The term "search engine" is often used generically to describe both crawler-based search engines and human-powered directories. These two types of search engines gather their listings in radically different ways.

Crawler-Based Search Engines

Crawler-based search engines, such as Google, create their listings automatically. They "crawl" or "spider" the web, then people search through what they have found. If you change your web pages, crawler-based search engines eventually find these changes, and that can affect how you are listed. Page titles, body copy and other elements all play a role.

Human-Powered Directories

A human-powered directory, such as the Open Directory, depends on humans for its listings. You submit a short description to the directory for your entire site, or editors write one for sites they review. A search looks for matches only in the descriptions submitted. Changing your web pages has no effect on your listing. Things that are useful for improving a listing with a search engine have nothing to do with improving a listing in a directory. The only exception is that a good site, with good content, might be more likely to get reviewed for free than a poor site. Being listed on these directories increase your likelihood of showing up on crawler engines.

"Hybrid Search Engines" Or Mixed Results

In the web's early days, a search engine either presented crawler-based results or human-powered listings. Today, it extremely common for both types of results to be presented. Usually, a hybrid search engine will favor one type of listings over another. For example, MSN Search is more likely to present human-powered listings from LookSmart. However, it does also present crawler-based results (as provided by Inktomi), especially for more obscure queries.

Search Engine Submission

"Search engine submission" refers to the act of getting your web site listed with search engines. Another term for this is search engine registration. Getting listed does not mean that you will necessarily rank well for particular terms, however. It simply means that the search engine knows your pages exist.

Search Engine Optimization

"Search engine optimization" refers to the act of altering your site so that it may rank well for particular terms, especially with crawler-based search engines.

Crawler-based search engines have three major elements. First is the spider/crawler, which visits a web page, reads it, and then follows links to other pages within the site. Everything the spider finds goes into the second part of the search engine, the index. Search engine software is the third part of a search engine, sifting through the millions of pages recorded in the index to find matches to a search and ranking them in order of what it believes is most relevant.

Relevance is determined by a variety of factors and each crawler engine operates a little differently. Generally, relevance comes from the search terms being listed in the site's meta tags, terms listed on your opening page, and the frequency with which search terms are listed on your page. Search engines may also penalize pages or exclude them from the index, if they detect search engine "spamming." An example is when a word is repeated hundreds of times on a page, to increase the frequency and propel the page higher in the listings. Search engines watch for common spamming methods in a variety of ways. Other 'tricks' such as using doorway pages do not set well with most search engines.

Also to be considered are off the page factors, which are factors that a webmasters cannot easily influence. Chief among these is link analysis. By analyzing how pages link to each other, a search engine can both determine what a page is about and whether that page is deemed to be "important" and thus deserving of a ranking boost. In addition, sophisticated techniques are used to screen out attempts by webmasters to build "artificial" links designed to boost their rankings.

A query on a crawler-based search engine often turns up thousands or even millions of matching web pages. In many cases, only the 10 most "relevant" matches are displayed on the first page. Naturally, anyone who runs a web site wants to be in the "top ten" results. This is because most users will find a result they like in the top ten. Being listed 11 or beyond means that many people may miss your web site.

Pick Your Target Keywords

How do you think people will search for your web page? The words you imagine them typing into the search box are your target keywords.

Position Your Keywords

Make sure your target keywords appear in the crucial locations on your web pages. The page's HTML title tag is most important. Failure to put target keywords in the title tag is the main reason why perfectly relevant web pages may be poorly ranked. Build your titles around the top two or three phrases that you would like the page to be found for. The titles should be relatively short and attractive. Think of newspaper headlines. Use your target keywords for your headline when possible and reflect your keywords in your page's content. Make sure your text is "visible." Some designers try to spam search engines by repeating keywords in a tiny font or in the same color at the background color to make the text invisible to browsers. Search engines are catching on to these and other tricks. Expect that if the text is not visible in a browser, then it may not be indexed by a search engine.

Increase Links to Your Site

You want links from good web pages that are related to the topics you want to be found for. Go to the major search engines. Search for your target keywords. Look at the pages that appear in the top results. Now visit those pages and ask the site owners if they will link to you.

Pursue Other Forms of Site Promotion

We cannot stress this enough. While search engines are a primary way people look for web sites, they are not the only way. People also find sites through word-of-mouth, traditional advertising, the traditional media, newsgroup postings, web directories and links from other sites. Put your web address on your business cards and brochures, list it prominently on all other forms of advertising, post it in a highly visable place at your offices/stores and place your web address on your company vehicles. Many times, these alternative forms are far more effective draws than are search engines.

The first step in search engine marketing is to determine your target keywords and integrate those words into your web site as part of the design process.

Step Two

Automated Submission - Many search engines and lists still accept web site submissions through automated submission software. This is a highly recommended initial step which will increase the number of sites which link to your web site. The cost for this service is $50/year with submission every three months.

Step Three

Choosing a paid submission program. There are a variety of paid methods search engines offer to increase your site's traffic. You can pay individual search engines to be included in their database or directory, you can advertise on search engines, purchase keywords or become a sponsored listing. For these services, you pay either a flat fee, a per click fee or you can bid on keywords.

Submission to some search engines directly through their paid submission programs can speed up inclusion. At one point, this was the only way to get listed in some search engine directories such as Yahoo. Yahoo charges $299/year. But over the last couple of years, the landscape of the search engine world has changed. A company called Overture has been acquiring other search engines, making its search engine submission program one of the most effective. Through their Site Match program your site gets listed in all of Overture's partner search engines. Or use Overture Precision Match to bid on key words and increase your visibility on the engine. Another important paid submission/advertising program is from Google. Google is a crawler engine which searches the web and adds sites to its database at no cost to the site owner. But if you want to get noticed on Google and their partner sites, their AdWords advertising program is quite effective. We'll detail these two programs next.

Overture Site Match™

If your goal is to build visibility on search engines quickly, then Overture is an essential option for you to explore. No other route can put you in the top results of many major search engines in such a short period of time. Reach over 75% of all active Internet users with Overture Site Match™! Your site is included in the search results across the Web’s most popular search engines and directories, including Yahoo!, AltaVista, AllTheWeb, Inkomi, About.com, LookSmart, Excite, Infospace and many more. Site Match™ offers express inclusion of your site within 4 business days and 48 hour page refreshes. The Site Match™ cost-per-click pricing model and the low annual review fees are designed to generate a high return on investment. You agree to pay a certain amount each time someone clicks on your listing.