Is Website In Google's Searches Eye??

You've just built a website and can't wait to start popping

up in the top listings of search engines. After all, you've

paid this company even more money to create "optimized,

search engine friendly pages, start building links and add

lots of fresh content." If it takes weeks and months for the

search engines to notice me, do I have to wait that long to

see if the money was worth it?

No! It's true that it takes time…weeks, even months to build

up your web presence, but there are ways to follow your

progress. It's important to note that if you already have an

established Internet presence and wish to further optimize

your site, it usually happens much faster than a site that is

brand new with a brand new domain.

If you are already listed in various directories and your

existing website has been up and running long enough the

search engines have probably already indexed your site and

those linking to it. (to see if your site is indexed with a

particular engine, in the search field type

"site:http://www.yourdomain.com"). As you modify your pages

and add new content the process of moving up in search rank

is much swifter than starting from a brand new, un-indexed

site. ? The ranking process has an inherent unchangeable

variable of time. Sponsored search listings are one of a few

ways around this hurdle to get you to the top instantly while

the search spiders dig through your new site. But for the

long haul, while you wait for that big chuck of cash you just

paid your SEO to start returning, here are some ways to tell

if he or she did you justice.

Ways to keep tabs on your progress:

Monitor Search Engine Positions

If you're a brand new domain name the first step is to watch

for yourself to be indexed. Chances are that your optimizer

submitted your site to the most prominent search engines at

the very least. While the search crawlers will ultimately

find you on their own, there is some merit in submitting your

site manually. It may take some weeks before a check of

site:http://www.yourdomain.com reveals any activity though.

Take care not to be over anxious and resubmit your site. That

will only hurt your efforts.

Once you find yourself being listed by particular keywords in

a search engine, monitor how your rank moves every week or

so. (Frequently, the more you add fresh content, the sooner

the crawlers will return to your site.) Change the preference

settings in search engines to speed up your research efforts.

Google will display up to 100 results per page, MSN up to 50

in "advanced search." This makes it much easier to find

yourself if your down in the 300th position. Don't be

discouraged though! Being listed even at 300 is an

accomplishment. And as you optimize you will see your listing

move up in the ranks.

Visitor Tracking

The best, and easiest way to see who is reaching your site by

search engine and particular keyword phrase is to implement

some sort visitor tracking system. These are not complicated

and can cost only a few dollars a month. Take a look at a

company like http://www.webstat.com for example.

A small piece of code is placed on each page you want to

track. When you log into the online service, you can tell the

exact word and phrase someone used to reach you and from what

search engine... not to mention scores of other useful data

about your site traffic. This quickly gives you a snapshot of

which keyword phrases are most successful and in which

engines. This data is invaluable to further optimize your

pages.

Are your top search engine rankings on par with the industry

percentages?

Again using visitor tracking you can see if the people

reaching you by Google are close to the percentage of people

that use Google compared to MSN or AOL. If the industry shows

that overall 25{f searchers are using MSN and 5

ycos, your results should be similar. If they're not, it's a

sign that some modifications might be in order.

Monitoring these processes will show you that there's

actually quite a lot of activity. And there's nothing more

exciting than watching that 300th position search climb to

the first page!