Riding The Bench in Search Engine Game
By Bob Regnerus
Posted Thursday, November 25, 2004
Today I want to talk a bit about Search Engines. A lot of my clients have been asking about what they should do in terms of "optimizing" their site for search engines.
Today I want to talk a bit about Search Engines. A lot of my clients have been asking about what they should do in terms of "optimizing" their site for search engines. The first thing you need to know is this - don't get taken in by the numerous offers you get to submit your site to thousands of search engines. Take the common sense test - how many search engines do you use? One, maybe two? Alright then - don't fall for this one.
The next black hole to take your money is auto submission software. Guess what? The big boys hate it and can ban your site from their index if they catch you.
The other big game is the various strategies that experts employ (or teach you to employ) to "vault" your way to the top of the search engine rankings. They use tactics like doorway pages, link farms, hidden text, IP detection, and others. You know what? A lot of these things do work - but you'll either spend a huge amount of time, or a huge amount of money to accomplish them.
My advice - don't try to play tricks. I've tried to use some of the latest tricks to get my sites higher in the engines. You know what? It wasn't worth my time. I should have been spending my time working on my content, making contacts with potential joint venture partners, or getting another cup of coffee. I may have moved up a couple spots, but the point is this - there's better stuff you can do with your time than try to play games with the search engines.
You are probably asking, "Bob, I need traffic and rely on the search engines."
Okay - that is true, but over time, you'll discover that is only partially true, and only true for highly competitive online businesses. Having a search engine strategy is important for online businesses. You should always think of the search engines when designing your web site - but not at the expense of a good customer experience.
Now that you've been educated a little bit, we can talk about some good search engine strategies and practices. One resource that you should look into is a monthly publication entitled "Search Engine News" by Planet Ocean. The yearly subscription costs $97. I've been getting this pub for over 2 1/2 years now. It keeps me current on the search engines and helps me sift through the garbage. I've seen other resources, but this is one of the ones I personally use and recommend. I think it's worth the money. (http://www.RJRComputing.com/senews.htm)
(: "Parting Logic" :)
I will say this over and over, so please learn it now - USE COMMON SENSE! If the idea sounds too good to be true, or seems far- fetched, IT IS! Never spend your money or invest time and energy into things that you don't believe in or understand.
Today's lesson - If you don't use 1000 search engines, neither does your customer. Don't waste your money.
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Bob Regnerus publishes a weekly newsletter entitled the "Business Logic Gazette" where he provides expert business advice on how you can use technology to expand your business - online and offline. See him on the web at (http://www.RJRComputing.com).
You may freely share and reproduce this article as you wish with my permission as long as you keep this footer in tact.
About the Author
Bob Regnerus publishes a weekly newsletter entitled the "Business Logic Gazette" where he provides expert business advice on how you can use technology to expand your business - online and offline. See him on the web at (http://www.RJRComputing.com). You may freely share and reproduce this article as you wish with my permission as long as you keep this footer in tact.
