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Your Online Guide » Guide to Technology » Web Site Development

[J58]Job Search Engines Engineering
by Jose De La Serna De La Serna, Jos
The business of putting up a website on the World Wide Web is not really for the faint-hearted. It is very easy to think that there is nothing to it. A naive newbie will always say, there are about 70 million websites in the Internet, surely I can make one just like the ugliest one there is. This, of course comes from a starry-eyed, optimistic, abject beginner who has high hopes of becoming a webmaster. Sure, there are free webhosts that take out the hard work and pain in making a website by giving the user a paint-by-numbers type of website creator. This is actually a good thing because making a website can be a darn pain in the neck especially if one is two of two things: ignorant and bull-headed. Being ignorant one goes ahead and gets ones hands dirty and very soon finds oneself in a lot of trouble. Being bull-headed, one refuses to be defeated and plows on with the work not caring for time or difficulty and pretty soon one has a working website for the world to see.

Having gone through the tutorials and after having read up on all materials related to website making, the webmaster-to-be starts thinking of webhosts and domain registration. I actually went through all the theoretical part of websites and I really thought, "how hard can it be?" Well, I was in for a big surprise. I had read up on HTML and CSS and I figured the best way was to get ready-made templates from a number of places in the Net which is basically a good plan. The idea was that, knowing the terminology would make it easier to read something made by an expert than to try and build one from scratch. There are countless of absolutely gorgeous templates just waiting to be fleshed out with terrific content. So, on I went with my, "how hard can it be?" approach.

If one has seriouisly explored the Internet one would surely find out about Search Engines and how they make the world wide web go round. There is no rocket science there. Think of the Web as a huge library which is growing continuously every second. How would one go about accessing the information from a huge physical library with rows and racks of books and periodicals? The simplest way is to look at the index cards which categorize and summarize every book in the shelves. Think of search engines as the index cards of a library. One can query a search engine for the contents of its databases based on a number of keywords that would bring one close to that which one is seeking. One could use Names or Authors or Subject Matter or Title in trying to locate a book. In a physical library with a buildiing and books this would be usual thing to do.

Search engines have taken this a step higher by providing a facility that further narrows down a search by indexing websites according to its contents using keywords to accumulate the various topics which a website may cover. A website may deal with a number of related topics and the search engine does its best to get a clear picture of what the website is all about so that it can offer that to the searcher on a silver platter of relevant pages. Whoah, what have we done? We have gone from being stymied by HTML and CSS to being knocked silly by the search engines and their appetite for content. This is a whole new ball game and I do not think I signed up for this type of aggravation.

Well, if one lives in the Net long enough one would surely have his tidy, neat, well-ordered pre-conceived notions knocked over by a deluge of unstoppable variables that threaten to derail his desire to have a website on the World Wide Web. What is one to do? Well, never fear for superman or someone who looks like him is near. Enter articles and writers for hire who give you finished articles that you can put on your website to make it worth reading as well as looking at. So ok, content can be addressed properly by writing it oneself or buying it from someone or gettinig it from some source which is willing to part with its stash of valuable articles.


Your customers are more and more often searching for businesses like yours on the Internet. Studies show that these customers have a serious buying intent. As a local business (online or off) you need to figure out how to cost effectively reach out to these “Local” customers and start the business relationship before your competition does.

Why should “local search marketing” be important to your business? The Kelsey research group found:

• 74% of households use the Internet as an information source when shopping locally.

• Approximately 45% of local searches had a buying intent.

• The percentage of respondents who used yellow page directories decreased from 75% to 62%. (If you have a yellow page ad, it is time to consider buying a smaller ad and shifting your marketing dollars to the Internet.)

As local business owners you need to take action now. You need to keep your existing customers, and gain new customers, so you need to be found where they are searching. Local Search Marketing is where your future clients and customers will come from.

So where do you start?

Most likely your customers will have a default setting on their computers and this will be set to one of these sites for search; Google, Yahoo, MSN or AOL. These search engines all index web pages and have some form of paid advertising referred to as Pay Per Click. This is fine if you have a website but what about many small and local businesses that have little or no web presence at all? And even if you do have a website, does it show up in the search engines above?

Okay, so what other choices have you got?

There are those folks, you know whom I am talking about, who will place you not only in a hard copy directory but also have services online. The challenge is in what the financial cost is, BIG, but hey, they have been around a long time and have deep pockets. The other issue is that they often advertise in the search engines and you will find them there BUT if you follow the link to them, you need to do your search all over again! What a pain.

There are other commercial "local search engines" and some of these are good value but many are not comprehensive. If there are only a few thousand businesses in a local directory most users will leave given the limited amount of content.

So what you need to do is use a search engine like Google and search for "local search directory", make sure you limit your search to the country you're in. The results include Yahoo local search and a number of local directories. You should check these out and see what it takes to participate in the directories that make the first page of the Google search. By doing so, you'll be able to get a feel for how they work and what is needed for you to get listed competitively

Article Source : Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation

About Author
Both Jose De La Serna De La Serna & Chris Swemba are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Jose De La Serna De La Serna has sinced written about articles on various topics from Cars, Web Development and Politics. Retired software developer Empire. Jose De La Serna De La Serna's top article generates over 1000 views. to your Favourites.

Chris Swemba has sinced written about articles on various topics from Marketing, Web Development and Computers and The Internet. . Chris Swemba's top article generates over 2400 views. to your Favourites.
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