The Search Engine Dilemma

To Pay or Not to Pay?

Once your site is prepared and online it's time to submit to the search sites. There are many ways to submit to search engines: you can do it yourself, you can hire your web designer or developer to do it for you or you can hire an Internet Marketing Service that specializes in Search Engines.

Deciding how much time and money to commit to the search engine submittal process depends upon the type of web site you operate and how reliant its success is on generating new traffic via search engines.

If you're an e-commerce start-up selling a consumer product to the general public and you need to develop name recognition, obviously you’ll want to budget as much money and time as you can afford to market your site online and through traditional modes of advertising including print and direct marketing and perhaps tv and radio.

Seek out market specific web directories

If your web site targets a niche market or a regional market, instead of spending an excessive amount of time or money on achieving top placement in the major general search engines, spend your resources seeking out sites that cater to your indusry or region. You’ll get qualified traffic and chances are good your listings will be free.

Don't rely only on search engines to draw traffic

Finally, try not to fixate on your search engine placement too much. Search engines are only one small factor in the equation that drives traffic to your site. Viral marketing (not spam), networking with newsgroups, targeted links, direct mail, traditional advertising and old-fashioned person to person networking are just as important to the marketing mix as the major search engine.

For a Quick checklist on how to optimize your web site for better search results read Feed the Spiders.

See 10 Ways to Attract Traffic to your Web Site