How can I secure my web page?

Getting Listed on the 1st page of this search engine and Yahoo

• I own several hundred domain names. I am familiar with Overture.com and this site's sponser section. I will use Overture for an example. Apparently I can secure one of the first three spots for "domain for sale" for about $1.25. In April there were about 3,100 searches on that phrase. For the phrase "domain name for sale" apparently I can secure one of the top three spots for about $2.25 and there were about 3,700 searches on that term in April. In other words depending on which of those two phrases I utilized, I could secure one of the top three positions for $3,875-8,325 per month. If my understanding is correct (hopefully it is), then it wouldn't really matter how good my web page was if I chose this route. If I was willing to ante up the money, I would be on the first page with one of the top three spots. If I am wrong with this assumption then please correct my thoughts. It seems that there are about 20 sites (non-sponser sites) that are listed on the first page of results. How much money should I expect to spend to develop a simple (no frills) site that simply lists the domain names I want to sell along with the price I want to sell them for and then a link they can click on to accept the price and send an email to me expressing their desire to buy or an opportunity to make an offer. Secondly, and much more important, how much should I expect to spend to ensure that my site is listed on the first page of results. I would like to have the opportunity to not pay if my site is not listed on the first page of the major search engines. How much should I expect to pay to maintain my site in a way that keeps me on the first page of results. Finally where would I find freelancers that could do this work, instead of going with some company that will charge an inflated price unless this is the best way to go. Please include names of freelancer's if you are able to (if that is against policy then nevermind) and names of companies if that is the best route. Upon a satisfactory answer I can then compare your thoughts of costs and compare to the "guaranteed" way of being listed on the first page. If I am able to tip, I will add a very fair tip to your response. Ask around, I am very fair. Thanks, Joel

• Answer:

