Search engine specifics.

We are all told that we need to promote to the major search engines to get free targeted traffic to our websites. But how exactly do you do that? I've put together some tips that I've learned in promoting my sites. Some of these require you to spend some money, but are well worth the expense. You have to decide if you can afford it or not, but most of these will pay for themselves quite quickly. == Looksmart == This one is definitely worth getting listed with. Their directory is used by Excite, MSN, Altavista, AOL and many others. Looksmart offers two submission options, the Express Submit, and the Basic Submit. The Express Submit costs $199 and guarantees that they will review your site in two business days. The Basic Submit only costs $99, but can take up to 8 weeks before they review your site. I have used both of these options and have to say that the Express option is MUCH better. It costs twice as much, but the lost traffic of waiting the extra 8 weeks is not worth the difference in my opinion. == Google == Google has been bringing tons of traffic to my websites, and is one of my top referrers. Google seems to take about a month or so to list your site, and seems to favor link popularity. My understanding is that it likes to follow links from pages to discover other sites. It qualifies as a 'deep-linking' engine for sure, as I get traffic to ALL of my pages from Google. They also offer a new advertising service that is really taking off in a big way for them called Google Adwords. I've been using it for my new site and I'm very impressed with the results.

The way it works is that they charge you by impression. I know many consider this advertising method to be dead, but this one has some nice twists.

You pay for specific keywords, and when someone searches for that keyword on Google your ad will appear on the right side of the page. You control the wording of your ad, the keywords that you want it to display for, and how much you are willing to spend.

I've changed my current ad 3 times already trying to get the best click thru ratio. The nice thing is that changes you make happen right away, allowing you to test different ads to see which pull better.

I've heard of some webmasters getting extremely high click thru rates, and from my own experience I can say that it is definitely worth a trial run:
https://adwords.google.com/AdWords/Welcome.html

== Inktomi ==
Even Inktomi now has a paid option. Inktomi is used by Hotbot, iWon, MSN, AOL and others. Their program is only $30, and they guarantee 48 hour refreshes of your site for one full year.

This means you get to experiment with keywords and such on your pages to try and get better ranking. I like that.

This program is offered through Position Tech at:
http://www.positiontech.com/inktomi/

== Yahoo! ==
Yahoo! is the big dog of search engines and is well worth the effort. Most of the commercial categories now require that you use their Business Express service at a cost of $199.

I used this for my new site and was listed in 2 days. It is very difficult to get listed in Yahoo! as they are very selective. Some things that I feel help are:

Content is king with Yahoo!, and the more the better.
Contact information on every page, or at least a link to your contact page containing address and phone number.
Quality design that loads fast.
No broken links.

== Altavista ==
I don't know what the deal is with this engine anymore. The days of getting listed in a couple of days are long gone. Your best bet for Altavista at this point is the Looksmart listing.

== Excite ==
Excite is another one that is having some difficulties of late. They can bring a ton of traffic if you get listed well, but it has been very tough to get a new site listed, even through the Looksmart listing.

== Dmoz.org ==
This is a directory maintained by many volunteers and is used by many high-traffic search engines. This one is another one that is well worth the effort of trying to get listed well with.

The key is finding the most appropriate category, and then putting together a good description. Use the other sites that are already listed as your template. Don't try to throw in the hype and sales pitch or you will either not get in, or will have your description changed.

If you put forth the effort, and in some cases cash, to get listed with these engines you can plan on receiving a nice level of targeted traffic to your website.

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Chuck McCullough is the owner of http://AffiliateMatch.com offering FREE articles, tips, hints, and real-world advice on how to make money with your website. Visit his site or join his FREE newsletter, The AffiliateMatch Informer by sending a blank email to mailto:newsletter@affiliatematch.com.