The most cost-effective advertisement would have to be both inexpensive and directed to the right customer. Years ago this was something of a pipe dream--today it is a reality.  The Internet is the most comprehensive source of information in human history.  But like any library of knowledge, it must be catalogued and organized to be effective. And therein lies the perfect solution: search engines.  Like the card catalog of a library, search engines are a customer's way of sifting through the Web to narrow their search. And what better way to make sure your website is found than to have an influence on what they find?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the generic term for ensuring that your web site is optimized to appear as one of the top ranking web sites on a search portal.  Search engine listings meet both of our criteria in terms of focus and affordability. No other form of advertising is so focused that the customer is actually searching for you. A search engine user is a highly receptive and targeted audience because you are trying to sell them on something they already want. They came looking for you and they want what you have to offer.

According to the Georgia Institute of Technology, 88% of Internet users find new Websites through search engine listings.  WebCMO data shows that in a side-by-side comparison of different forms of promotion, search engine listings are the number one way to generate traffic on websites.

A Top 30 Search Engine listing can send droves of visitors to your Website. Keyword/phrase  Search Engine Optimization (SEO) drives the search engines.

Search engines work with text.  They read the content on your pages and in your title and meta tags, recording this information in their database.   Without text, the search engine has nothing to work with.  Furthermore, text on pages that the search engines can't get to doesn't do any good. The search engines must be able to follow links from your home page to the other pages on your site that contains good content.

Someone once said, "A Web site is like a sand castle, not a bronze statue." In other words, Web sites are works in process and you should be prepared to make or deal with changes on a regular basis. In almost all cases, deciding to integrate good search engine practices before, during, or after the design phase is irrelevant. What is relevant, however, is that site designers and their clients develop a plan for integrating search engine marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies at some point before, during, or after the site is completed.

Search engine traffic will provide some of the most targeted visitors you can hope to attract, so it simply makes good sense to optimize for search engines before blowing the entire marketing/advertising budget on paid advertising and offline media.

Some Quick Facts About Search Engines

169,400,000 people in the United States use the internet.

92% of Internet users worldwide use Search Engines to find the sites they want.

Search Engine listings are the number one way to generate traffic on websites.

Media Metrix (Jan 2002) and Nielson/NetRatings (Dec 2001) report how many people visit which search engine sites each month.

( The totals exceed 100% because many people visit more than one: e.g., data reported by Media Metrix suggests that people visit an average of 1.7 each month. )

36% MSN
33% Yahoo
24% Google
22% AOL
16% Ask Jeeves
10% Looksmart
9% Infospace
9% Overture
8% Netscape
6% AltaVista

97 percent of Fortune 500 companies had some type of site architecture problem that might give them problems being found by search engines.  Jupiter, June 2000

Nine out of ten web users visit a search engine, portal or community site each month. They also revisit frequently, nearly five times per month. Nielsen//NetRatings, May 2001

Users looking for products are far more likely to type the product name into a search engine's search box (28%) than browse shopping "channels" (5%) or click on ads (4%) Jupiter Media Metrix & NPD, March 2001

Search engines are the top way consumers find new Websites online, used by 73.4% of those surveyed. Forrester, March 28, 2001

Search Engine Positioning was the top method cited by Website marketers to drive traffic to their sites (66%), followed by email marketing (54%). Direct Marketing Association, Aug. 2000

On average, Americans experience "search rage" if they don't find what they want within 12 minutes. WebTop Search Rage Study, August 2000

Meta tags are the most popular Search Engine Optimization (SEO) technique, used by 61% of those surveyed, followed by optimizing page titles (44%) and link building (32%). Iconocast, Nov. 2000

THE TOP SEARCH ENGINES:

AllTheWeb.com (FAST Search): AllTheWeb.com (also known as FAST Search) consistently has one of the largest indexes of the web. FAST also offers large multimedia and mobile/wireless web indexes, available from its site. The site, also known as AllTheWeb.com, is a showcase for FAST's search technologies. FAST's results are provided to numerous portals, including those run by Terra Lycos. FAST Search launched in May 1999.

