They call it the World Wide Net, so why focus your company’s search engine submissions on US search engines?

The main reason for your real estate website to appear on foreign websites is: A good ranking on foreign search engines will generate new clients!

This is especially true if your business is located in a major metropolitan area. Here are some of the real businesses created directly from our top foreign search engine rankings: potential new immigrants, business people considering setting up a business office, foreign nationals considering immigration, and a foreign couple whose son was arrested in Orange County and needed to contact a local Orange County attorney for help.

Why heed my advice? Well, let’s add some real-world credibility to back up my advice. So how does our own main legal website rank on foreign search engines? We have many number one page placements. Below are some of our PAGE ONE foreign search engine rankings for the very competitive phrase Orange County Lawyers on our Los Angeles-Orange County legal website;

http://www.la-orange-county-lawyers-attorney-directory.com

AOL-UK – Sympatico (Canada – MSN-UK – MSN-France – MSN Germany Google Mexico – Google UK – Google Germany – Google Japan

Check today if your website is listed in the main foreign search engines. A good starting point is to check out the hyperlinked engines above. Perhaps the best way to rank high on foreign search engines is to achieve the highest ranking on major US search engines first.

Proper submission to major directories is critical. One of the most significant changes in search engine marketing in recent years has been the rise in popularity of directories and catalogs reviewed by the likes of LookSmart, Yahoo, and Open Directory. You may recognize directory listings as they are often called “Website” results instead of “Web Page” results. Once it’s submitted to a directory, it’s hard to go back and fix the mistakes later. Some of them like Yahoo and LookSmart charge you for the privilege of simply being reviewed for inclusion. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to get it right the first time.

Sign up for Yahoo, LookSmart, and Open Directory human-powered directories. If this is all you do, you will get a lot of traffic. Both get a lot of visitors or “power” other sites that get a lot of visitors. Also, getting listed helps crawler-based search engines locate your site and perhaps helps you rank higher, due to the importance of the links these sites give you.

Check the log files for the user’s country location and the most used keywords in the search engine search. This may demonstrate the need to offer the site in another language (or provide a link to Alta Vista’s Babelfish) if there are many visitors from another country. Knowing the keywords used to reach the site helps decide on variations and changes to the site’s theme.

In case you’re wondering if it’s worth it, the Pew Internet & American Life Project says: “As vehicles for finding information, search engines are extremely popular with both men and women. About 90% of men and women who go online online use search engines, with about 40% using them on a typical day Men and women generally use the same types of search strategies, using search engines more commonly, but also initiating searches on familiar websites , owners or by following recommended links. Although men and women equally say they find the information online they are looking for, men are much more confident in themselves as seekers.”

In addition, search engine rankings are a vital component of Internet presence: more than three-quarters of visits to Internet home pages are directed there via a search engine; and half of consumers research online before making purchases.

Before looking for higher rankings, you should get a comprehensive report on the current search rankings for page one to page three of your site. You need a baseline or starting point to see if your efforts are effective.

To improve the usefulness of your report, I suggest you run the same report for your main legal competitor. This report will give you not only a benchmark, but also a set of goals to strive for.

The second important report you should run is a link popularity report. Good quality inbound links are vital to ranking high in search engines. Once again, it is imperative to run this report against your local competitors.

Investing in improving your law firm’s search engine ranking could turn out to be the most profitable professional investment you make.

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