In the
last issue of Marketing Tips, I spent some time discussing
the 5 different options you have for getting your web site
listed in the search engines. Just to make sure that we’re
all on the same page, let’s quickly review…
- Use
A Free Submission Service: As you’ll recall, I do NOT
recommend that you use a free submission service because
they submit the exact same information to all of
the search engines, destroying your chances of ever getting
that top ranking position you deserve.
Each
search engine has a different rule book (a different set
of "algorithms") that it uses to evaluate your
web site – so submitting the SAME information to all of
the search engines is pointless!
- Use
A Low-Cost Automated Submission Service: The only real
difference between the low-cost automated submission services
and the free submission services is that the low-cost ones
will charge you about $40 to $80 to submit the same information
to all of the search engines. Like I’ve already said, this
is pointless! While your site may get submitted to as many
as 900+ search engines, you’ll be lucky if it appears in
the top 100 listings, never mind the top 10!
- Do
It Yourself Manually: If you have the time and the patience,
this is one of the best ways to submit your web site to
the search engines. You study the rules of each search engine
and then visit each one individually to manually submit
the information for each page you wish to have listed.
Obviously, the two drawbacks to this strategy are that it
can be a lot of work and there are no professionals looking
over your shoulder to make sure you’re doing everything
right. But if you have the time, it can be a good option.
- Use
A Professional Search Engine Consultant: The advantages
of using a professional are obvious – you get the advice
and assistance of experts who work hand-in-hand with you
to make sure you get the top ranking position your web site
needs. But the drawback to this strategy is equally obvious
– the cost can be pretty high.
- Use
Submission Software: If you’re going to use software
to submit your web site to the search engines, then I can’t
stress enough the importance of making sure that it will
prepare an individual submission form for each search engine
you will be submitting to. Most of the software out there
does the same thing the free submission services do, so
it’s useless. The ONLY submission software that I recommend
is SubmitWolf Pro.
Now this
is why the e-mail started pouring in…
It seems
that many of you had questions about whether or not the SubmitWolf
Pro software submits your web site to the directories
(i.e. Yahoo! and Looksmart)… some of you were skeptical about
whether or not search engine submission software could actually
get you a top ranking position when it does everything automatically…
and MANY of you wrote to ask why we didn’t mention another
highly regarded software, WebPosition Gold.
Knowing
that for every person who e-mails me with questions like these,
there are hundreds more of you who are silently wondering
the same thing, I’ve decided to do two things in this article.
First I want to clear up any confusion by answering your questions.
I know
the sheer volume of information about search engines can be
pretty overwhelming. So I’m going to do my best to condense
things down into this one short, understandable article!
And second,
as promised in the last issue of Marketing Tips, I’m going
to explain how you can KEEP your top 10 position once you
get it. (If you’re not careful, your position in the search
engines can start to slide down the ranks, so you’ll want
to pay close attention to this!)
Question
#1:
"You
talk about using submission software to get your web site
listed in the search engines… but what about the directories
like Yahoo! and Looksmart? They’re an important source of
traffic, too!"
Answer:
Okay! You caught me… sort of. Directories and
search engines are obviously different. Listings in directories
are compiled and managed by human editors who manually process
your submission. Search engines, on the other hand, use a "spider"
to crawl the Web and analyze your site to decide where you’ll
be listed.
Frequently,
though, you’ll hear directories and search engines lumped
together under the blanket term "search engines"
– and that’s what I did. Sorry for the confusion!
The SubmitWolf
Pro software does, in fact, submit your web site to the
top 150 search engines AND directories – including the "biggies"
like Yahoo! and Looksmart.
Question
#2:
"If
you don’t recommend free submission services… and you don’t
recommend low-cost automated submission services… why would
you recommend submission software? Won’t the software just
produce the same poor results?"
Answer:
Like I
mentioned in the last issue, I actually didn’t start recommending
submission software until recently because YES – most submission
software does exactly what the free and low-cost submission
services do. They submit the exact same information to all
of the search engines and directories.
Every
search engine – and every directory – is different! So it
stands to reason that if you want a top-ranking position,
you can’t just give them all the same information. That would
be like applying for the position of CEO at a Fortune 500
company with a general resume and cover letter that says something
like "I could use the extra cash." It just isn’t
going to work!
If you
want to get the top-ranking position you deserve, then you
need software that will prepare an individual submission form
for each search engine and each directory. This is the ONLY
way to make sure that each one gets the exact information
it needs!
And there
are only 3 ways to do this:
- Learn
the rules of the search engines yourself and submit your
web site manually to each one.
- Hire
a professional.
- Use
a submission software like SubmitWolf Pro.