AltaVista: AltaVista is one of the oldest crawler-based search engines on the web. It also offers news search, shopping search and multimedia search. AltaVista opened in December 1995. It was owned by Digital, then run by Compaq (which purchased Digital in 1998), then spun off into a separate company which is now controlled by CMGI.

AOL Search: AOL Search allows its members to search across the web and AOL's own content from one place. The "external" version, listed above, does not list AOL content. The main listings come Google (see below). Google replaced Inktomi in the early summer of 2002.

Ask Jeeves: Ask Jeeves is a human-powered search service that aims to direct you to the exact page that answers your question. It also integrates information from the Teoma service that it owns (see below). Ask Jeeves also owns the Direct Hit service, but results from Direct Hit are no longer offered directly though the Direct Hit site.

Google: Google is a top choice for web searchers. It offers the largest collection of web pages of any crawler-based search engine. Google makes heavy use of link analysis as a primary way to rank these pages. This can be especially helpful in finding good sites in response to general searches such as "cars" and "travel," because users across the web have in essence voted for good sites by linking to them. The system works so well that Google has gained wide-spread praise for its high relevancy. Google provides web page search results to a variety of partners, including Yahoo and Netscape Search (see below). Google also provides the ability to search for images, through Usenet discussions and its own version of the Open Directory (see below).

HotBot: In most cases, HotBot's first page of results comes from the Direct Hit service (see Ask Jeeves, above), and then secondary results come from the Inktomi search engine, which is also used by other services. It gets its directory information from the Open Directory project (see below). HotBot launched in May 1996 as Wired Digital's entry into the search engine market. Lycos purchased Wired Digital in October 1998 and continues to run HotBot as a separate search service.

Inktomi: Originally, there was an Inktomi search engine at UC Berkeley. The creators then formed their own company with the same name and created a new Inktomi index, which was first used to power HotBot. Now the Inktomi index also powers several other services. All of them tap into the same index, though results may be slightly different. This is because Inktomi provides ways for its partners to use a common index yet distinguish themselves. There is no way to query the Inktomi index directly, as it is only made available through Inktomi's partners with whatever filters and ranking tweaks they may apply.

LookSmart: LookSmart is a human-compiled directory of web sites. In addition to being a stand-alone service, LookSmart provides directory results to MSN Search, Excite and many other partners. Inktomi provides LookSmart with search results when a search fails to find a match from among LookSmart's reviews. LookSmart launched independently in October 1996, was backed by Reader's Digest for about a year, and then company executives bought back control of the service.

Lycos: Lycos started out as a search engine, depending on listings that came from spidering the web. In April 1999, it shifted to a directory model similar to Yahoo. Its main listings come from AllTheWeb.com with some results from the Open Directory project. In October 1998, Lycos acquired the competing HotBot search service, which continues to be run separately.

MSN Search: Microsoft's MSN Search service is a Looksmart-powered directory of web sites, with secondary results that come from Inktomi. Direct Hit data is also made available.

Netscape Search: Netscape Search's results come primarily from the Open Directory Project and Netscape's own "Smart Browsing" database, which does an excellent job of listing "official" web sites. Secondary results come from Google. At the Netscape Net center portal site , other search engines are also featured.

Open Directory Project: The Open Directory Project (DMOZ) uses volunteer editors to catalog the web. Formerly known as NewHoo, it was launched in June 1998. It was acquired by Netscape in November 1998, and the company pledged that anyone would be able to use information from the directory through an open license arrangement. Netscape itself was the first licensee. Netscape-owner AOL also uses Open Directory Project information, as does Google and Lycos.

Yahoo: Yahoo is the web's most popular search service and has a well-deserved reputation for helping people find information easily. The secret to Yahoo's success is human beings. It is the largest human-compiled guide to the web, employing about 150+ editors in an effort to categorize the web. Yahoo has well over 1 million sites listed. Yahoo also supplements its results with those from Google. If a search fails to find a match within Yahoo's own listings, then matches from Google are displayed. Google matches also appear after all Yahoo matches have first been shown. Yahoo is the oldest major web site directory, having launched in late 1994. (Note: Yahoo! has since acquired FAST/AllTheWeb.com, Overture, and AltaVista).