Search Engine Innovations
After being blind-sided by the Google Florida update, many webmasters and SEO's were reeling from the results. The message is clear: you can't rely on just one search engine for all of your traffic. You must use all your wits to emerge victorious from the search engine wars. Google is important, but it is not everything. Keep your eyes and ears open to new opportunities and old standbys: other search engines and directories, paid placement and pay-per-click, newsletters, and even more traditional channels.

Wait To Change Website Content
So were you an innocent bystander caught in the onslaught of sites dumped in the Google Florida update? Many people lost their hard-earned ranking, even though they did nothing "wrong". Many websites that follow Google's rules for optimization to the letter were still caught up in the carnage. Unfortunately, many businesses were devastated by these changes, especially heading into the holiday months.

What to do? When to do it?
As difficult as it may have been to make sense of Google's changes, for many, the simplest course of action was to simply do nothing. While perhaps contrary to a normal "it's broken so I need to fix it" approach, for many webmasters "do nothing" has proven to be the correct course of action. Since the update, many sites that were exiled to search engine Siberia have returned to nearly their former ranking, shaken but intact. From all appearances, Google simply changed their algorithm and may not have gotten it quite right. Additional "tweaks" subsequent to the Florida update seem to have brought some sanity back to their results.

Who Will Stay Tops In The Search Engines?
You never know who will become the leader in search engines. It was only a few years ago that directories were the major force--until the upstart search engine Google came along. Google got its start about five years ago and hasn't looked back. As long as Google provides good results for its users, it is in a good position to stay on top. However, with MSN working on the creation of its own search engine and Yahoo's acquisition of Overture (which includes AllTheWeb and AltaVista), things could get interesting in 2004. Microsoft is always a force to be reckoned with, and Yahoo certainly has the tools to become a major competitor to Google.

Inktomi's New Search Role
Inktomi may play an important role in this growth since it is now owned by Yahoo. Keep an eye on this engine: it provides secondary results for MSN and will probably replace Google in supplying primary results in Yahoo. Inktomi's importance may also increase in MSN once the Microsoft property stops using LookSmart for its primary results.

To see which pages you have listed in Inktomi, use the Inktomi Pure Search function from Positiontech. Inktomi often adds a few free pages to its databases. Check first to see which pages you may already have in their database for free before using Paid Inclusion for your most important pages.

Other Ways To Promote Your Website
Keep your eye on search engine news. Google was an up and coming engine a few years ago, you never know what will happen in the industry so stay on your toes. Continue to promote your website through links in topical directory listings. Search for websites that contain topics related to yours. Link when it "makes sense". Don't forget traditional means of marketing your website: print ads, brochures, magazine articles and more may help to make a difference. One of the best ways to promote yourself online and increase your link popularity is to write articles on your subject. Find websites that accept free content and submit your ezine, articles or newsletters to those websites to build your link popularity. Newsletters, forums, FAQ's, blogs and tips on your subject are all viable means to inform your visitors and bring in new traffic to your website. Don't forget to archive your newsletters and articles on your website, which works to build your site size and increase link popularity through your authoritative knowledge of your subject. You aren't a writer? Consider working with a copywriter to help build your good content.

Paid Inclusion And Pay Per Click
If you haven't ventured into using Paid Inclusion or PPC services, consider using them to help balance the changes in your traffic. Use a Paid Inclusion subscription for your most important pages, or submit dynamically generated pages that aren't being picked up by the search engine robots so they will appear regularly in the search engine database. You can start your PPC bidding in small doses. Look for some of the secondary smaller terms that don't cost as much but will still bring in traffic your competitors may miss. Take a look at some of the smaller PPC engines available out there, a little traffic from a lot of places can add up.

