Search
engines play an important role for
any successful online business. It
plays an important part for your failure
or success on internet. The position
your website appears in search engines
is an important factor.
If you have achieved
your site listing on the first page
of search engines then it is essential
to keep eye on same to maintain the
same ranking. This means you must
come up with a strategy to monitor
your search engines positions. This
strategy is crucial for the success
of any marketing campaign. Think of
your search engine positions as your
online portfolio. Would you let your
stock portfolio be ruled by chance
and market fluctuations, or would
you keep close tabs on your stocks
so you could buy and sell when the
time is right? This is the way you
must consider your search engines
positions.
Be aware that at first, after you
have launched your search engine campaign
and done all the right things to increase
your rankings, you will most likely
see a continual upward climb. What
you need to be on the lookout for
is the moment that upward climb reaches
a plateau. When this happens, your
search engine position campaign moves
into stage two, the monitoring and
protecting stage.
In stage two, do not be concerned
about the short-term fluctuations
in your positions. These are similar
to the subtle rising and falling of
stocks in a portfolio. Short-term
movement is an integral part of the
whole process. It's the long-term
changes that you must watch for and
prepare to act on immediately.
Analyzing the long-term trends of
search engines positions is imperative.
The way in which search engines rank
websites may change at the drop of
hat. If you are unaware of these changes
- many of which are subtle yet can
be deadly to your ranking - your position
may drop to the bottom of the list
before you can get your bearings.
To prevent this kind of precipitous
drop, you must create a system to
monitor your positions on a monthly
basis. Devise a chart to keep tabs
on your top ranking positions or your
top pages, and make sure to watch
"the market" closely.
Each search engine uses a formula
to compute website rankings. When
a search engine changes this formula
in any way, it may raise or lower
your ranking. Some search engines
use a number of different formulas,
rotating them so that a formula doesn't
become overused or outdated.
Depending on which formula is being
applied, your search engine position
may suddenly drop or rise in rank
significantly. Therefore, you must
check your positions frequently in
order to catch when a search engine
changes formulas and what effect it
has on your positions.
You must also deal with your competition
- a crucial factor you must always
be vigilant about. Your competitor's
position may suddenly rise, automatically
lowering your position. Or their position
may drop, pushing your position higher.
Each month, expect position changes
due to the continual changes that
are occurring in your competitor's
position, and be prepared to adjust
your marketing strategy to compensate
for decreased rankings. Monitoring
these fluctuations will also give
you vital information about how to
improve your website to increase your
position in search results.
Of course, you must discern what the
most popular search engines are in
order for your monitoring efforts
to be effective. Right now, there
are ten popular search engines that
direct most of Internet traffic to
your sites. The challenge you face
is that these top ten may change from
month to month.
This means that your must not only
monitor your search engine positions,
but you must also keep track of the
ranking popularity of the search engines
you are monitoring. Find out which
search engines people use most frequently
every month and be sure to live in
the present!
People are fickle about their favorite
search engines, and it takes constant
vigilance to follow their dalliances.
The search engines they loved when
you first launched your campaign may
be old news in the next few months.
You must adjust your list of engines
according to the whims of the Internet
users. Check out http://www.searchenginewatch.com/reports/netratings.html
for a current list of website favorites.
Another factor to monitor carefully
is a sudden drop of your positions
in all search engines. This is not
the same as monthly fluctuations -
this is a neon red warning sign!
It could mean a number of different
things.
It all your search engine positions
have plummeted, it may indicate that
search engines spiders - those sneaky
programs that seek out your site and
rank their positions - have found
some type of problem with your website.
If you have recently changed the code,
for instance, the spider may become
utterly confused and consequently
drop your positions disastrously.
If a spider creeps up on your website
when it is down for adjustments or
changes, you may actually disappear
from a search engine index entirely.
Or
A search engine may drastically change
its formula, and suddenly your entire
website comes up as irrelevant. If
that search engine is a current favorite,
it may create a domino effect, causing
all of your position to drop in all
search engines.
Some search engines rely on the results
from other search engines, and it
is vital that you know which engines
these are and keep track of all the
engines they influence. The biggest
problem here is that search engines
will sometimes change affiliations,
and this can create a major shift
in the geography of the Internet.
For example, recently Yahoo decided
to display only results gleaned from
Google. So you must not only monitor
your own positions, but you must keep
abreast of seismic shifts in the landscape
of the Internet as a whole.
Finally, pay attention to your keywords.
Keywords are the foundation bricks
of the entire search engine system,
and they demand individual scrutiny
in your monitoring efforts.
If you have found that a number of
your positions have plummeted, it
may mean that a page of your website
has become invisible or inaccessible
to search engine spiders.
Or the competition for that particular
keyword or phrase has recently rocketed
into outer space. In either case,
you must act quickly and efficiently
to regain lost ground.
Your search engine marketing campaign
is an investment. It costs you time
and money on a continual basis. Protect
this investment as diligently as you
would your financial portfolio. In
the same way, track your positions
from an objective perspective, and
monitor your positions on a regular
basis. Make sure your time and effort
reap rewards by keeping your eye on
the big picture - your long-term marketing
campaign.
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