Ten Commandments of Search Engines

Each of my clients are advised in detail when their site launches the reality of organic or free Search Engine listings and what will be necessary to ensure their target market finds them when searched for and that their listings remain updated. I also provide a very lengthy detailed explanation of the process and what to expect - as well as what not to expect.

Included are issues that need to be addressed and considered moving forward. Unfortunately, many times the spam of easy listings and top 10 positions drowns out the truth of what is required to gain and maintain relevant positions.

Needless to say, these issues have evolved over the past decade as Search Engines struggle to offer more relevant results. This necessitates professionals such as myself to study and become proficient in how the various search sites and services operate so that I may assist clients when called upon in acquiring the listings they desire - if they are willing to approach this effort from a business point of view. From a realistic point of view.

In order to have realistic goals and expectations I think the first thing we need to do is put the massivity of the online world into perspective:

• In 1997, there were an estimated 200 million pages on the World Wide Web (K. Bharat and A. Broder, “A technique for measuring the relative size and overlap of public web search engines ” [WWW1998]).
• By 1998, that number had jumped to 800 million pages (S. Lawrence and C.L. Giles, “Accessibility of information on the web ” [Nature 400:107-109, 1999]).
• A mere 7 years later, the estimate is now 11.5 billion pages (A. Gulli and A. Signorini, “The Indexable Web is more than 11.5 billion pages ” [2005]).
• Google: Before they decided to no longer show their index count in October/2005 reflected 8,058,044,651 pages.

Based on the above, what intelligent person would not take as a given the work that will be required to get found?

This article is continually updated as I do my best to review and update, test and provide, every possible insight and bit or byte of information critical to acquiring relevant organic/free Search Engine listings. This information is not my opinion, my take or just my viewpoint. This information is an accurate representation of the way the Search Engine environment operates and what is required to get found. Like it or not, it is best dealt with than ignored or disregarded - that is unless you have deep pockets to purchase the traffic you desire.

Just like anything else to do with your Web Program your listings have to be worked at - consistently to produce results. They don’t just happen by osmosis or for perpetuity or by changing a few things here or there on your site. So, don’t shoot the messenger as they say!!

The Ten Commandments of Search Engines:

1. Thou shalt not expect that Search Engines will drive massive amounts of traffic to your site immediately based on the initial registration with free services upon the launch of your site. Listings take time to solidify. Google as an example has what is known as their “sandbox” where new sites land for up to six months or more before hitting Google’s public index! Although many engines state anticipated time frames (many also clearly offering no guarantees when or if) as to when your listing may be added to their database, many times it is much longer due to the massive volume of new submissions submitted daily.

And, as you tweak your site for better placement you can expect a certain level of latency in any changes your tweaks may ultimately reflect. No tweaking? No updating? Not growing your site? No relevant rankings.

