Search Engine Marketing Basics

Search engines are the number one resource for acquiring qualified traffic to any web site. Getting your site listed in a search engine's index is very easy. Obtaining that monument top ten listing is quite a bit trickier. Maybe you've been wondering how your competition manages to do it. After learning the basics of search engine marketing you will then be able to acquire high quality visits to your site.

Below is a simple guide to search engine marketing. It is meant for the novice marketer, and can also be very useful for more advanced search engine marketers as a reference source. Each section provides a brief overview of the basics behind obtaining top search engine placement followed by additional resources for further study.

If you take it one step at a time you'll soon understand the basics behind search engine marketing.

Target Keywords, Phrases & Search Terms
Your first step should be to educate your self about your target web site audience and what search queries your target audience is using to locate your product or service. These keywords and phrases (keyword search terms) are what you will be using to market your web site.

On this page you will learn about:

Target phrases not just words, wow to test your keywords, case sensitivity, brands, company names, quality sites and bad spelling techniques.

Optimizing Your Content For Search Engines or Search Engine Optimization
Step two addresses how to make basic web site design changes and content keyword focus that will make your site more search engine friendly.

On this page you will learn about:

Search engine optimization, Domain name relevance, The Title Tags, Meta Description and Meta Keyword Tags, Copy writing, ALT Tags, Site Map, FLASH, Dynamic pages, Different File formats, Framed sites, Java, What to avoid, Hiring a professional SEO.

Search Engine Submission
When you've completed optimizing your web site with your relevant industry keywords, your next step is to get your site listed in the search engines for various search queries. Service companies will charge you a fee of $50 or more just to submit your site in the top 10 search engines and directories. Eventually after you get listed in the major directories the rest of the search world will eventually find your site through those major listings. You can also search manually each directory or search engine for "Add URL" and submit your self.

Most search engines will rank your page higher if they we're to spider it on their own. This process takes a little longer, but will reap larger benefits. If you can find free directories than list your site in them and the spiders will eventually find you through a directory.

Referral links to your site known as Link Popularity
Your link popularity weighs highly as one of the major factors when a search engine ranks your site. Learn how to increase your number of referral links to your site, how to look for those quality sites that will give you search engine credit when they link to yours. Submitting your site without getting referral links will keep your site from getting indexed in the search engines and eventually your site may fall out entirely. Having referral links from other web sites will not only increase your popularity and page rank but will also get your site indexed over and over because of the external links you've obtained.

We highly recommend using a software based application and the best in the Market related to cost an functionality is 123linksmanager. 123Linksmanger will take the guess work out of links management, so even the most novice users will be able to manage their link trades. Not only will the software validate links on a nightly basis it will provide statistics on your links partners. This software should be in every webmasters portfolio!

Paid Inclusion
If you would rather not wait for the search engines to find and index your site on their own, you can pay to be indexed faster with paid inclusion services that can be found on line.

Pay Per Click Search Engines
Pay per click search engines and pay per click advertising provides web site owners the opportunity to buy their way to better positions on search engine results pages. Your site will be listed to the right and on top based on how much you bid for placement that day and labeled "Sponsored Results" etc. These sites are not listed naturally with optimized sites and will have to pay a fee to the search engine every time someone clicks on their link. Naturally optimized pages will not have to pay any additional fees.

Stats File and Traffic Analysis Reporting
Your site's stat files contain a wealth of information about the effectiveness of your web site marketing programs. With your stat files, you can learn how your visitors are finding your site, which search engine is providing the most traffic, what search terms they are using to find it, and what sources of traffic are the best for your site.

Google's Page-Rank
Although Google's Page-Rank is but one factor Google uses to determine its search results, it is a popular topic. Google provides a ranking of 1 through 10 for every site. Google has a very complex algorithm and uses many criteria to rank sites. The higher your Google Page-Rank the higher your site will most place on a search engine.