Millions of people use search engines every day. Simply submitting your Web site to the engines, however, is not enough to get you noticed. If your site does get indexed (listed) by a major search engine, it will just be one of mil­lions. Plus, just being listed has nothing to do with getting a good position. Positioning is what matters most! To steer a huge number of potential clients to your Web site, it must be positioned on the first three pages of the re­turned keyword search results. If your keywords rank below page three, your share of traffic will be limited.

Achieving a high ranking on the search engines is the best advertising "bargain" on the Web today. The reason is simple: Millions of searches are done every day. The thousands of Web sites that appear near the top of those search results essentially get free advertising. People must be able to find your site on one or more keywords when they do a search! A good description of the top search engines can be found at www.websitetrafficbuilders.com/search_engines-url-guide.htm

There are many ways to improve your site's ranking. Some Web site owners pay for place­ment. There currently are 19 pay-for-place­ment search engines. One of the most popular is GOTO.com. To secure a good placement with this search      engine, you deposit money in an account, then select the keywords you want for your Web site. Then you can look up what the current bidding is for each keyword position (1, 2, 3, etc., on this search engine) as well as the number of searches done on the phrase during the prior month. You place your bid. if your bid is accepted, you win the position you've selected. Then, every time someone clicks on your site, your account is reduced by your bid amount. Once you've used up your deposited amount, you're off the bidding until the account is replenished. GOTO.com's minimum bid is 5 cents per click and $20 per month.

But the actual cost can be much more than 5 cents per click! As of June 5, 2001, the actual prices being paid for the phrase "San Diego real estate" ranged from $1.49 per click to $2.31. The top bidder is paying $2.31 for every click! With my own data showing that it takes thou­sands of visitors to equal one real transaction, these kinds of bids are sure to guarantee a lower cash account ... not a real sale!

An alternative to paying by the click is hiring a company that specializes in site position­ing by reviewing and receding your Web site. The pricing structures for these companies vary, but many charge a retainer and then a flat fee for achieving the position over a longer term. The benefit of these companies is that most charge based on positioning results, so the results are virtually guaranteed.

Finally, there are some things you can do on your own to improve your Web site's chance of getting its fair share of Internet traffic.

Make sure each page of your Web site has the proper title, meta description and keyword tags. These background HTML codes are unseen by the casual Web user but are positioned within the header area. Many sites have the proper tags only on their entry page, leaving other pages with no or improper tags. To be most useful, each tag should be unique to the content on its page.

A framed page is a special HTML page that divides the browser window into different areas called frames, each dis­playing a different page. Check any framed pages on your site to verify that you are using good NOFRAME tags. Not all search engines correctly index framed pages. Without the correct NOFRAME tags, your framed pages may not be properly indexed.

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