Are you well rested and ready to learn the
next lesson?

Good. Let's proceed.

I'm a bit reluctant to bring up this topic
so early on in the game, but it's foremost
on every beginner's mind so I want to get
it out in the open right away.

Many people erroneously think that Internet
Marketing begins and ends in the search
engines. This is absolutely false.

While getting listed is definitely something
you want to do and certainly well worth your
time, it is not the only way to go.

If you set out right off the bat intending
to get a number one ranking in every search
engine out there, you are in for a long
and painful trip.

It *can* be done, but it's certainly not
easy. To start out, you should use some
basic techniques to improve the quality
and position of your listings. I wouldn't
go any further than that. (At the end
of this listing we'll tell you where to go
for advanced studies.)

Let's get down to the details.

First you need to understand that not every-
thing people are calling "search engines"
are the same thing. There are a great many
types of places to submit your site and
each should be handled differently.

Let's look at the basic types one at a time:

1) Directories

These are categorical listings of websites
usually accompanied by a short review or
description. Yahoo is the consummate example
of the directory. You can search the listings
at Yahoo, and Yahoo has a "Spider" type engine
on the back end (when it can't find a listing
in its directory), but its heart is that
basic categorical list.

To get a high rank in a directory, you need
to be either placed in a category that shows
up before others or your listing needs
to start with a low letter of the alphabet
depending on how the directory delivers
search results. This is highly dependent
on each site.

When submitting to these sites, your listing
is usually reviewed by a human before being
entered into the database. Your challenge
is presenting that human with a listing
that is acceptable to them and also one that
will entice the web surfer to visit your
site.

Since the reviewer sees many sites every day,
he has a low tolerance for hype-filled marketing
slogans and fluff. (Of course, there are
some sites that don't review listings at all
before entering info into the database in
which case you're pretty much given free
reign).

Now, as for the web surfer, he is bombarded with
choices and advertisements on the web all
day long. *He* has a low tolerance for hype
and fluff, too.

If you follow these rules, you should always
be able to please both the review *and* the
surfer:

a. Get to the point quickly and concisely.
Tell what you're site is all about and move
on.

b. If the directory doesn't review your
entry, show how your site will benefit the
surfer. If it's a site where the listings
are reviewed first (like Yahoo), just stick
to the facts or you won't get in at all.

c. Try to include some of your keywords
in your title. Since many people will
conduct a search of the directory listings
and not just browse to the right category,
it's important that your site will be indexed
in such a way that a potential visitor
interested in what you have to offer can
easily find you.

These are the dead basics of breaking into
the directories. For more advanced techniques
and "back-door" techniques for getting into
the big ones like Yahoo, check out The New
Webmasters Internet Business Disc

http://members.tripod.com/~jmfishman3/index-2.html

2) Spider Engines (or True Search Engines)

These sites are based on actual extracts
from the contents listed on your site.
Contrast this with the directory that bases
its listings on what you submit or a reviewer
writes.

Common examples are HotBot, Alta Vista,
and Webcrawler.

These engines work by sending out a "spider"
(an automatic surf robot) that visits your
site and takes a quick snap-shot of your
page(s).

The nature of this snap shot varies
considerably from engine to engine. For
example, one may look at the first 500
characters of your site and nothing more.
Another may look at your title and meta-tags
(see below) and nothing more.

Each one in turn ranks search results
differently as well. When people say they
want to "come up first in the search engines",
they are generally referring to manipulating
the spider engines in such a way that they
will come up first when someone searches
for a particular keyword.

There are a great many sophisticated methods
for attempting to achieve this goal. Some
will work and some will get you kicked out
of the engine entirely. I recomend sticking
to the basics and moving on to more sure-fire
promotion techniques.

At a minimum, though, here are some of the
very basic things you should do to enhance
your listing:

a. Your Title Tag

This tag is in the page "head" of your
HTML (between <head> and </head>), and looks
like this:

<title>Your Page Title Here</title>

You want to use as many keywords here as
possible. Just be sure not to make it look
tacky...

When most search engines display your page
data as the result of a search, the <title>
tag is the first thing they display. This
makes it doubly important to ensure the tag
looks professional. If the tag says something
like "tools tools tools plumbing plumbing
plumbing", the type of person you are looking
for probably won't even click on the link
even if it does show up first in the search
engine.

It's up to you to creatively include your
keywords in a professional looking title.
The title can be long (no more than 70
characters is best), but it had better not
be just a keyword list. Have a friend look it
over to see what they think. If they don't
ask "where can I get this?" try again!
 

b. Meta Tags

Meta Tags are the most basic tools for
manipulating the search engines. Some search
engines will use these Meta Tags to index web
content and give this more weight than the
actual content of the page.

For instance, if the first line of text in
your page says "John's Hot Rod Page" and the
"description" Meta Tag says "Jane's Cooking
Page", some search engines will think it's a
cooking page and not a hot-rod page.

(OK, it's an extreme and unrealistic example,
but you get the point.)

There are two main Meta Tags recognized by
the search engines: "description" and
"keywords". These tags need to be placed in
the "head" section of your html document just
like the "title" tag mention above.

The tags should look like this:

<meta name="description" content="Description
of your document goes here.">

<meta name="keywords" content="your,key,words,
here,like,this">

It's that simple. Remember, some engines will
look for agreement between the "description",
"keyword", "title" and body text. So, try to
use the same keywords in each field. That is,
if your keyword list contains: "plumbers
plumbing pipes tools", you need to make sure
that you not only include those keywords in
the "keywords" meta tag, but also the
description, title and body text.

Remember though, every search engine is
different. Some search engines will use only
the first line of body text. That is, the
text that comes right after the  tag
in an html document.

c. Your Body Text

Since some engines don't look at Meta Tags
at all, you need to ensure the body of your
document contains some of your keywords as
well. In general, you should try to include
them up close to the top of the page (although
some engines will spider the entire contents
of your page no matter how much content you
have).

Don't get so wrapped up around this that
you sacrifice the content of your site. Your
primary goal is to create a site that
accomplishes your goals - getting listed
high in the search engines is not a worthy
goal - selling a product or service is!

If you want a detailed analysis of each of
the major search engines, exactly how to do
well in each of them, and a report on "Search
Engine Skullduggery" (search engine rip-offs
and myths that are sucking your pockets dry),
then check out the Submission Sniper. It's
currently being offered as a free bonus
with The New Webmasters Internet Business Disc
http://members.tripod.com/~jmfishman3/index-2.html

3) Classified and FFA Pages

These are generally dumping grounds for
adds where your listing is added instantly
and you have free reign on what you can submit.

Generally you submit a URL and a title for
that URL. That's it.

The trick here is to get your listing to
stand out above all others. Since hundreds
of listings are added to these pages every
day and your listing will be sandwiched
among many others, it's a real challenge
to write a headline that gets read at all.

Simply clearly state the benefits and write
your listing in such a way that it stands out
and you will get far better results than
most. Another good trick is to include
a headline that leaves the person hanging.
Ask a question that has to be answered and
they won't be able to resist clicking!

For further study see The New
Webmasters Internet Business Disc,
where you are shown three
ways to change bland FFA marketing into a
killer promotional tool. Also, you'll
learn exactly what tools to use (and what
tools to avoid like the plague) when promoting
your website.
http://members.tripod.com/~jmfishman3/index-2.html

Tomorrow you'll learn some great techniques
for turning off-line publicity into online
super-results!