If you
have the time and inclination, then you can learn the rules
of all the individual search engines and submit your site
manually. Honestly, though, this is a pretty rough road to
take. The search engines are changing their rules constantly,
and if you’re relatively new to e-business it can be really
confusing. Heck! I find it confusing sometimes…
But if
you’re really committed, it CAN work. I just worry about steering
you in this direction because of how easy it can be to make
mistakes…
Hiring
a professional is a good option too, though it can be expensive.
The professionals live and breathe the search engines, so
they know exactly what to "feed" each one to get
you the top-ranking position you deserve.
Of course,
at $600 to $900 per site, I know this won’t fit into many
of your budgets. And that’s why I’ve pointed you in the direction
of SubmitWolf Pro, software that was designed by the
same search engine professionals that we use here at IMC.
This software
is the quickest, easiest way to get the benefit of the professionals’
expertise and get the top-ranking position you need without
being forced to learn the rules of each individual search
engine… or pay really high consulting fees.
Question
#3:
"But
what about WebPosition Gold? Why do you recommend SubmitWolf
Pro instead of WebPosition Gold for search engine
submission?"
Answer:
Wow! Was
I ever swamped with questions about the difference between
WebPosition Gold and SubmitWolf Pro! I’m really
glad to see that you all are doing your homework… So let me
take a moment to explain the key difference between these
two powerful tools.
First
of all, let me tell you that I’m a BIG fan of WebPosition
Gold. It’s a really powerful tool that I do recommend…
just NOT for search engine submission! Yes, WebPosition
Gold will submit your web site to the search engines,
but only to about 10 or 15 of them. And it does not prepare
an individual submission form for each engine!
SubmitWolf
Pro, on the other hand, will submit your web site to the
top 150 search engines using an individually prepared submission
form for each one – so you’re guaranteed that each search
engine and directory gets exactly what it needs for a top
ranking!
You see,
what WebPosition Gold is really good for is monitoring
and maintaining your search engine position once you’ve
secured your top 10 listing.
Know
If Your Web Site Is Slipping In Rank – And If Your Competition
Is Sneaking Up From Behind…
Make no
mistake, submitting your web site to the search engines is
only half the battle! Next, you’ll need to turn your attention
to monitoring and maintaining your position. You need to ensure
that your competition doesn’t outrank you and that your site
doesn’t begin slipping down the ranks! And this is where software
like WebPosition Gold can come in really handy…
Monitoring
your ranking in the top 10 search engines – for each page
you’ve submitted and for each keyword you’ve submitted under
– is almost impossible if you’re trying to do it all by yourself.
Let me
explain by visually doing the math for you. This should help
make things a bit clearer...
- Let’s
say that you’re marketing 2 products.
- And
let’s say that you want to maximize and monitor your ranking
in the top 10 search engines.
- For
each product, you have a list of 15 keywords and phrases
you want to be listed under.
So this
means that you have:
2 products
X 15 keywords for each product X 10 search engines = 300
positions to monitor!
Yipe!
Who has time to check 300 positions? I know I sure don’t!
This would take days of effort, and you haven’t even done
checks on where your competitors rank yet! But if you want
the search engine traffic, you need to stay on top of your
rankings and you need to know when your competition has
outranked you so that you can take corrective action!
Really,
the only solution to this is automation. And that’s what I
highly recommend you use WebPosition Gold for.
WebPosition
Gold will ensure that you don’t neglect your search engine
positioning… and that you don’t lose this important source
of traffic! It automatically generates reports that will show
you exactly where your web site ranks in each search engine
under specific keywords, keyword combinations, and search
phrases, so you can make improvements, correct problems, and
increase your web site's traffic.
Plus,
it can save you hours of work every week by monitoring where
your competitors are ranked in relation to you, alerting you
of any problems.
If one
of your web pages has been gradually slipping down the rankings,
you can quickly identify the problem and correct it. Without
WebPosition Gold’s powerful reports, you have no way
of knowing a problem even exists… until your site traffic
slows down and you start losing sales, that is!
Final
Thoughts:
Look.
If you are really serious about search engine positioning,
then you should know that, together, SubmitWolf Pro
and WebPosition Gold make a killer team that can dramatically
increase your ranking. I highly recommend this software duo
to anyone who wants to funnel traffic to their web site via
the search engines.
It would
be impossible for you to manually do the crucial marketing
tasks that WebPosition Gold and SubmitWolf Pro
do automatically – it would just take you far too long to
be cost effective.
Sure you
might be able to manually submit your web site to a handful
of search engines? But 150? And give each one exactly what
it needs? Plus, there’s no way you’ll convince me that you
have time to monitor and maintain hundreds of different rankings
and pages and still run a profitable business.
You know
me and how strongly I believe in automating everything – leaving
you free to grow your business and look after more profitable
promotions. I don’t want you to get caught in the trap
of running your business when you could be growing it!
