Part of my services as a webmaster is to investigate how to increase my clients’ visibility in search engines because Google is not the only source of traffic.

In no particular order, the four most common search engines I use are …

• Ask.com
• Yahoo
• MSN Search
• Google

Optimize Your Results

One of the toughest tasks for any SEO experts is to get their client’s website in the top 10 results because by default, that is how many results are displayed on the first page.

I often encourage my clients to broaden their search engine usage.  Just because it is set to default does not mean you have to limit yourself to those results.

Choose Your Language

By default, each and every search engine is going to display any results in any language.  Save yourself some time and narrow down the results to the language you are capable of understanding, whether it be English, Spanish, Chinese, etc…

You can even choose more than one language if you want.  You only have to ask yourself “Do I really need to display the results in all languages?”

You would be surprised to find out how much smaller the Internet really is in your language.

Expand The Number of Results

By default, pretty much every search engine will show you the top 10 results.  Let me warn you now.  You are missing out!!! No two search engines are alike.  Each search engine has their own formula to bring you the results.

Don’t waste your time clicking through the first 10 pages to see what the top 100 results are.  You can easily change the default number from 10 to as high as 100 results if you want.

(Personally, I have my search engines set to 50 or thereabouts.)

Add Your Location

The odds are pretty good you will still be able to find the information you are looking for, even if it is not available in your area.  However, if you are going to look for information that is specific to your area, your results will greatly improve if you add your location (or the nearest major city) to your search results.

You HAVE The POWER To IMPROVE Your Search Engine

All four search engines I mentioned earlier wants you to take the advantage of improving their search engine results.  It is the only way they can learn how to improve their services to meet your needs.  Why they do not promote this more often, I do not know.

All you have to do is look for these links next to the search button.

• Google – “Preferences”
• Live Search – “Options”
• Yahoo – “Search Preferences”
• Ask.com – “Settings”