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The Power of Topic Specific Search
What are Topical Search Engines?
Simply put, topical search engines are search engines focused on a specific industry, sector or topic.
While many marketers are scrambling for links, any links, an area that is often overlooked is topic-specific search engines. What many don't realize is that these engines do produce traffic, and they often contain traffic that is very targeted. Anyone who has taken the time to analyze weblogs and track sales sources will likely see that targeted traffic converts at a significantly higher rate than non-targeted traffic.
A savvy online marketer realizes that often, the quality of the visitor is far more important than the quantity of visitors. Web marketers should focus their energies on attracting targeted traffic whenever possible.
For example, if you sell saddles, advertising on a site related to horses or advertising on a topical search engine like http://www.horse-stall.net will bring significantly more sales than advertising on a generic web site or search engine.
Niche engines are considerably smaller than general search engines but they can still be quite lucrative. The small size of a niche or topic-specific engine ensures that the there are few competitors, and advertisers are generally willing to pay a little more for the focused traffic. Advertisers appreciate the unique benefit of reaching a very targeted audience who have a higher likelihood of purchasing their product or service. As a result, topic-specific search engines and directories are a burgeoning market. There is far less competition in niche directories and dominating a specific market segment and establishing brand recognition is significantly easier.
It is virtual suicide to attempt to compete with the behemoth search engines like Google. Web-surfers are interested in simplicity and efficiency, which translates to as few clicks as possible. This is an area where Google really cannot compete with a topic-specific search engine. Creating a simple, clear navigational structure of related content while cross-promoting related products or services will increase the site's value.
Advertisers will also flock to search portals that are industry-specific, as they appreciate the unique benefit of reaching a very targeted audience who have a higher likelihood of purchasing their product or service.
Consider the niche search engine, Alarm Tools - http://www.alarm-tools.net. The traffic this portal attracts will be of significant interest to manufacturers of security equipment or emergency supplies. Imagine the targeted traffic that an alarm company could receive from a link in the above search directory.
Comtemplate the quality traffic a financial planner could glean from an RSS search directory focussed on finance and investing at http://www.finance-investing.com.
Locating topic-specific search engines is not all that difficult. Consider using the resources provided by Search Engine Watch, Web Search Engines, and Search Engine Guide to locate engines that are topic-specific:
Search Engine Watch - http://searchenginewatch.com/links/article.php/2156351
Web Search Engines - http://www.web-search-engines.net/directory/topic-specific.html
Search Engine Guide - http://www.searchengineguide.com/searchengines.html
Qualified 'clickers' or interested buyers is what it is all about; whether you are selling a product or advertising, the more targeted the traffic the better the fit. As an advertiser, consider topic - specific search engines. As an online marketer, consider creating a niche search portal, as the market is ripe.
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software company.
How To Make Your Website More Successful? (Part II)
In part I of our series of how to make your website more successful we already showed you some important tricks to build a more successful website. This time we are going to expand the scope a little to further improve your website and to make it work harder for you on the Internet.
Search Engine Traffic: Winning With Content
Targeted traffic is the lifeblood of any online business. The best source of free-targeted traffic to your site is the search engines. To be visible at the search engines, you have to appear in the first three or so pages of the search engine result pages (SERPS). The quest for attaining high rankings at the search engines has spawned a whole industry, the search engine optimization (SEO) world.
Submit Your Website to Search Engines
Some search engine submissions are free and some pay for this benefit but before I get into it I would like to place a little word of warning.
Internet 2005: The Ten Billions Pages Search Engines
To see each and every page during 10 seconds would take 694 days 24/24. The leading search engines fight to be the first that oversteps this level. In the meantime the key word "sex" has been typed about 20'000'000 times on the entire web and Google found 333'000'000 results for this query in January 2005.
Have You Heard Of Website Optimization
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SEO Facts
The internet is the largest market place on earth. It offers unparalleled access to an international base of consumers ? and referrers. However, the internet is also an extremely overcrowded place. With such an opportunity to make a business presentation to the world, many companies seek to take advantage of this unique chance for global exposure by creating a website. Yet simply having a website is not enough. A website alone will be lost in the crowd ? a crowd of over 4 billion webpages indexed on the Google search engine alone. A website needs to be visible, and in a highly targeted manner, so that a company can connect specifically with potential customers. If any company is serious about generating sales within the largest marketplace on earth, investment is required in one form or other of internet marketing.
List Building vs. Search Engine Optimization
It seems the excitement about search engine optimization fades in and out from time to time. The more people talk about search engine optimization (SEO) the more it seems to be the logical choice for bringing customers to your site. However, there are some points that I haven't seen anyone else make as of yet about the effectiveness of SEO versus the effectiveness of building a responsive list. I think you'll be surprised to see which one comes out on top.
Googlebot Wont Go Home
I have 'Googlebot' crawl my site every day like a dispossessed spirit that can't leave.
Designing a Website So the Search Engines Will Like You
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Winning the Search Engine Wars!
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Playing By Googles Rules
As the undisputable leader in search engines, Google places a very high importance on the quality and relevancy of its search results, especially now that the company is public. The know that in order to keep the shareholders and users of the engine happy, the quality of returned results are extremely important. For this reason, doing the wrong thing, purposely or unintentionally could result in a severe penalty or even get you get you banned from the listings. Below is a short list of ideas to consider when drafting your search engine optimization campaign.
DIY SEO
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How Real SEO Analysis Works
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The Mystery of the Magical Keyword Density Formula
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The Biggest SEO Scam of All
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How to Succeed with the Search Engines
The Cold Hard Facts?..
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Internet Marketing and SEO
Have you ever seen any email offers of getting you to the top of search engines guaranteeing top rankings. Like anything in life there is no quick result without hard work. When it comes to designing a website it is the proper foundation principle. Like any great structure you need the foundation built for search engines.