Top 7 New Trends In The Search Engine Industry
--As seen on Top7business.com

1. Paying for the Yahoo! Business Express service is no longer optional. Experts agree that although Yahoo! doesn't insist on it, most all commercial sites now need to pay the $199 to get listed in Yahoo!. And Yahoo is essential to web site promotion.

2. LookSmart is operating the same way as Yahoo!, except there is no question that commercial site owners must pay to be listed in their directory. You might be tempted to not bother with LookSmart now that it's a pay-only engine, but tip #3 might change your mind.

3. Search engines share indexing information and then manipulate listings to render different results. For example, Google uses Open Directory, but they modify results by applying their own link popularity standards. MSN, AltaVista, Excite, and Netscape use Looksmart's listings. AltaVista also uses Open Directory and Ask Jeeves. Open Directory is the main source for AOL listings. FAST uses secondary results from Lycos, while iWon gets its main results from Inktomi and LookSmart. Submit to the top 20 engines and consider paid listings in Yahoo! and LookSmart.

4. Tricking the engines is not an option anymore. Web site promotion efforts must be legitimate and ethical. Engines are now cracking down and permanently banning sites from their databases that use spamming techniques like doorways with no content or code-buried, repeated text. It's not worth the risk and spamming hurts everyone in the long run.

5. Relevant link popularity is important. Engines are using software that considers what sites and directories are linked to the site being indexed, and many of these filters determine if links are relevant or related in topic (i.e. not from link sites or random exchanges). Getting good links means seeking out and hand submitting a site to related directories and writing many emails to related sites that might be willing to provide a link. It is time-consuming, but usually pays off.

6. The latest concept in customization for web site promotion involves creating a site that embodies a theme-type structure. This means choosing about 5 to 15 relevant key phrases for a site. Each page then focuses on one phrase while also eluding to several other key phrases to help tie the site together. If this sounds like an elusive and delicate science, it is. But implementing a theme in a site will soon be crucial to good placement.

7. There is ultimately no better secret for good web site promotion or good business than having a good site. That means being more than an online brochure, offering resources to potential clients, having contests, newsletters, articles, updated information, and a decent, easy-to-navigate presentation of merchandise. If a site has all that and then does theme-customization for key phrases, good search engine placement is inevitable.

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