Quote:
Originally Posted by Young Spark
But I need the advice of a hardcore search engine know it all, this means if you don't know search engines enough to get your page to number 1, please don't imply your advice. Not that it wouldn't be appreciated but this will be an article looked upon many.
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Some of this depends on the niche but I do Search Engine Optimization/SEM by trade and am under a few retainer contracts - so I might have a few pointers to share.
1. What are 25 of the TOP search engines out there? Which ones have free submission and which ones are paid search engines?
Google, Yahoo, and MSN in that order. They are all free to submit but you won't even need to do that. Bots are always crawling so as long as you have one or two quality incoming links your website will be picked up within a short matter of time. The days of manual submission are long over, but still available if you must do it this way. I'd also suggest setting up both a google and yahoo sitemap to make sure that all of your pages are properly crawled and indexed.
2. What are some useful search engine marketing tools that are available for tracking the statistics of the advertising campaigns?
There's a plethora of them out there. I generally set clients up with Google Analytics to track analytical data (assuming they are ecommerce) because GA does a great job tracking products purchased and advertising dollars.
3. When it comes to META tags, what should we watch out for? Which do you prefer in keyword generating, KeywordDiscovery or WordTracker?
This really depends which meta tag. I use The keyword suggestion tool over at
SEOBook for most of my needs. Meta tags are a fine line these days and their actual relevancy is highly debatable. Most white hat SEOs will tell you that proper site structure (think proper html) and quality, unique content is infinitely more important than a meta tag, and I am along the same lines of thinking as well.
4. What is your number 1 advice for getting to the top of the search rankings?
Depending on your niche, this can be very difficult to do and does not happen overnight. My advice is to go after keywords that are unsaturated and have less competition at first. If you run an internet marketing website for example, there's absolutely no point in trying to get to page one for the term 'internet marketing' because there's over 625,000 others fighting for it as well and your website won't have the pull to get you there in the beginning. That being said, my honest advice is to make sure that your website has a creative keyword density along with proper site structure. This will go such a long way. Also, have content that other websites are willing to link to, because this carries much weight in the serps as well.
5. How much would you say for one to keep track of their search engine rankings a week? (In Hours)
This is hard to answer because I do it full time. I would say at least a couple of hours minimal, but this will depend on the website as well. Too many variables to answer this question properly. How about this - do something every single day.
6. What website can you refer that will help the "new SEM's" benefit?
This book by Aaron wall. He's arguably the best in the business. There are so many others. Join Search Engine Optimization/SEM related forums and just read everything that you can get your hands on. This includes
Webmaster World,
Sitepoint, and
Digital Point forums.
I hope this helps if even just a little bit. The best advice that I can give you is to read and soak up everything that you can get your hands on regarding the topic. Search Engine Optimization and SEM are basic in nature but will become quite advanced when you are ready.
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