North Dakota internet marketing

Search engines and your website

It's time for some straight talking about search engines and how to deal with them. There is no magic formula. There are no untold thousands of different engines. And you don't have to pay someone to submit your site to them every month.

Yes, you might have received the same kind of email that we regularly get. You know the one. It starts something like "Just because you build a website, doesn't mean that people will come" and goes on to detail a program which will register your site with the top 5000 search engines. Or to guarantee top placement. Or to market your site to thousands of waiting customers. The list goes on...

Top Myths About Search Engines

Myth #1: There are thousands of search engines

Actually there are about five which will bring you a decent amount of traffic, with the biggest by far being Google.

Myth #2: You have to submit your site to all of them

You don't have to submit to the engines worth being listed in - they will find you themselves for free. But you do need to have a link from a site which is already listed with that search engine.

Myth #3: You can guarantee top placings

Only in search engines which accept money for placing your site at the top (you can tell these normally by their "Featured Listings" or "Top Sites"). And of course these engines are losing popularity because they are adulterating their independence. In engines like Google, their method of rating changes slightly from month to month so any guarantees are worthless in the long term.

Myth #4: There are secret tricks to get yourself placed highly

Yes, there are. It's called having relevant content for the search query and it's amazing how many people don't believe that. You may have read about people who use "hidden text", or special "meta tags", or "doorways" - the list is endless. Now if you have read about them, don't you think the search engine staff have? They hire computer graduates from the top universities and, when they find a site trying to trick them like that, they ban them. (The companies that use these methods - with limited success - have hundreds of "throwaway domains" to replace banned ones with. You, on the other hand, probably have only one.)

Myth #5: Search engine optimization is difficult and highly technical

Actually it's quite boring, unless you have an interest in words and obscure formulas. To be honest, you could probably pick up enough knowledge to do yourself some good over the next summer or winter season. But then you'd have to keep up to date with the way things are changing in the market, as they do change every month. You want your pipes fixed, get a plumber. You want more visitors to your site, get an SEO specialist. But in both cases, get a reliable one that you trust.

So what can you do to promote your website effectively? Contact us for a consultation and for our Search Engine Optimization rates and we will do our best to answer that question!