Engines run almost everything today, and the Internet is no
exception. Search engines are the beating heart of online
commerce. If you aren't listed well on the search engines,
you probably will not do well online in general.
Most people don't know how to get their sites listed on the
engines (while others, unfortunately, know too well!). This is
a problem for both vendor and customer. You've had the
experience of searching for something, finding what looks
like a good relevant website on Google, and clicking it – to
find a huge links site masquerading as good content
squatting there instead.
Why do they get ranked high instead of you? Because they
know the secrets of search engine placement.
Search engines look for keywords. These are words placed in
strategic spots on your page that tell the search engines
what your web site is all about. This isn't like the AOL
system of selling keywords; instead, Google and other major
search engines are seeking out content on your website
relevant to the searches that their customers enter. For
instance, if you sell model trains, your keyword would be
"model trains" (okay, it's a phrase, but it works the same
way). You want people looking for "model trains" to come to
your website.
So does Google. They make their money on people being
able to find what they're seeking. And what they've found is
that most people selling "model trains" have that phrase
sprinkled liberally throughout their home page, and often on
subsequent pages of the site. If you ensure that "model
trains" shows up on your page frequently and in appropriate
places, Google will rank you higher than your competitor
who does not.
But back to those obnoxious links sites. At one point, they
placed high because they did something called "search
engine spamming." They would place those coveted
keywords everywhere – having perhaps a 50% mention of
the keywords. It turned out to be text like: "The model
trains of the model trains go through model trains to model
trains." Grammatical, sure. But also utter nonsense.
For this reason, search engines have learned that a really
high keyword mention is a sure sign of search engine spam,
and they won't list these sites. Don't do it.
Text Generators
Other vendors have been turning to text generators. These
are programs that work sort of like Mad Libs – you enter
your keyword, and the computer generates text, placing
your keyword in appropriate places. You can even specify
keyword density. And then you place these articles on your
site.
If you experiment with generators a bit, you can place pretty
high on the search engines. And this gets your page a lot of
hits. But it's every bit as obnoxious as the search engine
spam was. When your customer gets to your website and it's
a lot of nonsense, they will assume that your product is
worth about the same, and click right back to the search
engine to take the next page in line.
Fresh Quality Content
Between search engines getting smarter and customers
being picky about what faceless vendor they trust online, it
may seem impossible to rank well. But the key is fresh
quality content, sprinkled liberally with your keywords. You
can write it yourself, hire someone to write it, download it
for free, or purchase it in bulk from an article broker like
YourOwnArticles.com, but ultimately you need that
quality content to maintain high rankings and keep
customers happy.
The best way to do this is always to write it yourself. But not
everyone has the time or the talent to do this. An option just
barely second to writing it yourself, then, is purchasing it,
pre-written and pre-optimized, for your site.
Why not download it for free? A couple of reasons, besides
the usual "you get what you pay for." While many free
article sites do offer excellent quality, the authors of these
articles don't have your best interests in mind; after all,
you're not paying them. They are writing articles and
posting them for themselves. Whenever you download a free
article, you are required to place a resource box with the
author's name and website on your website along with the
article.
What this does is drive your business to the other person's
website. How much business could you lose by doing this?
And every customer you lose is not just today's profit, but
potentially tomorrow's as well. Instead of setting this trap up
for yourself, purchase your articles, purchase the rights to
put your name on them instead of the original author's
name (or no name at all), and put them on your own
website, no strings attached.
