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February 2004: Searching.

The MANOVERBOARD Telegraph, No. 11.

Welcome to the February 2004 Telegraph, the home of MANOVERBOARD news and views. This month we introduce two new websites and provide search engines tips and resources.

A New MANOVERBOARD Site: Spondizo.net

We're delighted to announce the recent launch of Spondizo.net, a weblog by author, pastor, educator, and academic Duane Bidwell. Bidwell, who lives in Forth Worth, Texas, has written a number of books and many articles on spiritual formation, liberation theology, and social theory and their relationship with contemporary worship. Spondizo.net features a weblog where he plans to write about "the practices of care" and also documents his work, life, and relationship with the world. Bidwell came to MANOVERBOARD to help him capture a holistic design approach to building his site, one that would incorporate elements of the natural world, repose, and expansiveness. We wish him tremendous happiness and blogging pleasure.

Search Engine Listings, Optimization, and Advertising

It's hard to believe that in the early days of the Web, companies would list a site for no cost and human beings actually verify every site's placement in their search engine. No longer. Software, for the most part, manages search engine indices and search is an industry in and of itself.

Over the past six months, nearly every client has asked about search engine listings and placement. With a crowded information marketplace, websites compete with many others that offer similar products, services, or knowledge. And, as Google plans on going public soon, search engines have become critical to the well-being of the Internet and those who have a presence there.

Here are a few resources and tips that might make the search engine world less mucky and murky:

  • Search Engine Watch has a good, if slightly outdated, article called Search Engine Submission Tips that lays out how to submit your site to search engines, how to use metatags in your HTML, and information about search engine placement and optimization.
  • Be very careful of most online marketers who ask you to pay them to list your site with multiple search engines. Also, be wary of companies who offer desktop or other software that will push your website to search engines. There are companies supposedly doing this well, but be sure to always ask for references from any vendor you select.
  • There is also a relatively new service called search engine optimization (SEO). The best of the SEO consultancies will provide a customized and very detailed report for you that explains how your site can be better built so that search engines can rank you higher. Good search engine optimization can help drive targeted audiences to your site. (MANOVERBOARD works with a very good search optimization consultant.)
  • Google, Yahoo, and Overture, as well as many others, offer text-based advertising on their search sites. For instance, those little green, blue, and pink boxes one finds on Google results pages are a part of the company's AdWords services. Text-based advertising has become incredibly powerful and popular and is a relatively inexpensive means to showcase a website and keep careful track of your marketing campaign.