Is Search Engine Submission Necessary?

The quick answer is no—search engine submission is unnecessary. Most search engines now crawl and index pages following links. So, a single inbound link from any already-indexed page will alert the search engine to your page. And if that page also links to other pages on your site, those will index automatically as well. It creates a cascade effect.

For that reason, links coming in are vital. Finding links may be one of the most important SEO efforts. Technically, a site owner should not need to look for links, if the content provided is valuable, interesting, or significant, users will link to it automatically. This behavior is the basis of Google’s PageRank algorithm. While submitting your site to the search engines cannot hurt, this only takes about five minutes, assuming you simply submit to the heavy players. Moreover, one submission would do-you don’t need to resubmit your site several times. In addition, this won’t accelerate the crawling speed or indexing speed.

It’s free to submit your site to Google, Yahoo, MSN, and many more sites. You can always be wary of companies that promise you that you’ll need to pay to index, this is entirely misleading, and it’s a good idea not to hire such companies because it’s apparent that they take more interest in their success rather than yours.

Have you ever thought about taking a cross-country vacation without a map? Even with a map, navigation can be tough. Try it without one. Many people do this every day on the Internet. They try to build businesses without a roadmap to success. They wander around online for months or years and finally throw their hands up in frustration and say that the Internet doesn’t work for them. The truth is that failure reflects from not going down a direct road! You don’t have to get lost in the shuffle online. Below are ten steps for finding your way and moving forward. Although this list isn’t exhaustive, it will suffice to give you a framework on which to build and create a strategy.

Think of it as your roadmap to getting started in internet marketing success.

1. Choose a targeted market

Many people, when beginning a business, make the mistake of choosing a product first and then looking for buyers. If this starting point is yours, you’re moving the wrong way around. Successful businesses work quite differently in that they identify a market first and then select a product that is wanted by those potential customers. Instead of looking for leads to sell something, find targeted customers and ask what they want to buy.

Don’t even think about launching a business until you know where to find your leads. Think of your audience first, then develop a product for them. Would you rather have 1,000 visitors to your site from a general audience or 10 visits from individuals eager to buy your products? Smart entrepreneurs know how to choose the buyers!

2. Develop a Product

Further, create a product or service for your selected market. Do not resort to affiliate programs at this stage of the game. You can sell your products online in one of the following three ways:

a. Create Your Exclusive Product

This is your best shot. With your product, you’re able to set the price, offer reprint rights, and even establish an affiliate program. Many entrepreneurs have started their careers very successfully through unique information products. So can you. You must have learned something worth teaching in a how-to product by now.

b. Buy the Rights to a Product or Joint Venture for an Offline Product

You can buy rights to successful products for $500 to $20,000. If there is another person whose product is of interest to your target market, you could offer him a huge upfront fee for the rights. This way, you gain a product with no royalties going out. In addition, scan through magazines that people in your target audience read and get in touch with the creators for online exclusive rights.

c. Join an Affiliate Program

This can be a good starting point. However mostly, it does not bring the same profit opportunity as when creating or licensing your product. Please make sure you opt for an affiliate program that your audience needs and be careful about your commission rates. If you’re only making 5% commissions on $10 products, then you can earn only 50 cents per sale-you need 2,000 customers to earn $1,000 in profit. Seek higher-priced items that offer commissions of 25% or more.

3. Create a USP

Create a Unique Selling Proposition for your product or service. All too many businesses online are simply copying others, you cannot be indistinguishable from your competition if you intend to stand out in the marketplace. For most of your customers, all too easy is a visit to the site of your next competitor to make a purchase. You need to be different somehow in your product or service. What do you offer that no one else can? Better guarantees, better customer service, better technical support, faster shipping, or lower prices are just a few examples. Discover what’s special about you and speak it out.

4. Register a Domain Name and Host

Next, select your domain name that represents your company, USP, and offering. Choose names that are short and descriptive. Avoid dash names or misspellings as these often lose traffic because users might forget part of your domain. For hosting, I recommend Virtualis for their unmatched customer service and technical support. They are always responding within the hour, 24/7-an hour-by-hour thing which no other hosting provider I have ever used can match!

5. Build a Customer- Friendly Site

Now it is time to build the website that the world gets to see. If you are going to be running a full-time internet business take the time now to learn how to build the site yourself using one of the many options for software. This will save you huge costs as your site grows. But if your primary business is offline and you’re just adding an online revenue stream, hiring a pro might be a better move. Design your site to always keep the customer experience in mind.

Make order forms for online credit card transactions easy to find. Make links clear and easy to navigate. The visitor to your site is primarily interested in their needs, not your business. Always highlight your benefits and USP. Most people won’t scroll down from the first screen so give them the information they need straight off. The mantra of any business is Benefits, Benefits, and More Benefits.

6. Offer a Freebie

One of the keys to driving traffic and boosting sales on your site is to offer a compelling freebie as an incentive. For example, I provide numerous free reports, weather updates, news articles, and more. Over the past eight months, the two free e-books I offer for newsletter subscribers have been my most effective draws. Regardless of the type of business you are, you will need to have something for free. Offer and give away a report, include a message board, or even a free demo of your software. Whatever it is, make sure they want to come to your site.

7. Start Your Own Opt-In List

Almost every successful online marketer has created an opt-in email list. This can take on many forms-from a weekly newsletter, to a daily tip, to simply a list for sending out necessary updates. Regardless of which channel you’re using, the important thing is that if you concentrate on a devoted email subscriber list, it will pay off. Most of your customers won’t buy from you on their first visit to your site. They might hang out on your list for weeks or even months before deciding to buy. They need to get familiar with you first before trusting you with their money. Moreover, most of the best leads have come from offline advertising. You can buy ads in widely distributed magazines related to your business or place postcards from card decks. Join a co-op with other advertisers to place your ads with them and save money since it is all cost-free for you. Off-line leads arriving at your site tend to have a higher conversion rate than those leads that are generated through offline means.

From here, use these ten steps and build a basic roadmap that will guide you in writing your internet success story. You would never dream of taking a trip without a map, don’t enter the online world without one either. To learn more about this subject download Terry Dean’s free eBook: “10 Quick and Easy Ways to Increase Profits to any Website Overnight!” Discover some very explosive Internet Marketing Secrets that will catapult your traffic, cut your expenses, and make you money overnight.