  Joel, Wow. There's a lot of meat in this question and a lot of ground to cover. I am in the "optimization" business so I should have some good insights into your question It may take me a bit to cover all of the material, so I might post a partial answer, and then finish up a bit later. You've asked a lot of questions! So let me try to take them one by one. First, let me make a couple of comments that may clarify the situation for you and explain how the industry works. As you may know, the market for domain names has taken a decidedly sharp turn southward for many reasons. Of course the dot.com failures had something to do with it, but there are a multitude of other reasons as well. Not knowing about your particular domain names, I won't say more. But if you'd like clarification on this point, please ask. Okay, let me explain how Overture, Google, and other pay-per-click services work. Yes, you bid on what you want to pay to have your web page appear either in ads down the side (Google) or at the top of the regular listings (Overture). However, just having your pay-per-click listing appear under a keyword, has nothing to do with how many clicks you're going to get. In your example, if your keyword phrase "domain name for sale" gets 3100 searches one month, you will have that many ad exposures. However, of these 3100 views, you may only get 20 or 30 "clicks". Of course this number may be 1,000 but that is highly unlikely. Some will click on someone else's ad, some will scroll down to the regular listings, and some will not click anything at all. Much depends on how well your write your introductory copy - how effective it is. I'd suggest having some help with this if you're not experienced in writing advertising or promotional copy. So, this key word may only cost you a couple of hundred dollars a month. And of course, you'd only have that many click-throughs for the month. Next, you say that "...then it wouldn't really matter how good my web page was if I chose this route. If I was willing to ante up the money, I would be on the first page with one of the top three spots." Yes, but as I state above, you really can't expect an incredibly large number of click-throughs even if you're in the number position. As a matter of fact, there is some research that shows that the number 2 or 3 spot has more click-throughs than the number one spot! Now, on to the quality of the webpage. Let's say that someone has clicked to your page and two other pay-per-click pages browsing for what he wants. He is going to investigate further only those pages that meet the following criteria: * Instills a sense of professionalism and confidence * Appears to have the information they are looking for * Is easy to navigate * Is well written You really must have a well-designed, functional, professional website if you want to have any hope of anyone actually sticking around to see what you have and eventually making a purchase. Your competition is just too tough to take the cheap or easy path. Even in the number one spot, you may have a lot of hits, but people quickly hit their back button and move on to the number two add. Today's browser has been spoiled by expensively designed, professional sites. And now that's what they expect. If your site looks amateurish, they'll consider you're an amateur too and move on. Your next comment is "How much money should I expect to spend to develop a simple (no frills) site that simply lists the domain names I want to sell along with the price I want to sell them for and then a link they can click on to accept the price and send an email to me expressing their desire to buy or an opportunity to make an offer." This is a hard question, but I've got a few ideas. Prices are all over the board. For a one page site, you could get an HTML jockey to put together a page for $100 or so. You could get a professional design firm in most major American cities to do it for $500 or so. Remember that HTML is not the same as design. Just because someone knows how to design a webpage, doesn't mean they know how to make it well designed. Asking an HTML guy to design your webpage is like asking the typesetter to design your magazine. Use a designer, or you'll look like an amateur. But I suggest that you go to: Elance http://www.elance.com Elance is a large group of freelance professionals from all over the world. You can get designers, web developers, search engine optimizers, programmers, and more. You can also see samples of their work before you accept. Tell them what you want, and different firms will bid on your business. I'll bet you could get someone to put a one page site of your domain names together for you for less than $100. One note: you'll likely be working with a designer in India, the Pacific Basin, or elsewhere in the world. If this bothers you, think twice. But you can look at the work before paying for all of it, and you should be pretty safe using Elance. You can use this for all of your other needs as well. Okay, your next question is: "how much should I expect to spend to ensure that my site is listed on the first page of results. I would like to have the opportunity to not pay if my site is not listed on the first page of the major search engines." This is really a toughy. First, there are a lot of scams out there that charge exhorbitant fees and provide questionable results. Let me tell you how all of the "guarantees" work. They will guarantee that, for example, your page will appear Xs times in the top 20 positions of one of the top search engines. They will ask you to pick a number of keywords or phrases, and may charge you for each. The problem is that they will "help" you pick a phrase where there is not a lot competition. Then they will certainly get you listed. Unfortunately, everone wants to be listed on Google or Yahoo. And they will not guarantee that. They'll get you onto one of the lesser known - and lesser used - search engines that THEY call the top search engines. However, these companies do fulfill a valuable service. First, it takes a lot of man-hours to correctly optimize a page. Here's what they'll do: * They might create a separate homepage for each major search engine, designed and optimized for that particular engines' algorithms. * They'll register and re-register as needed to try to get you higher on the engines. * They'll rewrite the HTML code to include such things as alt tags for graphics, keyword and description metatages, keyword frequency in the text, and other statistical averages that exemplify the pages in the top positions of that engine. * They'll bill you - a lot! Expect to pay several thousand up front, and then a smaller amount monthly from then on. It does require re-registering on a monthly basis, and there is some labor involved as search engines tend to emphasize newer registrations. However, there is an alternative if you want to do the work yourself. Get: WebPosition Gold 2 http://www.webposition.com This is the software we use, and it is used by a majority of the other companies that try to get you high on the search engines. The main advantage is that the software is continually updated (you have to subscribe) and they will tell you what the statistical averages are for the pages that appear in the top positions in particular search engines. For example it might tell you that, based on the pages that do well on Google, you need to have your phrase "domain names for sale" appear between 2 and 3 times in your text. It will also tell you that your domain name needs to be based on this phrase, and it will provide dozens of things that will make your site do better on the search engines. This will take a lot of time on your part, but if you do make it to the top of one or two popular engines, you can get a lot of hits. But I'll assume you really don't want to do all that work yourself. Let me take, with your permission, 24 hours to investigate your paid alternatives. I can't recommend myself obviously, and frankly I'd like to find out more about how good my competition is anyway! So I'll get back to you sometime tomorrow after I spend time researching companies, seeing how good they do, and finding out who I might recommend. Thanks for your question! I'll get back to you shortly!