Top tip on maximising search engine results.

[Questy]

David,

Thanks for the tip.

Please be aware however, that all search engines are different, and this appears to be a very specific tip sheet geared toward goto.

I'll be back when I have more time to follow up.

Regards,
Questy

[davidg1234]

Goto.com now have a tool which significantly helps in getting better quality and more hits from search engines. http://www.marketposition.com/keywordgenerator.htm
The following is snippets of the marketposition newsletter from october 99. Back issues can be seen as www.marketposition.com


_____________________
Have you ever heard from someone who attained a top 10 position
in a major search engine and the person was elated at how
much new traffic flooded into his or her Web site. Sure -
you'd expect them to be happy with such an outcome, right?
But sometimes you hear from someone else who also achieved
a top 10 ranking but they become disappointed when just a
handful of visitors show up. How can two people achieve high
rankings and have such markedly different outcomes? Simple.
The person in the first example selected a keyword or phrase
that many people are searching on, and the second did not!
......
Here's the strategy I recommend:

1. Brainstorm on what general words apply to your industry
and list them all out in a word processor or on paper.
2. Next, conduct a search for a few of them on a major search
engine and then travel to the sites you find in that search.

3. View the HTML source code for the page and write down the
keywords used in the Meta tags and any you see on the visible
page. You'll quickly find a variety of keywords you hadn't
considered before. This does not mean these are the best
keywords to target, but it can help you in your brainstorming
process.

IMPORTANT: Make sure you only write down words and phrases
that specifically apply to YOUR business! You don't want
to waste time targeting keywords that will not bring you high
quality leads.

4. At this stage, most people would start GUESSING what keywords
and phrases people are most likely to search on. Don't guess.
Learn the most popular combinations by taking the individual
words and submitting them one at a time into our free Keyword
Generator service:
http://www.marketposition.com/keywordgenerator.htm

(You may want to open up multiple instances of your browser
and do several searches at once to save time).

The service will then come back with a list of the most popular
phrases that include your keyword. The number to the left
of the keyword or phrase is how many times it was searched
on the Goto.com search engine last month.

Does this guarantee that the same phrase will be equally as
popular on say AltaVista or Yahoo? No, it does not. However,
it is a good indicator of the relative popularity you can
expect on the other engines. It's a safe bet that if 100
people searched on a phrase at Goto.com, then the same phrase
was searched another 500 to 1000 times on Yahoo since Yahoo
is significantly more popular than Goto.com. And, keywords
and phrases that are queried with less frequency on Goto.com
are likely to be less popular elsewhere.

If you follow the procedure we've just outlined, you'll soon
have a list of dozens, if not hundreds of keyword phrases
you could target on all of the search engines. This new keyword
generator illustrates what I've told MarketPosition readers
for years: not everyone is competing for the exact same keywords!
There are literally 1000's of opportunities available for
any business. Find YOUR niche, make sure it's one that people
are looking for, then pursue it!
.....
Bonus Tip: Some of the keywords are going to be much more competitive
than others. For example, ranking well on the single word
"travel" will be much more difficult than ranking in the top
10 for "Caribbean cruises." Remember that single keywords
usually return the least targeted leads. If someone is searching
on just plain old "travel" are they:

a. Helping their child with a paper on some aspect of "travel"
b. Looking for the "travel channel"
c. Looking to plan a vacation cruise?
d. Day dreaming about time travel?
e. Looking for driving directions for their travel across the
country?
f. Looking for a travel club such as AAA?
g. Looking for the perfect backpack or hiking supplies for
a travel expedition?

[davidg1234]

also from the same letter:-
_______
Does this guarantee that the same phrase will be equally as
popular on say AltaVista or Yahoo? No, it does not. However,
it is a good indicator of the relative popularity you can
expect on the other engines. It's a safe bet that if 100
people searched on a phrase at Goto.com, then the same phrase
was searched another 500 to 1000 times on Yahoo since Yahoo
is significantly more popular than Goto.com. And, keywords
and phrases that are queried with less frequency on Goto.com
are likely to be less popular elsewhere.

If you follow the procedure we've just outlined, you'll soon
have a list of dozens, if not hundreds of keyword phrases
you could target on all of the search engines. This new keyword
generator illustrates what I've told MarketPosition readers
for years: not everyone is competing for the exact same keywords!
There are literally 1000's of opportunities available for
any business. Find YOUR niche, make sure it's one that people
are looking for, then pursue it!
_____
Dave, the resourceful