Re: UKNM: Search Engines

[Ray Taylor]

Thanks for the complete guide to online PR, and your life history, Eric, but

the question was about search engines not traffic building generally.


Any my apologies for misuse of percentages. I should have said "an awful

lot" rather than "99%". I meant to use it for rhetorical effect, not

statistical accuracy.


Thanks too for the sales tip. In future, instead of saying:


>>But mostly it's all down to leg work.


I will use your much more elucidating explanation:


>A more strategic approach is to methodically build an

>ongoing network of inbound links at sites that represent

>the most appropriate outlets where your desired site

>visitors can be found.


I guess I am condemned forever to the role of rolling my sleeves up and

digging up the coal, leaving others free to take a more strategic approach.


Love and best wishes (and I hope you have a sense of humour, Eric :-) )


Ray Taylor

Named as one of the 100 most influential people on the Web and living in

Beckenham by the other one, September 1998


-----Original Message-----

From: Eric Ward -URLwire Web Launch News- Since 1994 <

netpostNETpost [dot] com

>

To:

uk-netmarketingchinwag [dot] com

 <

uk-netmarketingchinwag [dot] com

>

Date: 29 September 1998 17:46

Subject: Re: UKNM: Search Engines



>A list member wrote...

>

>>by hand, sometimes several times over. That's because 99% of your traffic is

>>likely to come from these, 1% the rest, and most of the major search engines

>

>As one of the very first members of the submission

>industry, over 5 years ago, before Yahoo.com existed,

>before any submission bots and any submission services, I

>assure you that the above kind of thinking is exactly what

>kills most web sites.  In fact, if 99% of your traffic is

>coming from the biggest 7-10 search engines, then this

>means you have done a poor job marketing your site. It

>also means that you are at the mercy of these engines to

>keep that traffic flow coming.  Which means if you lose

>precious ranking at a couple of them, you just lost 30 or

>40% or more of your traffic.  Ouch.  I've seen that

>literally put people out of business who depended on a

>Yahoo listing for nearly all traffic.  Sure, be happy

>while it lasts, but be building for the future, for it

>*will* go away.


>

>A more strategic approach is to methodically build an

>ongoing network of inbound links at sites that represent

>the most appropriate outlets where your desired site

>visitors can be found.  Sure, you need to be listed with

>the big engines, but I would rather be getting 30% of my

>traffic from the big engines and the remaining 70% from a

>collection of inbound links at other sites that are a

>match for my content.  Then if I lose an engine, it isn't

>a crisis.

>

>Yes the portal engines matter a great deal, but you can

>build a site's audience wihout ever submitting to any of

>them, if you focus on your niche.  Done it.

>

>Best wishes, -Eric Ward

>~~~~~~~~~~~~ The WardGroup - NetPOST & URLwire (Est 1994)

>Site Announcement Planning, Submissions & Media Campaigns

>. Content driven vertical URL submissions/announcements

>. Online news sharing services for Web launches & events

>. Strategic Web marketing reality checks

>. Speaker, C|Net, iWorld, & Thunderlizard Conferences

>~~~ http://www.netpost.com  & http://www.urlwire.com  ~~~

>

~~~~~ EricWardnetpost [dot] com (mailto:EricWardnetpost [dot] com) ~ 423.637.2438 (v) ~~~~

>

~~~~~ EricWardurlwire [dot] com (mailto:EricWardurlwire [dot] com) ~ 423.637.2438 (v) ~~~~

>

>Named one of the world's 100 most influential people

>on the  Web by Websight Magazine, April, 1997