September 2003 ~ Business NH Magazine ~ p. 26-28 ~ "Positioned for the Search" by Susan J. O'Neil

- Forrester Research Reports that first quarter online retail sales hit $24 billion, a 20% increase over last year's first quarter
- world wide e-commerce revenues to hit $550 billion according to eMarketer
- 87% of internet users use the major search engines to find products, services, and information

Myth: Build it and they will come.
- major search engines don't use your meta tag info
- look to other criteria, which can include the number of Web sites that link back to your site, the importance of sites that link to your site, how links are used within your site, what words are in the headlines and headings
- search engine optimization - seo - analyzing current search engine preferences and then adapting Web pages to meet the preference and, therefore, get listed higher in rankings of the search returns
- web advertisers are now able to purchase topspots (PFP), ads, and click throughs (PPC)
- to successfully launch a Web site today requires a lot more than a few meta tags: you'll either undertake and SEO campaign, a PPC campaign, or both.

Tip:
selecting keywords for your meta tags is a good marketing double check
1. Who are your target audiences?
2. How might they search for your products or services?
3. Does the content of your Web pages highlight these important terms?

Use keyword suggestion tools: http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/adcenter/tools/

Myth: You have to pay search engines to get traffic today.
- many search engines and one directory (www.dmoz.org) are still free
- According to comScore Networks, Google handled about 31.8% of appx four billion searches conducted in May 2003
- the best way to get listed in Google is to get links from other sites
- get listed in important directories