Over 70% of internet users find the information they need through search engines. Many businesses have taken advantage of this fact and have increased business (and profits) by marketing their websites on the major search engines – and you can too. Here are a few tips that will help you increase your visibility on the major search engines without breaking your budget.

Submit your website to search engines

You can manually submit your site to the major search engines. Registration and submission is usually free, but some search engines charge to register and it is generally worthwhile to make this investment. However, it is important to note that registering does not gaurantee your site will appear in the search results for a particular keyword. Ranking well is generally a result of efficient Search Engine Optimization. Nonetheless, here are a few Search Engine Submission pages that you can submit your site to.

• AltaVista - http://addurl.altavista.com/addurl/default
• Google - http://www.google.com/addurl.html
• Lycos/Fast - http://www.alltheweb.com/help/webmaster/submit_site
• MSN Search - http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx
• Yahoo! - http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html
• Open Directory Project (ODP) - http://www.dmoz.org - Find an appropriate category and submit to it

Search Engine Optimization

Even after submitting your website, your site isn’t guaranteed to be highly ranked in a search engine. In order to help boost your chances of ranking well, you should optimize your web pages for search engines. By optimizing your website, you increase the chances of having your site ranked in the first couple of pages of search results for a particular set of keywords. This process involves analyzes your website, business and the competition to see what keywords people use when searching for businesses like yours. Once you have developed this list of keywords they should be incorporated into your website and the underlying code for each page.

It is harder to change a building once it is built then when the plans are still sitting on the architects desk. Sometimes to get listed higher on a search results, you need to build a new website. Search engine optimization should be considered before the actual web design to save time and increase your long term benefits. A well planed website is easier to optimize, simpler to maintain, and attracts more customers.

Search Engine Marketing

Your rankings on search engines will fluctuate, but you can achieve good overall rankings through efficient design, search engine optimization and search marketing. One type of search marketing involves securing links to your website from other quality websites.

Do you need help improving your rank or placement with the major search engines? If so, contact us. We can help.

Tags: Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Submitting Your Site