If you are new to the e-commerce business, chances are you have never heard of search engine optimization, also commonly known in the e-commerce world as SEO. If you just started a new website you might even receive phone calls from so called “Search Engine Optimization Experts” who claim that SEO is something to be left up to the experts. While this article will not go into the specifics of how to successfully integrate search engine optimization, you should realize that under most circumstances search engine optimization is something that anybody can do, if they are willing to work at it. This article should serve as a guide to help e-commerce business owners gain a general knowledge about Search Engine Optimization, and how implementing SEO strategies is essential to growing your online business.
First you should understand what search engine optimization is. SEO is the process of adjusting the pages in your website to increase the popularity when searched for on sites such as Google, Yahoo, Ask, and other sites. These sites are commonly known as search engines. You can easily find if your website is being indexed by the search engines by going to one of the popular search engine sits and typing in your websites URL. For example if you go to www.google.com, and enter in http://www.yourwebsitename.com if you find your website congratulations you are indexed. If you cannot find your website it is likely your site has not yet been indexed by the popular search engines. Do not panic if you are not yet indexed it can take time, sometime as little as a couple days, and sometimes as long as a few months. One easy thing you can do to let search engines know your site exists is actually submit it to the popular search engines.
Submitting your sites to the popular search engines is easy and most importantly it is free! When you submit your site to the search engines you are basically telling the search engines “hey look I am here, please index me. Here are the top three search engine sights that Screeching Tires suggests you submit your site to.
1. You should submit your site to Google at: www.google.com/addurl.html
2. You should submit your site to Yahoo at: http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html
3. You should submit your site to MSN at: http://search.msn.com.sg/docs/submit.aspx?FORM=WSUT
These sights are listed in order from what we feel is most important to least important. If you are not currently indexed by the search engines go ahead and do it now, it is extremely simple and should only take a maximum of ten minutes to submit your site to all three search engines listed.
It is rumored that you have to pay to get into Yahoo, although this is an option there is no guarantee you will receive a good position the Yahoo search engine. Simply submit your site using the free submittal option available from the link listed above. There are literally hundreds of other search engines you can submit your site to, however do not get caught up in submitting you site to these other search engines. While there may be additional search engines that cater to certain categories the majority are almost exactly like Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Many of them build their search engines from the sites that Google, Yahoo, and MSN index anyway, so do not waste too much time submitting a site that is likely to be indexed by itself on a less popular search engine.
While search engine optimization may seem stressful and even overwhelming, be confident in knowing it is something that you can easily learn to manage on your own without spending thousands of dollars on a company that may or may not help you with your search engine position. This being said, some companies may choose other businesses that “specialize” in SEO due to the immensity of their site. SEO can be long and tedious work and when you have a large site with thousands upon thousands of pages it may become necessary to hire a professional so you can work on what you do best, managing your business.
If you do decide to hire a professional, please be cautious, many SEO companies have made false claims and offer services which simply are not available. Even Google states on their websites to watch out for companies claiming to have a special relationship with Google. Be aware that it is impossible for a company to guarantee first page rankings in Google, Yahoo, or MSN. Many of you may have already received phone calls from companies claiming that there is something wrong with your SEO; Google has even commented that they receive emails of a similar nature from time to time.
Have more SEO tips? Share them here below!
More articles about SEO:
-Google Bots Are Blind
-The Key to Keywords
-Why Java Script “Aint” That Cool
