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