Search Engine & Directory
Registration &Positioning

What is registration all about?

A search engine is a Web site that uses "spider" software to seek out and prioritize the information it finds in the pages you submit for review.

When your potential customer goes to a search engine and types in keywords, the spider will search its database for those words. If it finds the words in your Web site, the search engine will display your domain name, or even the name of a specific page from your Web site, together with a description of your company, products and services.

In search engines and directories, that listing also serves as a link, so that with the click of a mouse, the customer can immediately go from there to your site.

A directory is different from a search engine in that it organizes its member Web sites into categories and sub-categories. For example, if you are in the paper recycling business, your customers would search for your services on a pathway of headings and subheadings, like "business / manufacturing / recycling ...," and then type in their keyword or keywords.

The benefit of the directory is that it eliminates a lot of sites that might respond to the same keywords, but in industries unrelated to what you are looking for.

What registration services do we offer?

At TMC Marketing Communications, we specialize in helping our clients to register and re-register with the top search engines and directories on the Web.

Search engines and directories do not charge for listing with them, nor do they charge for the viewings your listing will receive. So there is no hidden cost down the road for you. Our fees are for the services and expertise we provide in helping you to develop a strategy, configure your files, and submit your information in a way that will give your company the best chance of achieving and maintaining visibility.

Directories and search engines also sell banner advertising space (like Yellow Pages display advertising). They can program banner ads to pop up on screen in response to keyword searches. They can also tally the number of times a banner is called up by viewers. In most cases, they charge according to the number of "hits," or viewings, your ad receives. If you are interested in banner advertising, we can also assist you in creating and submitting banner ads.

Prior to registering your site, we will examine your files, research the source files of your competitors who are successfully advertising on the Web, recommend select keywords and descriptive phrases, and develop and implement a strategy designed to give you prime visibility and increase the traffic on your Web site.

Our $1200 Initial Registration and Positioning Package includes the following services:

• Conduct client consultations
• Research and develop a list of keywords and key phrases that your clients and potential customers would most likely use to find you on the Web
• Research the strategies used by your competitors whose Web sites appear at the top of directory and search engine lists in response to those keywords
• Apply the same successful strategies to the configuration of your Web site and specific pages in your site, as needed
• Initially submit your domain name and page names to the current major search engines, including AltaVista, InfoSeek, Go Network, Hot Bot, AOL Search, Direct Hit, Excite, Fast, All The Web, Google, IWon, Lycos, MSN, NBCi (formerly Snap), Netscape, and Web Crawler
• Initially submit your domain name and page names to the current major directories, like Yahoo, GoTo, LookSmart, and OpenDirectory.

What about positioning and site maintenance?

In order to have a promotional Web presence, it is essential for you to submit your initial registration.

But in order to rise in the ranks, and to maintain a high level of visibility, it is important to do three things:

• Continue to update your site;
• Resubmit your registration at regular intervals; and
• Continue to build traffic on your site.

The combination of these activities will increase your status with the search engines and directories on which you are listed. In many ways, they feed each other. The more you update and improve your site, the more reason your customers will have to return to it on a regular basis and help build your traffic. The more you re-registration after making impovements, the higher you will rise in the ranks of visibility and the more potential customers you will attract from the outside. And that increased traffic, in turn, will continue to push you up in the ranks. That is how search engines and directories are programmed to work.

Like anything, it's a building process, and success breeds more success. And in this New Frontier, the sooner you begin, the better your chances of long-term success.

We offer the following Monthly Positioning Packages:

• Silver Package: We will review the configuration of your Web site and re-register it with the above-listed search engines four times a month for $144 a year.
• Gold Package: We will review the configuration of your Web site and re-register it with the above-listed search engines eight times a month for $192 a year.
• Platinum Package: We will review the configuration of your Web site and re-register it with the above-listed search engines at least twenty times a month for $240 a year.

Which package do we recommend?

It depends on your business. This is an advertising investment, so our objective is to help you improve your traffic and increase your sales. A good question may be: How many Internet-generated sales will I need to cover the cost of my investment? The rest is gravy.

If you have extremely unique products and services, and your keywords conjure up only short list of competitors, there may be no need to register often, if only to keep your name high on the list. If you have multiple products and services, some keywords will need to be re-registered more often than others, depending, again, on the size of the list.

You may want to concentrate on promoting those products or services which give you the highest margins. Or you may want to emphasize a product which will serve as a "door-opener" - just to get your potential customers into your site the first time. Once there, they will discover the full range of products and services you have to offer.

These are a some of the things we will take into consideration in setting up your program and making our recommendations. But number one is your initial registration, so you at least are in the system.

If you would also like to have us regularly update and maintain your Web site, we bill out our services at $15 per quarter-hour. Or we can customize a monthly maintenance plan, depending on the size and nature of your site.

For more information, please call us at 888-664-9789.