To maximise your website traffic through the search engines
you need to focus on the Big3!
What/who are the Big3? They are Google. MSN and Yahoo search.
This article will take you through these three search engines
and what you can expect from them in terms of achieving results
both in a short term, as well as a long term basis.
As a search engine, Google still continues to dominate,
with Yahoo and MSN the next two choices for people utilising
the search market. While in general Google is a clear leader
as first preference for internet users when trying to find
something of interest on the internet, this is not necessarily
in all categories. In some categories you will find the website
traffic coming from MSN and Yahoo search is considerably
more than Google.
So it is important when optimising your website to target
not just Google but all of the Big3 (Google, MSN, and Yahoo).
Some of our websites have achieved top 10 rankings and first
place positions for main keywords in MSN whereas Google can
take up to 3 times as long by comparison.
While the Googlebot will pick up a new website quickly,
usually only a business name will achieve high ranking quickly,
not your main keywords. Often new websites listed in Google's
search results will not achieve high rankings for many months,
and for very competitive key words six months plus. In saying
that Google loves unique content; so for websites that are
not in such a competitive market and providing something
new and different, top 10 rankings can be achieved within
a month or two.
Due to the amount of time it takes to achieve these ranking
it is important that your website is always monitored and
keywords are tracked on a regular basis to ensure you are
keeping ahead of your competitors. Continual optimisation
of your website may be necessary to ensure that not only
do you achieve top rankings in the first place, but that
you maintain them.
Note: Using a professional search engine marketing company
like Quantum Web Solutions will benefit you considerably
towards achieving these rankings. We also know various techniques
that help drive traffic to your website much sooner.
The BIG3
Google Search: For those that monitor their website
statistics (which is highly recommended if you want to ensure
your website is doing well) you will notice that the Google
spider can visit your website within as soon as a day of
your website being launched for the first time. However,
unless your website provides something new or unique, at
this current time* it is highly unlikely you will achieve
high rankings for anything other than your business name
in a short period of time.
It is also possible there may be keywords that attain higher
rankings, but if they are competitive keywords in a competitive
market then this will be very unlikely. If you are offering
a service or product that is new and/or unique, then you
will certainly have more opportunity to achieve these high
rankings as Google loves new content.
For very competitive markets you can look at up to six months
plus to see your keywords bringing in the desired search
engine traffic you are looking for. In these instances if
you need to bring in traffic quickly, we suggest setting
up a pay-per-click campaign. There are also other sources
that can help bring in traffic to your site sooner than this,
which we are able to provide as part of our services.
For new and/or unique website offerings, Google will give
high rankings faster for a couple of reasons:
1. It is the opportunity to provide something new to the
WWW.
2. There is less competition so there are not as many search
results to compete against; therefore if your website is
properly optimised achieving high rankings will be much easier
and faster.
MSN Search: MSN is generally much faster in not only
picking up a new website and listing it, but also if your
website is properly optimised it is possible to achieve high
rankings in the MSN search results in less than a month,
even in markets that are relatively competitive. This is
by no means guaranteed, but I have seen this happen on many
occasions. So while generally MSN search will not always
bring you the same volume of traffic that Google search will;
it does have the advantage over Google that in the short
term it will drive more visitors to your website.
Yahoo Search: While Yahoo Search can bring a steady
flow of traffic into your website; the challenge lies in
being listed in the first place with them. I have seen websites
picked up by the yahoo spider and listed within a month,
but these are rare occasions. Normally it can take at least
three months if not more for Yahoo to visit your website
in the first place, no matter what techniques are used. Once
Yahoo search picks a website up however, it does not take
very long for a website to achieve good rankings and to start
driving traffic to a website.
There are many different search engines out there, but many
of them feed their results directly from one of the Big3.
By focusing most of your search engine marketing efforts
around these three, you are highly likely to see website
traffic coming in from other search engines. For anyone that
is new to search engine marketing, the process of achieving
high listings for your business may seem daunting. However
with the right approach and focus it won't be long before
you see string results coming not just from the Big3 search
engines, but many other sources on the web.
* As the Search Engine market is constantly evolving, so
too are the way search engines list websites in their results.
Andrew Seidel -
SEO
Specialist and Search Engine Placement Consultant in Sydney,
Australia.
