If your small business website isn't getting listed in search engines, you have one foot in the grave! Find out why getting listed in search engines is vital to your success and learn how to list your business in the top engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and AOL.
Getting listed in search engines is the most basic requirement of every small business website. Not counting paid advertising, there really are only three ways to getting listed in search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and AOL. Read on for a review on why search engines are so important for your small business website, along with a discussion on the pros and cons of the three ways to getting your website listed.
Why Do I Need To List My Small Business Website In Search Engines?
Without a doubt, if your small business isn't getting listed in search engines, you are losing business to your competitors and not maximizing your website investment. In a recent study by search engine research firm comScore Media Metrix, Americans conducted 14.3 billion internet searches in May of 2009. Let that sink in for a moment... that's 14.3 billion searches in only one month! That's a ridiculous figure and an enormous opportunity for your small business website. Plain and simple, if your small business website isn't getting listed in search engines, you might as well not even have a website – because you're not doing yourself any favors by tying one arm behind your back.
An Overview On Getting Listed In Search Engines
Although human editors still conduct manual reviews of websites, an overwhelming majority of websites are listed by automated programs called web spiders, search bots and web crawlers. The following provides an overview on the three most common options for getting listed in search engines. From least to most-expensive, they are:
1. Wait For Search Engines To Find Your Small Business Website
The simplest way to getting listed in search engines is to wait for the search engine web crawlers' to find and index your small business website for you. Although slow, this option takes very little effort on your part. You may want to post a link or two to your website from other sites that have already been indexed to help the spiders find you. The downside to this option is that your listing may not appear for a couple of weeks or more.
2. Submit Your Small Business Website To Top Search Engines
A quicker and more proactive option for getting listed in search engines is to manually submit your website to the top search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and AOL. Manual submission has a couple benefits over waiting for the search spiders to find you. First, your site will be reviewed and indexed by the crawlers a lot faster. Second, manual submission often allows you to provide a bit more oversight on how the engine lists and indexes your small business website. In most of the second-tier search engines, you can provide your own META keywords, page titles and page descriptions.
3. Pay For A Search Engine Review
Do you have more money than time? Getting listed in search engines can be as quick and easy as making an online payment. Although paid search engine submission is not as common as it used to be, a few search engines will review and list your small business website for a fee. Expenses are typically between $100 and $300. Paid inclusion is usually pretty quick, and human-reviewed websites often achieve better inclusion in secondary search communities, like local and industry-based business directories.
Which Search Engines Should You Focus On?
Now that you know the three ways of getting listed in search engines, which engines should you pay attention to? First and foremost, get your website listed in Google. Google has by far the largest market share of online search. In addition, you'll want to list your small business website with Yahoo, Alta Vista and AllTheWeb. And be sure to list your website with Microsoft's new search engine Bing, AOL and Ask. After listing your website with the big boys, take a look into the thousands of small, local, regional and niche-topic search engines.
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