2. Thou shalt not expect that Search Engines will drive massive amounts of traffic to your site immediately after you pay for reviews or inclusion. Ongoing tweaking of your site based on the competitiveness of your particular online market will then be required to get optimum visibility above your competitors. Yes, even after paying for reviews you still have to keep working at this! There are no guarantees. If you are in a industry with little competition, getting relevant listings is much easier than one saturated by 100’s or possibly 1000’s of sites fighting for the same top page listings. What makes your site better than those already listed to nudge them out of the top positions? Nothing? Get to work!
3. Thou shall understand that if you don’t track your listings and keep your site “fresh”, growing with content and current with technology, those competitors that do will be listed before you and your listings will begin to deteriorate. Your listings also may not reflect the current information on your site because you may no longer be crawled. No way around this. Don’t grow, track and react, your site will drop in positioning.
4. Thou shall know that those companies that offer you “top of page” listings for $500+ dollars per month are simply signing you up for “Sponsored”, “Paid” or “Featured Listings” that the Search Engines or PPC services offer. These listings are purchased and have nothing to do with your site, organic/free listings or the “keywords” in your meta tags. You can sign up for these services yourself and save thousands of dollars by visiting the Search Engines and reviewing their programs. Then, here again, be prepared to chomp on all the data that will be provided so that you can tweak and modify your program to garner the best results and conversions.
5. Thou shall realize that some of the top scammers on the Net are those who promise unbelievable results with little effort, touting all that is stated in this article to not be necessary. Many using tactics that simply do not work or may temporarily work and when detected could get your site banned. This is called “Black Hat” SEO (Search Engine Optimization). As a matter of fact, Google has added a warning on their site about these “services”: http://www.google.com/webmasters/seo.html
6. Thou shalt not sit back and think that without participating, networking and taking advantage of on and off-line opportunities to get exposure for your “dot com” that you will get traffic anyway. You won’t. Look at the figures I mentioned above again. While site and link popularity are an important part of getting found, they aren’t the end-all-be-all either - just one part of the formula. Quality, relational links to your site can boost your listings - but that won’t happen unless you are out there working at getting other sites to link to you. Why would any site link to you unless you have quality content worth linking to? The answer is, if they are committed to building a quality site for the long haul; they won’t. Valuable content, articles and white papers - now that’s information worth linking to!
7. Thou shall understand that this is not a “build it and they will come&” telephone book environment. With literally billions of Web pages online and 10 million going live daily, how do you realistically think your potential customers will find you without ongoing reactive and proactive efforts? They won’t. You need to look at your stats, see where you are currently listed and then determine an ongoing plan on how to improve upon your listings if you want to place higher than you currently are. Simply changing your keywords or adding more keywords won’t make any difference if other issues are not seriously considered. In particular for new sites, plan on at least 6-9 months before you see the fruits of your labor for organic listings on Google. And that’s if you build a site Google considers worthy. You’ll be in the Google “sandbox” for some time.
8. Thou shalt not believe that by simply running around and resubmitting your old stale site, every day, every week, every moment will be all it takes. Believe this at your own peril! Some engines consider resubmitting, if not done within established guidelines, as spamming them and you can be dropped or worse yet banned. Actually, if you are doing everything right, the Search Engines will find you and there really is no need to submit or resubmit your site at all. Software that automatically submits your site for you is ignored and can also identify you as a Search Engine spammer causing your site to be removed and blocked entirely from future submission efforts. No way around doing the hard work!
9. Thou shall understand that only unwavering commitment and ongoing investment, which includes a rabid aggressive, proactive marketing campaign both on and off-line, including Search Engine and PPC (Pay Per Click) monitoring and tracking is necessary to have consistently relevant listings. You also need to plan on adding and growing your site with content rich topical information to compliment these efforts or your efforts will not meet their full potential.
10. Thou knows that even though they may not like the Ten Commandments of Search Engines, that in no way diminishes the reality of fact and truth in how Search Engines work and what you need to do as a site owner to ensure consistent relevant listings over your competitors. IOW, if you don’t work them, they won’t work for you.

Many think listings should just happen. Or that by changing or adding keywords or some phrases here or there that all your target customers will be able to find you. There is nothing further from the truth! Look at your stats! See the traffic you are getting and from where. Run Search Engine tracking reports on your targeted keyword phrases and compare them to your stats and make modifications and adjustments based on that data. Create keyword rich informative articles and add them to your site on a regular basis.

Search Engines tweak how they list sites all the time. This is called their algorithm. And each will list your very same site differently. They have database problems where blocks of sites are dropped - for no reason. What happens if they change how they list sites or have system problems and you are not tracking your listings to notice the negative effect? What if your competitors are more involved and aggressive than you are? That is what is called lost opportunity!

Did you know that all but one of the crawlers for Search Engines and Directories completely IGNORE or give low relevance to those keyword tags you hear so much about? Why do so many business owners think that by virtue of “wanting” to pull by certain keywords, or by shuffling or changing keywords that makes it so? They choose to believe their friends, or the latest junk mail or someone trying to sell them that cheap and easy solution that only benefits the respective salesperson’s pocketbook. (See the Google URL above.)

Here at The IStudio^®, I work in the realm of reality of what it takes to be successful - much to the frustration of some who would prefer listings just happen without cost or ongoing efforts. Whether business owners like what has to be done, or are willing to follow through on adding content to their site or not, should not be my concern. My concern and responsibility is that you have valuable accurate information based in truth and fact, not hype and misinformation. Information that you need to make educated business decisions that will effect how well you do - or not. If everyone had this methodology, the online world would be a must less confusing place!

