12 Steps to a Successful Website - OurChurch.Com
6. Hide... or seek?Gain optimal exposure. Use proven strategies for submitting your site to search engines.
While search engines are actively looking for new websites, there is no guarantee they will find and list your website on their own. Once your website is ready for visitors, you should submit it for listing in search engines.
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Search Registration To get started, visit each search engine's home page and look for an inclusion link. It will probably say something like "Add URL" or "Submit a Site." Once you click the link you'll be provided with a form where you can submit your URL. Most of the time these single submissions are free, but the Yahoo directory charges $299 to submit commercial listing. For a list of the search engines with which OurChurch.Com can register your website, see our Search Engine Registration page. Do not submit your site more than once a month because search engines will consider it "spam." Less is more. Do not sign up for two search engine submission services at once or your site could receive the dreaded "spam" label and be banned from search engines. Because of the time involved, you may prefer to have a professional register your website with search engines. Beware of websites that claim to register your website with hundreds or even thousands of search engines for one low price. The truth is, there are only about a dozen that matter. Hundreds of the other so-called search engines are what is known as "free for all" (FFA) sites that offer a free listing few people ever see. Often their goal is to get your email address, spam you, and sell your email address to other spammers. Christian Search Engines If your website is Christian, you should also consider submitting your website to Christian search engines. To do this you can visit each Christian search engine's home page and look for an inclusion link. OurChurch.Com provides a list of the top Christian search engines on our Christian Search Registration page. We can also do the registration for you for a fee. Pay-Per-Click Another type of search marketing available today are those that charge a small fee each time someone clicks on your listing. Search engines such as Google and Yahoo allow website owners to bid how much they're willing to pay per click to get their site ranked in the first few search results for a specific keyword. The highest bidder gets the highest ranking in the search engine. These results are not displayed in with the natural search results, but they are displayed on the search results page and, often times are displayed above the natural search results. This can be an effective way for business websites to gain visitors quickly. We recommend businesses experiment with small purchases on several pay-per-click search marketing to see which provide a good return on investment. Search engines are constantly evolving. They're getting smarter and altering the algorithms that rank sites all the time. If you're serious about gaining visitors from search engines, it's important to monitor your search rankings, read regularly about the factors that affect search engine rankings, and make adjustments. If it all seems a bit overwhelming, ask the professionals at OurChurch.Com for some help. Step 7: Dare to share >>
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Search engines can be one of the most productive sources of visitors to your website. Many people have the false impression that search engines go out and find every new website on the internet as soon as it is built and list it.
