Make Money Online “How to”

Getting organic (free) traffic to your website is one of
the keys to having a successful Internet business. But how
are you going to let Internet users know that you are open
for business if they don’t know what your web address (URL)
is?

There are many strategies you can use to drive traffic to
your website, but the most basic one is to get your site
indexed by search engines. You can wait until your site is
visited by search engine bots, the web crawlers that go out
through the Internet to gather information on a regular
basis. Your site should be crawled in this manner
eventually, but it will take time; you may not want to wait
weeks before your site is indexed.

To give your site a boost, you do have the option of
submitting it to search engines yourself. You will want to
make sure that it appears on the three most popular ones,
since they account for the majority of traffic online.

The "Big Three"

The three search engines that account for the most web
traffic are:

• • Google
• • Yahoo
• • MSN

In addition, there are many other search engines, and it is
possible to get a high ranking on one of them even if you
don’t have a Top 10 ranking on one of the Big Three. This
may help you improve your site ranking on one of the more
well-known search engines, as well.

Submitting Your Site to Search Engines

You can submit your site to a number of search engines
yourself, but this option will be quite time-consuming.
Here’s how it works: Visit the search engine web site you
are interested in and look for the "Submit Your Site" page.
You will probably see an online form that will ask you for
the URL of your site and a brief description of its
contents. Be sure to include appropriate keywords in your
description. It may take a few weeks before your site
appears in the listings, so make a note on your calendar to
check to make sure it has been included at a later time.

If you don’t want to use time that would be better spent
building your business on this task, you have a couple of
options:

1. Use a free submission service
2. Hire a consultant to do it for you

Free Submission Service

A free submission service will submit your site information
to many different search engines, including the Big Three.
In return for the service, you will be asked for your
contact information. Be prepared to receive a number of
special offers from the submission service after it has
performed this task for you, though.

Hire a Consultant

You can also hire a company to submit your URL to search
engines on your behalf. They can advise you about ways to
get a better ranking, which is key to driving traffic to
your site. If you have the financial resources to pay the
fee, this method may be the most effective way to get your
site indexed sooner.

To Your Success,
Harry