“Wanting”, “feeling”, “thinking” doesn’t cut it! Doing, planning, reviewing and taking action in an environment that is fluid and constantly changing is what works. What other medium do you have the results of your efforts at your fingertips 24/7? None!

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive nor
the most intelligent, but those most adaptive to change.”
~ Charles Darwin

Don’t blame the Web, don’t blame the Search Engines, don’t blame the fact that to reach your goals one has to spend more time and/or money - try or learn new things - all the time. That’s what this gig is all about - learning, changing, doing - rolling with the proverbial punches! Certainly, don’t believe friends and associates who claim unbelievable results without the efforts mentioned here - impossible!

If any site is not receiving the traffic or listings they want, the only person to blame is the site owner. If one is unwilling to rise to the occasion and participate based on facts and reality of what technology demands instead of spending that energy complaining the Web or technology is too difficult, requires too much effort or costs - I am impotent to assist. Whether you like these commandments or not is moot. If you want to succeed online which generally means you have to get found, you have only one choice to make. Either know the rules and play by them or do not plan on even finishing the game.

If up until now you have neglected this area of your Web program, here are some issues to consider:

• Check your stats. Get intimate with your stats - review them minimally at the end of each month because by not doing so you simply do not have the information you need to make those productive and all so important decisions moving forward. Do you see traffic coming from the big name Search Engines/Services? If not, we need to get to work! Your stats show exactly what phrases you are being found by and from what service so that we can accurately track and build upon what is working! Between tracking reports and your site’s statistics only then can you get the full picture of what your next move should be.
• When was the last time work was done on your site? Those files are dated and Search Engines can come by and ignore you if your date is past their algorithm or if they don’t find anything new. Fresh, growing, content rich sites garner better listings and backlinks. Don’t fall into a false sense of security that modifying your site by moving or changing keywords or head tags is the shortcut solution. Changes must be complimented by marketing efforts, then ongoing content additions, then more marketing efforts, then….
• If you have not revamped your site specifically for optimum Search Engine listings within a one year period with an experienced consultant the specializes in doing so, know you are most likely not using the latest strategies and variables both visibly and in your code to boost your listings based on current successful and acceptable methodologies and criteria. This arena is constantly evolving you know! Be warned though, this is only a passive effort to gain organic/natural listings and needs to be combined with other proactive efforts to gain listings that produce ROI.
• How many links do you have to your site? Links to your site boost your “popularity levels” with some of the crawlers - but only when done correctly and with diligence. Keep in mind that all links are not considered equal! Free for All (FFA) or cooperative link exchange pages can actually cause your listings to suffer. Quality sites linking to you that are complementary in topic work best. Popularity levels are also tracked by how many times your link at a Search Engine is clicked on with a combination of how long a visitor stays at your site. If they click in and click right back - that is not a good sign and you could loose positioning. If your site isn’t listed in the first place you cannot even begin to build a popularity ranking.
• If you are getting under 10M of traffic, your listings are lean and you need to get a plan! If you have this level of traffic or more and are not getting the inquiries you desire the question then becomes why aren’t visitors contacting you? The answers to that question are unique to each site and market and are too numerous to mention here .I’ll save that discussion for another article.
• Never go to Search Engines and type in any phrase you “think” you should pull by. Remember, you should have advised your developer specific phrases for this purpose during the development of your site and those are the terms you should search for site by. Also, keep in mind that if that process was done some time ago - those past efforts may no longer be as effective. Every Search Engine will list you differently for the very same keyword phrases based on their own unique set of criteria that is constantly changing. They all work differently. Sites within the very same industry will pull quite differently based on how they are structured, what keyword phrases were targeted and how, when the site was developed and by who, actual content, popularity and link ratios, and how aggressive they are with their ongoing marketing efforts.

What’s the bottom line? No serious site owner should rely on free Search Engine listings or Google alone when there are so many other things they can be doing to gain additional exposure. Search Engines should only be considered a part of your online marketing program - not the sole focus.

Don’t blame the Web because it is so challenging - that is the nature of the beast and what some of us find so exciting! If disappointment is yours, it is because you have not used technology to it’s fullest by being involved or making the commitment to ensuring results based on information provided. Both of which can be changed from this moment forward!