Search Engine Marketing Lesson 2

Whether you choose to pursue search engine marketing on your own,
or with a consultant by your side, there are a few things you
need to know about search engine marketing:

There is no magic search engine marketing formula for
achieving top ranking in the search engines.

There are a number of different search engines. The most popular
ones are Google, Yahoo and MSN. Each of the search engines has
their own rules for indexing sites, set their own algorithms, and
change them frequently. Be wary of search engine marketing
information that claims to be "the secret" or "the magic formula"
for achieving top ranking in the search engines.

Relatively, also be wary of search engine optimization companies
that guaranty top ranking. If you are offered such a guaranty,
get it in writing and check the company's references and do some
independent research in regard to their reputation. Doing an
internet search for the company name will likely give you some
good information about their reputation because whether they are
good or bad, they are likely to be the topic of discussion in
internet marketing forums.

You have to submit your website to the search engines.

Search engine marketing requires that you submit your website to
the search engines. The search engines use something called
spiders to index websites and the spiders may incidentally pick
up your website at some point, but to ensure your site is
considered for indexing, you need to submit it to the search
engines. To do that, you need to find and read the guidelines for
submission for each search engine.

Using an automated search engine submission tool isn't a very
good search engine marketing tactic because they generally submit
the exact same information to every search engine without
considering the individual search engines' requirements. When you
submit your website to the search engines, you cannot expect
immediate indexing. Sometimes it takes up to six weeks to get
listed.