Can you help?

[Carl Briggs]

Hiya Guys,

I run an internet-only Dance music radio station. There is a lot of competition out there, and we have a very low budget, so therefore, that rules out magazine advertising, etc.

Instead, we're going to have to focus on gaining high rankings on search engines.

I've heard there is software that can help you gain high rankings, and also software that will guide 'search engine crawlers' onto your website. I've heard that the more sites that link to your site can help boost rankings too.

I've tried doing some research, and software seems to vary in price quite considerably, and i'm also worried that I could be wasting money on somehting that isn't very good.

Can someone give me some tips on what crawlers and web ranking software to use please? And also, is it true that links from other sites to your site help your rankings too? - is so, how to I get websites to link my site?

Sorry if I sound a dumbass - this is all quite new stuff to me.

[Rockhound]

Not sure about using software to improve your rankings.. most of that is probably just crap anyway... I dont think any of the SEO firms use that type of stuff...

You can begin by optimizing your site for search engines yourself... it is pretty easy, one of the main things to begin with is your page titles... the titles will give a clear description of your page as well as be the first thing the search engines see and also be what they use to list your page when you use a search engine...

in addition you can add meta tags, although they have lost value in the most recent years, they are still important. Optimize for certain keywords, dont just add a bunch and hope that they all will work.

Once there use proper page formatting to optimizing.. meaning heading tags (h1...h6) headers should be descriptive and not just simple phrases or words. Then make sure the title of the headers and the content have a few keywords...

Lastly build links... Google's ranking system is based on what type of pages link to you. The higher the page rank the higher the value of the links... of course they need to be appropriate.. dont build upon links that dont have anything to do with radio... building links is probably one of the hardest things to do and takes the most time, but it will be worth it in the long run... find sites that have similar interests and ask to be linked.. you may have to reciprocate in some cases but not always...

The easiest way is to just ask, if they say no then you move on, but you are bound to get some links.

What you can do is check the keywords that are most important to you... Use the overture keyword selector tool found at the link below.

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Then do a search on those keywords that are appropriate for your site and check the top links... look at their sites, ie titles, headers, meta tags and then try to optimize your site to follow a similar setup...

I wouldnt waste your money on software though, because I am not sure how that can really help other than empty your wallet.

J