Site Content, Content, and more Content
The biggest mistake I see webmasters make is creating a website with little content. Don't rely on a few paragraphs of text with optimization to convince search engine robots to stick around. A skeleton website does not make a good impression on anyone. Build the content of your website. Google's new algorithm may be a sign of search engine robots getting a little smarter when it comes to understanding what your website content is about. Build information that will keep your visitors at your website. Become an authority on your subject so other websites will naturally link to you because your information is invaluable. Remember, Google is interested in serving those who use its search capabilities, just as you should be interested in serving your visitors. Give as much real content information to your visitors as possible. They will thank you with return visits.

And In The End...
In the end, the information you give is often equal to the response you receive. Make the effort to become an authority site on your subject. Building the groundwork of your website with quality information and broadening your methods of marketing will help sustain you during the upcoming search engine wars.

There are a lot of "how to" articles on the Internet regarding search engine optimization and top search results bla bla bla... But frankly, beyond a few general tips.. and a few myths, a lot of it is bad advice. We're going to give you some hints as to what's effective, but hey...we could be wrong too!

The first tip is not to try to own a specific set of keywords. Just as an example lets assume you own a teen webcam site. Newbies to the business decide they're going to be number one on every search engine for "online casinos"and everything they do from that point on is targetted at that keyword combination, and only that keyword combination. Of course a month later when they are listed everywhere and they search for their site they find themselves on page 27 of all the search engines for those words and just cant figure out why.

You should pick several four keyword combinations that subdivide into other great keyword combinations. In the above example one set should have been something like "online casino gambling sites". By targetting that combination you have the individual keywords, you have online casino, online casino gambling, gambling sites, etc etc. You may not get a first page listing for a two keyword combo. And you probably wont get exactly the set you are shooting for. But you could find to your shock that you are on the first page, or even number one for a good set.. maybe online casino sites. You never know. Its very important to remember nobody.. I repeat NOBODY can guarantee you a top ten listing for any competitive keyword combination. If they even hint they can.. they're frauds.

The second tip is that no matter what else you do the first words on your web page
should be your main keyword combination. This comes before banners, before
anything. Its' a waste Accidentally doing this on a minor avs site once got one of my sites listed as "Click here now for...." You get the idea.

Tip three is that every single image on your site, even graphics should have alt tags. The alt tags should target your keywords but should not ever be identical and should contain phrases other than your main phrase. Most search engines count percentages for each word and combination so having the word "webcam" repeated a thousand times on your site will assure that your NOT ranked high for it, rather than the opposite.

Tip four is the title, domain name, directory name and even html file name. Google for one is at the moment using this as its primary criteria, though those of us in the business a while who arent spammers are still working on our page rank and other things, we've always watched this. A good trick is to softlink my-keywords-here.html to index.html.

Number five is you should have a lot of content. This doesnt mean what you probably think it does. A search engine doesnt care if you have five hundred thumbnails on your page. It doesnt care if you have the worlds prettiest site. It cares about the amount of content as compared to keywords. If your site contains nothing but a set of keywords or even a couple and some pictures your usually going to get a godawful listing. Content, generally, means text and links. This isnt exactly accurate but in general any particular keyword combination should take up more than 3-6 percent of your site content. This changes monthly by the way and
is different for each search engine. While your site title should be loaded with keywords, you can overdo it in the body of your site.

Number seven is always always always submit your sites to the big search engines by hand the first time. You can use some submitters for subpages, less important pages etc but never ever autosubmit your site for the first time with an autosubmitter. Its more likely to either get you banned or mess up your listing than anything and its not worth it. If you wish you can resubmit once amonth after your listed with an autosubmitter, and i do this for minor tertiary sites. But your main domains and important sites MUST be hand submitted to every major search engine you can find.

Number eight is to use link lists. You should include links to at least some of your other sites on every public page you own, even if those links are tiny and in a place users never see. These links guarantee your sites get spidered regularly and can help with page rank. Ideally you should have a domain or two whos' front end is a link list containing every domain you own and as many sites as you can fit without being ridiculous.

I hope these tips help and of course if they dont... its the evil netgods fault.