Two Myths About the Search Engine Listing

Getting top search engine listing is perhaps one of the hottest subjects in the internet marketing world. The problem is that many discussions on this subject are based on speculation. Almost no one knows the exact algorithms of the search engines. And what make it worse is that the search engines have a habit of changing their algorithms.

However, some people are so obsessed with top search engine listing that they tend to undermine the importance of other web traffic generation techniques. These "trances" are partly caused by some misleading myths that surround the search engine marketing subject. Below are two of those myths with some empirical facts that contradict and refute them.

Myth #1: "You can't get loads of targeted traffic without the top search engine listing."

This is completely wrong. Jack Humphrey, the power linking guy, has given us a picture that it is possible to get huge amount of targeted traffic without the top search engine listing. In his Special Report, "What if Google Didn't Exist?," he shared one of his sites' stat in April 2004 and guess what? From 71,444 unique visitors that he got at that month, "google search" referred only a small portion of them, i.e. 0.07%.

You can read Jack's complete report at http://www.webmastertraffictools.com/weblog/index.php/weblog/googleexist/.

I also found another similar fact from Tinu Abayomi-Paul, the free traffic chick. In her blog post, "Site Promotion is Multi-Faceted," she said that the search engines only constitute 6 - 10% of her traffic in any given month. While she didn't tell us about the monthly amount of traffic to her website, I believe that her site gets huge traffic every month, because she has an Alexa ranking of 38,371 (that's what my Alexa toolbar showed me at the time I wrote this article).

You can read Tinu's complete blog post at http://www.freetraffictip.com/2005/06/site-promotion-is-multi-faceted.php.

Myth #2: "The major search engines are reliable sources of sustainable, residual, traffic."

This is also inaccurate. Look at what happened to Alice Seba from Internet Based Moms. One of her websites, http://malcolmsweb.com, has been banned by Google, even though that website was full with good content. Since May 21, 2005, her visitors instantly dropped from about 700-800 per day to 200-250 per day.

You can read Alice's complete story at her blog post, 'Alice "White Hat" Seba Has Been Banned,' at http://www.aliceseba.com/2005/06/alice-white-hat-seba-has-been-banned.html.

< p>Now I don't mean to undermine the importance of the major search engines. The major search engines are one of the biggest sources of targeted traffic on the net and so, you should do proper optimization and try to get top search engine listing.

But, don't let yourself be misled by these myths and ignore many other web traffic generation techniques. With the unstable nature of the search engines, it would be wise to use the search engines only as one of your traffic sources and look for other traffic generation techniques to build multiple sources of traffic.

About the Author

Mohamad Zaki Hussein is the webmaster of http://www.webtrafficideas.com. To learn how to increase web site traffic to your website by using a combination of Viral Marketing, RSS and Blog, grab the FREE "Instant Traffic Formula" report at http://www.webtrafficideas.com/getviral.

---

Were You Bamboozled by Google?

It's still happening. "Florida," "Boston," "Ginger," and "Brandy" are just... Read More

Finding The Best Search Engine

With Billions of pages on the internet how do you... Read More

Search Engine Metrics: Organic Search vs. Paid Placement

Let me preface this report by citing advertisers in 2004... Read More

Press Releases Can Increase Search Engine Positioning

When you write a press release, what is your ultimate... Read More

SEM - Research Measures Success

SEM - Research Measures SuccessSearch engine marketing success comes from... Read More

SEO #4: Off-page Optimization

Yesterday you should have read the third course out of... Read More

SEO and the Outsourcing of Inbound Link Building

Search Engine Optimization nowadays has a lot to do with... Read More

Search Bots, Crawlers, and Spiders

If you are a webmaster and you review your logs,... Read More

10 Ways To Indirectly Get To The Top Of Search

There are millions of web sites trying to get listed... Read More

Get Personal With Google

Anyone who's been on the net any time at all... Read More

Gaining Additional PageRank

Google is the major search engine webmasters have to deal... Read More

Submitting Your Site to Search Engines and Directories

Regardless of which type of business you currently have, you... Read More

SEO Expert Guide - Keyword Analysis (part 3/10)

If you imagine that building an optimized site is like... Read More

Is New MSN Search More Precise? Just Ask Google

MSN finally unleashed its new search technology to the world... Read More

Understanding Googles Algorithm

What is the Google Algorithm?An algorithm is a mathematical equation... Read More

7 Simple Steps to Spy on Your Online Competition and Acheive a High Page Rank

My Grandfather ran a small Grocery Store and when you... Read More

Optimizing Online Catalog Copy for the Search Engines

It only makes sense. You have an e-commerce catalog site.... Read More

5 Things to Keep an Eye on in the SEO World in 2005...

After the latest PR update at Google and MSN's beta... Read More

The SEO Gurus poem

Am I alone as I survey that vast wilderness outside,Sat... Read More

Search Engine Optimization Tip: Dont Buy Anything Before You Learn More!

Thinking about purchasing that premium SEO software that will hyper-optimize... Read More

Easy Steps to Get Onto Google Top Search Pages

To get on Google's top pages can be accomplished by... Read More

How Do I Improve My Web Site Conversion Rate? Part 2

Question 1Does it help to track visitor behavior on websites... Read More

Search Engines The Masters Of The Internet Universe ? Part 2

"This is a continuation of the pervious part, split into... Read More

Your Website Title Could Be Costing You Money

Nothing could be simpler than the title you give to... Read More

More Hits are Good for My Website - A Myth You Should Avoid

I hear this all the time. "I can get you... Read More

Page Rank - A Quick Overview for Beginners

Page Rank (PR) is a specific value for a website... Read More

Your Top Search Rankings at Yahoo & MSN Search are Worthless

It seems I now do this rant every single year... Read More

Finding Profitable Keyword Phrases

So you have a site concept developed that you are... Read More

Submit Your WebSite: Add Your URL to Web Directories & Search Engines

Why get into Search engines and directories?Increase backlinks of your... Read More

Is My Search Engine Optimization Working?

You've just built a website and can't wait to start... Read More

The Great Search Engine Experiment Revisited Who is the Coolest Guy in the Universe

A recent Search Engine Experiment Demonstrates how by combining Key... Read More

A Simple 4 Step Approach To Have Google Crawl Your Site Today Guaranteed!

Extra, Extra Google Now Gives you feedback. By Creating a... Read More

Are You A Google Junkie

Google this, Google that, Google Google Google.......My name is Debbie... Read More