Search Engines 101
OK Class... Today we are going to discuss FREE ways to advertise your website to search engines and how to use the content from your site to get higher rankings. Its estimated that 75% of all internet traffic is generated through search engines. That means company websites that use only local advertising and "word of mouth" to promote their online presence are only receiving 25% of their prospective clients and all locally. 

Prerequisite - Before we talk about how to get the Search Engines to find you I would like to cover the  dynamics of search engines and how they index the internet. Most search engines index the internet through a series of links following one link to a website and then spidering off and following every link on that site to other pages with more links etc. When a search engine indexes your site it records all of your content, meta tags (Hidden Keywords), and the date your site was last updated. It uses all of this information to decide how to catalog and rank your site. Now the question is, how can we use this knowledge to improve your rankings?

Frequently Used Terms
- Search Engine Optimization -
This is not the same as submitting your site to search engines. Optimization is the process of arranging your sites content, graphics, keywords, and scripting for optimal Search Engine coverage. This is done through a number of somewhat tedious tasks that we are not going to cover here. Rest assured, if your site was originally built by PointanClick.com it has been optimized. If this is not the case feel free to contact us for a free site analysis.

- Search Engine Submission -
This is the actual process of adding your site to the search engines.  Submitting your webpage is a vital part of advertising your site and normally can be done for free through the search engines home page.

- Link Popularity -
This refers to the number of links pointing to a site from outside pages. Major search engines  determine a large percentage of a websites rankings by their Link Popularity. To test your link popularity go to Google and type in link:www.yourname.com and it will list all of the sites that have links to yours.

What You Can Do - Now that we have covered the basics lets discuss the free things you can do to promote your webpage, below you will find a number of resources to help you advertise your site accompanied with instructions and links.

Hand Submit your Site - Hand Submission is the most thorough way to submit your site. It allows you to go to the search engines actual sites and submit your URL plus many search engines allow you to submit your keywords and site description as well. We have assembled the top 20 search engines below to aid you. Just click on the link and follow the on screen instructions. 
Warning: Do not submit your Site more than once per month, many search engines will consider this spamming and remove you from their list.
Note: Due to the large number of emails you will receive after submitting your site you may consider setting up a free yahoo email account to help filter some the junk mail this will generate.

Bulk Submit your Site - Bulk submission is a way to streamline your efforts. This accomplishes the same thing as hand submission but in half the time. While this is an excellent way to submit to multiple sites it is very limited. In most cases you can only submit one page from your site and you normally do not have an option to include your sites keywords or description. We have listed links to some of the better free bulk submission websites below. 
Warning: Do not submit your Site more than once per month, many search engines will consider this spamming and remove you from their list.
Note: Due to the large number of emails you will receive after submitting your site you may consider setting up a free yahoo email account to help filter some the junk mail this will generate.

Submit Your Site to 40 Search Engines
Free Bulk Submision
Submit URL FREE to more than 20 search engines

Submit to FFA Sites - FFA (Free for All) sites are normally large lists of user defined links. This is not a great way to advertise your site given that many of the links around you are going to be unprofessional and/or unbelievable. This will however help your site with link popularity because FFA sites change constantly and are re-indexed all the time. I would say this is something you should mainly concentrate on when first promoting your site and then do only occasionally there after. We have listed two FFA sites below but there are literally thousands out there, it would be a good idea to search Google.com for any ffa sites that apply to your business directly.

FFA Bulk Submit
Free URL Promotion

Web Rings - Web rings are a group of websites that share a common interest. This is probably one of the best ways to increase your link popularity. You see a web ring's sites all link to one another and if you join it all of the ring in question will link to you and help to raise your ranking, plus this will help generate off search engine hits coming from the web ring. We have only listed one web ring here but there are tons to choose from. You may consider going to google.com and searching for a web ring that applies directly to your business.

www.Webring.com

Closing Statement - 
The idea's listed above will help you promote your site and if done correctly can guarantee placement. This will not dramatically change the traffic on your site but it will increase the odds. The only way to guarantee good placement is with a complete site analysis, professional site promotion, pro submission, and a budget for pay per click advertising, but sadly these are steps that are often overlooked.  If you are interested in professional submission and promotion or a free advertising budget consultation please contact us.