| Here is my latest article. It may be freely used in | | | | and goodness knows what all on the results page |
| ezines, on websites or in e-books, as long as the | | | | I received! |
| Resource Box is left intact. | | | | Do you see my point: if there had been a site |
| I would appreciate notification of where it was | | | | with that exact phrase, the search engine |
| used, and if possible, a copy of the ezine or | | | | software *had* to pick it. That's the way search |
| newsletter that it was used in. Please send | | | | software works, basically. |
| notification | | | | To make sure your site appears on page one |
| ______________________________ | | | | though, you have a bit more work to do. |
| Not on page one of the majors yet? | | | | A quick check with for |
| Elsewhere, I've written about getting on page one | | | | 'BaseballRulesAndTerminology.com' showed that it |
| of the major search engines with an article here: | | | | is available for purchase. Guess what? So are the |
| and the relative ease of actually developing a | | | | .net and .org names available, and I'll bet .TV and |
| website to do just that here: . | | | | .biz are also! |
| If the process is so easy then, you may ask, | | | | Now, for ranking purposes, most - if not all - SEs |
| why are there so many services touting their | | | | place more emphasis on the domain name, the |
| ability to "guarantee a top 10 placement" for your | | | | domain title, the domain description and the |
| website? | | | | themed content of the site. The last is perhaps |
| The easy answer, of course, is that most people | | | | the most important. The keyword meta-tag is all |
| do not know how to go about designing a | | | | but dead (I'd make sure I followed the rules, but I |
| website that SEs drool over, and have even less | | | | wouldn't worry about keyword meta-tags much). |
| knowledge about the HTML coding required to | | | | Links are important, but they're last in priority. |
| display the website on the web. For a relatively | | | | Now, if I were that baseball expert, I'd boogie on |
| easy approach to site building for yourself - and a | | | | down to my favorite domain registrar, buy the |
| fun one at that - go to this link: where you'll get | | | | name(s), build the site and get on page one... |
| the help you need...and then some! | | | | Well, now...how can I be *so* sure, you ask? |
| Of course, there are many services that will do | | | | Let me answer that with examples from my own |
| the job for you, and obviously, many of them do | | | | domain, The two words - 'online' and 'wealth' - are |
| a good job. But again, if you're gonna do the job | | | | pretty common on the web, right? And, when |
| yourself, you have a lot to think about... | | | | used as a phrase 'online wealth', you'd be inclined |
| First of all, however, just what do SEs drool | | | | to think the same, right? Well...right again! |
| about? Well, the best phrase I can think of is "a | | | | Here are the results (i.e. number of web pages) |
| website with themed relevance". | | | | for the search phrase 'online wealth', using the |
| Meaning? Well, suppose you're an expert on the | | | | same search engines, without quotes and with |
| sport of baseball, and you want to build a website | | | | quotes: |
| that ranks in the top ten SEs. Most of all, you | | | | First up, without quotes: online wealth |
| want to have a site devoted to baseball rules and | | | | Altavista: 105,722,390 |
| terminology - a narrow-focus topic, but still having | | | | Google: 946,000 |
| broad appeal and relevance to all baseball players | | | | Excite: 15,634,290 |
| and fans (your target audience, naturally). | | | | Lycos: 525,516 |
| Well...a couple of days ago (it's June 18, 2001 | | | | Northern Light: 490,409 |
| today!) a quick search on a few of the majors, | | | | Yes, those figures from Altavista and Excite |
| for the search term 'baseball rules and | | | | *are* the numbers returned to me, I assure you! |
| terminology'(the 'and' in the phrase isn't required, | | | | Now, with quotes: "online wealth" |
| actually), drew quite a mixed bag, thus : | | | | Altavista: 1556 |
| Altavista: 17,115,664 | | | | Google: 1750 |
| Google: 8720 | | | | Excite: 490 |
| Excite: 1,621,610 | | | | Lycos: 1662 |
| Lycos: 5728 | | | | Northern Light: 871 |
| Northern Light: 6086 | | | | The only results page that does NOT include our |
| Now they were the results when I entered the | | | | domain of on page one, is that from Lycos. All of |
| above search phrase *without* quotes. When the | | | | the others have us on page one, and usually |
| phrase is entered *with* quotes, the results are | | | | number 1! (I'll have to find out why Lycos is |
| markedly different, thus: | | | | ignoring us!) |
| Altavista: Zip | | | | What does all that mean? Simply this: anybody |
| Google: 2 | | | | who punches in "online wealth" or 'online wealth' |
| Excite: Nada | | | | (no quotes), into a search box, will find our site on |
| Lycos: 1 | | | | page one of the majors and probably in number |
| Northern Light: 4 | | | | one position. And that includes Yahoo, Ixquick, and |
| *By placing the quotes around the phrase, I | | | | a few others! |
| forced the SEs to find the exact phrase | | | | So, you expert on baseball...with more information |
| somewhere in their databases.* However, not | | | | about the topic than anybody else...get that |
| *one* of the SEs returned the exact phrase, | | | | domain name, organize that information into a |
| which means it may not even exist anywhere on | | | | coherent whole - be it a catalog, a dictionary, a |
| the web. | | | | database, an e-book or whatever - develop a |
| Furthermore, when I enter the same search | | | | killer title and description that precisely encapsulate |
| phrase in one of the meta-search engine (a fancy | | | | what your new site is all about, promote it to all |
| term that means it searches the search engines), | | | | SEs and directories and... |
| I get the following: | | | | Hey, don't expect *me* to click through...I prefer |
| - Without quotes: 20,346. With quotes: 1. | | | | deep-sea shark fishing...even if you are on page |
| And, just so that you know I haven't ignored the | | | | one of the majors, for your theme! ;-( |
| one and only: | | | | Huh!? |
| - Without quotes: 2230. With quotes: 1 | | | | Well...that's the web! Even if you are on page one, |
| So...all of *that* means you have a golden | | | | 30% of searchers will ignore you, anyway! |
| opportunity to be number one in the majors, with | | | | But, at least you'll *be* on page one, and ahead |
| your baseball rules and terminology site. | | | | of the rest, whenever your target prospects find |
| Why? The first set of results ranged from many | | | | you. |
| thousands to multi-millions, so how can that be | | | | P.S. When I last made enquiries, there were |
| beaten, you say? No problem - those first set of | | | | maybe only 48 links pointing to I get different |
| results covered *any* occurrence of 'baseball', | | | | results from different SEs...so I don't worry about |
| 'rules' and 'terminology', so there were even sites | | | | links at all. |
| for cricket, public administration, medicine, religion | | | | |