In addition, get specific. Phrases like "home mortgage" and "low rates" won't set you apart from the pack. But adding your city and state, for instance, might help land your site higher in the results for searchers using those terms. In addition, keywords--not just your company name--should appear in the title bar atop your site's pages, Kent recommends. "Sanders & Son Ltd" doesn't indicate what the company does; "Sanders & Sons Graphic Design and Printing Services" tells users at a glance whether they've found the right site.
Secondly, keep in mind that search engines love links. The more sites linked to yours, the higher it's likely to rank in search results. "Links are essentially the same thing as votes," Sherman says. From a search engine's point of view, he says, " the more votes you have, the greater the indication that there's high-quality content at your site." So keep building your network of relevant links.
Finally, remember that while getting your category's number-one search-engine ranking is dandy--but you certainly haven't failed if a clear, well-targeted message appears a few notches down the page. "Keep your eyes on the result," Kent advises. "The goal is to increase qualified traffic to your Web site, and you can do that without having the very top position."
Keyword: Words and phrases included in a Web page matching those users are likely to employ in searching.
Keyword stuffing: Discouraged practice of overloading Web pages with keywords in an effort to obtain higher placement in search results. Also known as "spamdexing."
Local search: Evolving capability to limit search results to particular geographical areas.
Metasearch: Search using multiple search engines and directories.
Metatag: HTML tag that stores information about a Web page, including keywords for search-engine and directory use.
Optimization: See "SEO."
PFI (pay for inclusion): Advertising option in which marketers pay to be included in search results.
PFP (pay for placement): Advertising option in which marketers bid to place short text ads in or near search results, with highest bids appearing first.
Query: Synonym for "search."
Search engine: Program such as Google that searches its indices or databases in response to a user's query, retrieving lists of documents containing specific keywords. See also "Web directory."
Spiders: Software robots that automatically scour the Internet, reporting Web page contents back to a search engine's index or database. Also called "crawlers."
SEM: Search-engine marketing; using search techniques to build brand awareness or generate business.
SEO: Search-engine optimization, or retooling a site so that it's more likely to appear high in search results.
Web directory: Searchable indices such as Yahoo that are compiled by human editors rather than by automation. See also "Search engine."
Sidebar: Major search engines, directories, and related research tools:
All the Web (subsidiary of Overture/Yahoo!)
www.alltheweb.com
AltaVista (subsidiary of Yahoo!)
www.altavista.com
Ask Jeeves
www.askjeeves.com
Google
www.google.com
Inktomi (subsidiary of Yahoo!)
www.inktomi.com
MSN Search
search.msn.com
Overture (subsidiary of Yahoo!)
www.overture.com
Search.com
Conducts searches via several other major search engines
www.search.com
Yahoo!
www.yahoo.com
Yahoo! Directories
dir.yahoo.com/
OTHER USEFULE WEBSITES
All Search Engines
Useful index of search engines
www.allsearchengines.com/
The Open Directory Project
Human-edited directory of the Web, edited by volunteers.
dmoz.org/
Search Engine Bulletin
Companion site to Search Engine Optimization for Dummies, by Peter Kent (John Wiley & Sons, April 2004).
www.searchenginebulletin.com
Search Engine Optimization Tips
MSN's printable list of SEO do's and don'ts.
www.submit-it.com/subopt.htm
Search Engine Strategies
Resource site with articles and links. www.searchenginestrategies.biz
Search Engine Watch
News, advice, reviews, links, information about Search Engine Strategies conferences and free Search Engine Report monthly newsletters.
www.searchenginewatch.com
