Boogie Jack: "Thank you. It's getting harder and harder to get good rankings. Many of the search engines are going to something called link popularity as a major part of their algorithms for determining what sites get to be on top. There is an article coming up in my next newsletter about that. Link popularity is based on the theory that the more sites there are linked to you, the better your site must be.

Arkansas Valley Web Works: "We heard about a company that say they submit your site to over 700 search engines.

Boogie Jack: There aren't 700 search engines, at least not that count. There are about a dozen that really matter, a few more that are ok, then a few dozen directories that are worthwhile, and the rest are free for all (FFA) link pages. The FFA pages used to be worthwhile but I don't think they help much anymore. Now that there are software programs that automatically submit to all the FFA pages their value has gone down. Your link will stay on a FFA page for a few hours to a few days at best now. Some say that they still count in search popularity but I have my doubts about that too. The odds of your site being on the FFA page when (and if) it is indexed by a search engine are pretty slim. The big numbers, i.e. we'll submit your site to 5 million search engines, just doesn't mean as much as it used to. When I submit my site, I still submit to the FFA pages because it doesn't hurt anything, and may get you a few extra visitors. I currently can submit to about 2,600 FFA pages if you choose that option.

Arkansas Valley Web Works: One search engine submission company we were directed to from one of the minor search engines said they submit your site six times over a period of a year for around $100.00. We weren't really paying attention to the price so much as the fact that they were submitting the site over and over.

Boogie Jack: That is based on the premise that some search engines give a new listing or updated listing a little more relevancy for a short time, then their algorithms drop that extra weight they give it and go back to their original algorithm. This isn't as important as it used to be either because search engines keep refining their algorithms to bring more relevant search results to their users, and those sites are often not the best search result. Few search engines even do that anymore, but a lot of services still push it because it works well for them in gaining new clients. Automatic re-submissions can actually hurt you. If they resubmit too soon or resubmit and you've made no changes, your site could be penalized for spamming the search engine. Or, if you have a good ranking your site may drop when it's re-indexed. Resubmitting on a time table rather than for good reason is just a sales pitch, in my opinion. You may have noticed I don't offer that, and that's because I don't think it's a good idea.

Arkansas Valley Web Works: We got a copy of your order form from your site and we will fill it out and send you a money order.

Boogie Jack: Okay. I'll need to know a few things, so be prepared to print out the answers to these questions:

1. Do you want to submit to the free for all pages? If so, what email address do you want me to use?

2. Your real email address?

3. Your URL for your main page?

4. Your phone number?

5. Fax number if you have one? I have one but don't use it, who needs fax spam.

6. What you consider your most important key words? (5 - 10, I may add others that I think are important).

7. What do you think would be the main category for your web site now?

8. What do you want your site to be most known for?

I'll need a reciprocal link page also. Some sites won't except your submission unless there is a reciprocal link URL. I don't actually add the sites that require this to a link page but always include an URL to satisfy their software. The answers you give will help me formulate a direction for page optimization, so think carefully about questions 6 - 8.

Arkansas Valley Web Works: What do we do then?

Boogie Jack: After I receive all the information I'll look over your site and probably recommend some changes before submitting. It's up to you if you want to implement the changes, but I'll wait to submit until you tell me it's a go. There is no guarantee that any of this will improve your site's listings or increase traffic, but I've had pretty good luck with it. Those that make guarantees are either smarter than I am or are willing to say whatever it takes to make a sale. Chances are, there's a little of both out there. Some of the places that make guarantees but charge an arm and a leg may be buying a temporary high listing or using spamming tactics that only work short term. You pay, you see the good ranking, you're happy, and then your site falls to what would be its normal placement. That's okay if you've got the bucks for it, I don't. Worse yet, if they use spam tactics your site could end up being banned from the search engine. My strategies are more long term in design. I'm usually on the front page of a few search engines at an given time for my keywords. A recent check showed I was on the first page on 10 of 13 top search engines. Next week it may drop to 4 and a month later go up to 8. Because they constantly change the way they rank sites, you usually don't get there and stay there, but with a long term approach you can usually be on top of some of them at any given time, and spend your time developing content rather than researching search engines. It's worked for me for over 3 years that way.

Also, getting listed is far from an instant process. Some search engines may pick you up in a few days, but most will take a few weeks, and some will take a few months. Some may not add you at all. Alta Vista for example, dropped about half their listings a while ago. They showed almost 2000 sites listed in their engine that linked to me, but I wasn't there. It took about 6 weeks to get back in. Alta Vista had more of the web indexed than any other search engine before the purge, and that was a mere 16% of it, so you see it's not only hard to get a good listing, it's hard just to get listed in many cases. I don't mean to sound discouraging, but I do want you to have realistic expectations. I'd rather not sell you a service than to have you be disappointed in what I do sell. Having said that, as I said earlier, I have had pretty good luck with it.

Note: The Boogie Jack "interview" took place via email on December 4, 1999. It is published with Boogie Jack's, (aka Dennis Gaskill) permission. Check out his site by clicking the banner at the bottom of the page, or the text link in the previous sentence.