by M. Declan Dunn, The Web Success Letter

Search engines look for one thing: words. They count words to determine relevance of a Web site. The following are some tricks that will fool some search engines. Remember that search engines are adapting their approach to some of these tricks. Do they help your site generate traffic and help your audience find what they are looking for?

I don't guarantee these will all work, since the search engines keep changing. But the truth is the search engines just count words; if you can use enough keywords, you may get your page to register on a search. You are on your own with this one, but some of these tricks have worked for me.

1. Ask yourself honestly; are your customers reaching you from the search engines, or do you assume they are?

The average customer has an impulse or a driven interest to visit your site. Either way, they have a few words in mind when looking for you.

If you are selling pizza, it is simple. Just get to the top of the search engines for pizza.

But what if I am selling pizza in Paradise, California? Then my keywords become "Pizza, Paradise, California", right?

Not quite; the biggest city near Paradise is Chico, so add "Chico" to your list of important keywords.

Exhausting game, isn't it?

Now think of your customer. They are forced to string words together to figure out what they heck they are looking for. Will they take the time to discover you with more than two keywords?

I doubt it. All that matters are results.

If you can generate good results from a search engine, use them. One friend told me that if he sells one customer from a search engine, it will all be worthwhile.

That kind of attitude can kill your business. Check your statistics and see where they come from. There are simple programs to tell you who is coming from where (WebTrends again, webletter.net/webstore.html). If they are coming from search engines, then devote your time. If not, adapt.

Warning: Search Engine Delays

Search Engines can take up to two months to register your site; your customers are seeing piles of old information, dead Web Sites, and bad advertising before they even reach you. You are judged by related Web Sites as well. Funny how many bad Web Sites get to the top of the search engines; mostly because they spend all their time fooling the search engines instead of selling their customers.

2. Figure out your keywords and write a 25 word description of your site.

Get creative; what combinations of words are your customers looking for? Go to a search engine. Search for the sites you are looking for. Check out the titles, headlines, and words.

Then go to Amazon.com; enter the words in their search engine. See which books come up. Check out for related subjects. This is target marketing.

Then go to Yahoo and scour through their directories for your keywords. You will have it all laid out for you. Now target your customers the same way.

Look for related Web Sites and find those who reach your audience. Get creative and make a deal with them. Contact them and make an offer. This has nothing to do with search engines and everything to do with making money.

For the pizza, example we can include Paradise, California, Chico, Italian, pizzeria, calzone, restaurant, and maybe even competitors (although this is being ruled illegal, so avoid it). There are three Chico directories that offer advertising. Combine this with any print advertising that is done. Give away free pizza coupons at the site and see if anyone visits.

Play with keywords but do not go crazy.

3. Think like a database. Figure out where your business fits in terms of category of business, products/services you are selling, and where you are located.

Search engines are just giant databases that try to point you to what you want based on a few words. All they do is count words. Databases organize things in categories (look at a card catalog in an old library and you see the same idea, databases just takes up less space); it is not perfect, but it is the search engine solution.

Yahoo is the sole exception; it slowly sends a human to visit your site. It can take up to 8 weeks to get registered, if you are even approved. Which is why Yahoo will likely be in business a lot longer than a search engine. Yahoo is a directory that takes time to judge sites, lending credibility.

Credibility and organization are fine, but if your customer has trouble finding the right words to describe what you offer, no search engine can help you.

For our pizza Web Site, think in terms of:

A. Related words to pizza; what categories would lead you to pizza? Maybe: Restaurants: Italian: Pizza

B. Physical Location: California: Paradise (also Chico): Restaurants: Italian: Pizza

Break your business down into both category and location.

4. It's all a game of words. Do not repeat words endlessly. Create sentences and phrases that repeat your keywords a few times. Include them in:

• Page Title: Pizza in Paradise, California: Visit Giorgio's

• Page URL: http;//www.geocities.com/pizza.html is better than index.html

• Meta Tags (See below)

• Image (ALT) tags: new browsers will pop up this message hidden beneath your graphic, so use it to put your message out like this:

  <IMG SRC="picture.gif" WIDTH=80 HEIGHT=80 ALT="Pizza in Paradise, California, near Chico: come to Giorgio's.">

• Comments

  These are hidden from view and can be a good place to put words:

  <!-- Pizza in Paradise, California, near Chico; come to Giorgio's. -->

5. Search Engines Judge the First Words on your Page: focus on your first 40 words, especially the first 200 characters or so located in:

• Text on our Web pages, especially your home page. Search engines do not scour through your site as much as read the first few paragraphs of a page (if you are lucky). Make your first words count, the ones right after your statement at the top of your Web Page. Don't just use graphics on your home page, because search engines are looking for words. If you use just pictures, you may get ignored.

• Flash pages: Write your short paragraph, repeating your keywords, then use that for a single page to introduce you to the site. You can then automatically forward someone to your site through code, or just put a link for them to enter.

  If you have many keywords, make up flash pages that include just a short, 40 word paragraph for that keyword. Submit these to the search engines, but make sure to include a link from them to your home page. This will give the search engine some place to go when it visits.

  That is why they call them flash pages; these are entry points. Use these to feature specific products/services you are selling as well. Flash pages are a great way to get people to focus on what you are selling them.

6. Meta Tags

These tags are read by a few of the search engines to determine what your site is about. Be sure to include them in every Web page. Write a good, short description and your keywords like this:

<HEAD>

<TITLE>Pizza in Paradise California at Giorgio's, Up the Road from Chico</TITLE>

<META NAME="Description" Content="This is where you can really describe your site. Otherwise, the search engine will just print what's on your front page, which really looks garbled. With this statement, you'll get about two sentences to describe your Web site, which many search engines will show .">

<META NAME ="Keywords" Content="Pizza, pizzeria, Giorgio's, Paradise, California, Chico, calzone, Italian restaurant, restaurant"> </HEAD>

HINT: The description above is 44 words, 267 characters; under Microsoft Word, I clicked under the "Tools" Menu on "Word Count". Use your word processor to count words and check that you are writing at an easy to read level.

Your visitor will never see more than 25-30 words (200 characters) at a search engine. Request that the search engine revisit your site once this has been added. Do not repeat words endlessly; this will only work against you. If you have someone else put up your page, just send them the words and this description; they'll know what to do with it. If they don't, they should learn. It's easy.

BONUS 7. 95% of business will come from these search engines:

• Yahoo: www.yahoo.com
• Infoseek: www.infoseek.com
• AltaVista: www.altavista.digital.com
• Lycos: www.lycos.com
• WebCrawler: www.webcrawler.com
• Excite: www.excite.com
• Hotbot: www.hotbot.com

  Submit and resubmit your site. Get links. Promote yourself. Have patience with the search engines. It takes weeks, even months, to get listed now. Yahoo is extremely hard to get into quickly. Submit to all the major search engines and directories at first, then visit the top seven listed above every other month.

These are just general guidelines. If you want more, just visit each one and see what they tell you. And buy one of the many, great search engine newsletters, reports, and secret techniques.

Many of these will get you to the top of the search engines. It will also show you a good product to sell immediately. After you do it, and if you have success, sell the results.

It is a product people are, and will be, interested in. People buy these products because the idea behind search engine success is simple; get on top, quick.

For some sites, search engines can be a lead generator.

The question is, is it for your site? Will your customers frequent search engines?

Copyright 1997, Michael Declan Dunn

Please email for permission to distribute.