaches approximately 50+% of the online community.

Overture, on the other hand, is a "pure" pay-per-click search engine, meaning that its paid results are not mixed with editorial (unpaid) results. Instead, to achieve a top ranking in Overture, you must simply out-bid the next highest bidder for that particular keyword.

Overture listings now appear as part of the search results for so many different engines that it probably has a more widespread presence on the Internet than almost any other search service today.

While Google is certainly bigger (and used by more searchers), Overture provides sponsored search results for literally hundreds of minor search services, as well as such major players as:

Yahoo!
MSN
AltaVista
InfoSpace
iWon
Lycos
AllTheWeb (aka, FAST)

3. Keeping Abreast of Changes

Competition between the major search engine providers keeps the industry changing all the time. Yahoo!, for instance, recently bought Overture, and also picked up Inktomi earlier in 2004...

And now MSN is in the midst of creating its own crawler (after Google rejected their bid to buy them out!) called MSNBot, and they are looking to become a major player in the search engine game.

What it all adds up to is that although Google is hands-down the biggest pure search engine around, it is constantly threatened by shifting ownerships, power relationships, and new developments in technology. With search engines, what's here today could truly be gone tomorrow, so it's up to you to stay informed.

The best way to keep on top of the changes is simply to subscribe to a couple of the excellent newsletters that are available online, published by search engine experts who make it their job to keep you informed.

Our favorites are......

Search Engine Watch - www.searchenginewatch.com
This site belongs to search engine expert Danny Sullivan and is packed full of the most recent search engine developments.

Planet Ocean - www.searchengine-news.com
Planet Ocean is the publisher of "The Unfair Advantage Book on Winning The Search Engine Wars" -- a leading online search engine resource. The book is updated monthly so whenever you buy it, it's certain to be completely up to date.

Search Engine Guide - www.searchengineguide.com
This site provides a wealth of information and articles about all aspects of search engines. Weekly and daily newsletters are offered, which compile updates and information from across the industry.

These resources will keep you on top of the dramatic changes you can expect to see in the search engine industry over the next weeks and months.

For example, a new Open Source style search engine called "Nutch" is on the horizon these days which could take a lot of the mystery out of search engine rankings. Open Source code, as some of you may know, is code that is accessible to all for use, and programmers can make suggestions, modifications, and additions whenever they like.

This new search engine would function with the same principles of give-and-take, with public access to information about the way they work. This could be very interesting -- especially since, at the moment, search engines tend to be very secretive about the rules they use to rank your web site!

As I have made available this invaluable information to everyone free of cost, visit our website http://www.hostforwebsite.com [$0.75/month & Get Un-Limit Movies, MP3 Songs, Games, TV Shows on your PC!] Industry Lowest Price! Unbeatable Website Hosting Features!

4. Final Thoughts

Keeping abreast of the most effective search engine submission strategies can be a daunting task, especially with the constantly changing climate of search engine control and ownership.

While you're busy tweaking your web site to meet the latest published search engine requirements, they're equally busy updating their algorithms, perfecting their approach, modifying their rules, and honing their systems so that they can provide the most relevant, accurate, and complete search results possible.

So it will be worth your while to keep on top of the major industry shifts so that you don't waste your time on engines that are no longer worth it, and you don't miss out on the newest developments and hottest opportunities.

After all, search engines -- no matter how much they change -- can still be a powerful means of driving qualified traffic to your site, so they can't be ignored!

About the author:
Ash Kawa has written hundreds of articles specializing in helping people succeed when the competition is tough. President of a successful Website Hosting Company [$0.75/month & Get Un-Limit Movies, MP3 Songs, Games, TV Shows on your PC!]

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5 Ways Google Will Help You With Your Traffic
by: Tinu AbayomiPaul

If you�ve ever had a severe drop in your Google rankings in search results, you may think of Google more of an enemy than an ally.

But if you knew what I do, you�d realize that there are tools provided by the search engine that help you learn more about your traffic, and may even help drive visitors to your site.

Here are five ways that Google provides free traffic assistance.

#1 - Google will Help Your Pages Get Discovered with Google Sitemaps
https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login

Google Sitemaps is a program that gives you the opportunity to present your site�s pages to Google in XML or text. Google will then come by and spider the pages, getting you indexed faster.

Take note that this doesn�t necessarily mean that your pages will be listed for your favorite keywords, only that discovery will take place a lot faster than with manual submission. Google Sitemaps will also give you some basic site stats if you verify your site, such as the top keywords for discovery, errors it found when crawling, and the types of documents at your site.

If you find compiling your sitemap for Google in the correct format difficult, try the SOFTplus GSiteCrawler Google Sitemap generator. It�s my favorite Sitemap generator, free and easy to use.

#2 - Google Will Talk To You and Your Webmaster In His or Her Native Tongue or Plain English with the Webmaster Section
http://www.google.com/webmasters/

The Google Information Page for Webmasters should be your first stop when you want to know more about anything that has to do with your site and its relationship to Google and any of its many flavors of search such as Froogle. Particularly for new site owners or operators, checking this page first has saved many from needless anxiety.

Most of the basic information is in straightforward language, with links to details for geeks like me.

#3 - Google will Tell You What It Knows with Web Page Information

If you type info:yoursite.com into Google, Google will tell show you a page that has your link at the top of the page, with a short description, and the following phrase �Google can show you the following information for this URL�.

This special page compiles several queries about your site including pages that contain your URL (all the pages Google knows of that are linked to you).

#4 - Google will Help You Analyze Your Traffic with Google Analytics
http://www.google.com/analytics/

After a recent purchase of Urchin Stats, a free online version has been made available, and re-branded as Google Analytics. This cookie-based invisible visitor tracker can give you information that go a bit beyond standard stats such as bounce rates, visitor loyalty, keyword discovery results for a single day, click paths through your site, and page views per visit.

With the ability to analyze your traffic, you can help learn where the holes in your site are, and how to keep them on your site for longer periods of time, as well as better ways to steer a visit towards a specific action, such as a subscription. Results come in flavors for the executive and the search marketer alike.

There�s currently a waiting list to use Google Analytics due to popular demand.

#5 - Google Will Advise On Getting the Most from Your Traffic with Conversion University
http://www.google.com/analytics/conversionuniversity.html

Google Analytics also has two content sections that are available to all, called Conversion University. While the articles are decidedly slanted towards AdWords users, a prudent read yields many clues that can be applied to preparing for visitors who arrive through organic search discovery. One reference area is called �Driving Traffic�, the other �Converting Visitors.�

At the end of the day, the process by which your site gets ranked in Google search engine results is a computation of a complex algorithm, which means Google - the search engine - really isn�t capable of being your best friend or your worst enemy.

Meanwhile, Google - the company - also provides access to resources that will help give your site a fighting chance.

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