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Standing Out in a Crowd of Billions:
How to Market Your Site on the Web
So you've invested countless hours and a pile of cash trying
to create the best website in your industry. And no one
is visiting it. Should you scream at the web designers?
Your marketing department? Or just curse the vast ocean
of information that is the Internet? While all of those
seem like viable options at first, there is a solution to
your web woes. And it begins with understanding the search
avenues your customers use to surf the web.
Search Engines vs. Directories
While Excite and Yahoo! may seem like practically identical
ways to search the net, their similarities are only superficial.
Excite is what is known as a search engine; these create
their listings automatically by having "spiders"
scour the web looking for and analyzing web pages. When
you type a word or phrase into the search field, the search
engine will let you sort through the pages it has found
that are related to your query. If you change your web pages,
search engines may eventually detect these changes, and
that can affect how you are listed. Page titles, body copy
and other elements all play a role in the ranking of your
website in their index.
A directory such as Yahoo! depends on humans for its listings.
To be recognized by a directory, you must submit a short
description for your entire site, or editors write one for
sites they review. A search looks for matches only in the
descriptions submitted. Should you change your web pages,
it will have no effect on your listing. Things that are
useful for improving a listing with a search engine have
nothing to do with improving a listing in a directory. The
only exception is that a good site, with good content, might
be more likely to get reviewed than a poor site.
Elements of a "Search-friendly" Site:
- Be substantial-- more than one page (preferably more
than seven or eight
- Have value-content ought to be informative, unique
and well presented
- Be clean and fast-loading
- Display a professional, polished layout which utilizes
solid design principles
- Be easy to use, including a simple and clear navigation
system
Submitting Websites (and pitfalls of that process)
Directories require an effort of your part to be listed-
that is unavoidable. Search engine spiders may get around
to finding your site, but keep in mind the number of websites
that exist in the world, and remind yourself that this number
is growing exponentially.
There is a pro-active approach you can take to improve
your ranking on some search engines. Rather than wait for
a search engine to find you, go right to the source and
submit a page yourself. Practically every search engine
has its own set of rules for submitting webpages, and those
rules are in a constant state of flux (not in the least
bit surprising considering the very nature of this medium).
But fear not, for there is help. Some web design/hosting
companies can do all this work for you, or there are programs
available that enable you to tackle the task yourself.
Perhaps right now you're considering submitting your site
to a few search engines and directories yourself, one at
a time, to cut costs. Don't do it. Either let the professionals
handle it, or look into one of the software programs for
submitting websites. All search engines/ directories are
not the same (and there are many of them); while most require
the same sort of information from your site, the fact that
they are all different explains why the same query will
fetch you varying results. So submitting to a few won't
cut it (are you willing to take the chance that all your
potential customers use either MSN or Lycos to search the
web?). At the same time, there is no reason to be overwhelmed
by the amount of search engines/ directories, or to go for
the "shotgun" approach (hit as many search engines/directories
as you can in one shot).
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
There are a variety of reasons why your site may not appear
on search engine after having submitted your site. The first
reason, and the most popular, is that a sufficient amount
of time needs to have passed before you site appears in
a search result. Some directories, after having received
your submission, may thank you and give you a time frame
as to when your site might show up, but other services rely
totally on robots and spiders, little programs that "crawl"
the web looking for new sites and send that info back to
the search engine. Other directories rely solely on human
editors to find and list sites. Basically, submitting your
site does not guarantee anything. It can take anywhere from
48 hours to 45 days to never for your site to appear in
a given directory or search engine: one simply has to wait,
be patient and be vigilant.
There are some tips and tricks to helping your site "get
noticed" by search engines, though. META tags, for
example, are something you may not have ever heard of, aren't
essential to the site's design, and you will never see them
unless you dig for them. They are written into the HTML
code for a site, and serve as little flags that search engines
look for when seeking out keywords on web pages. Any keywords
that you think a potential customer would use to find you
should be included in these META tags. Another website element
that you may never see, but is crucial to Internet marketing,
is called the "doorway page." This is a single
webpage (or pages) separate from your normal site that will
be specifically designed to attract one type of customer.
Its sole purpose is to emphasize one keyword or phrase that
will catch the attention of the search engines, and to serve
as a link to your real homepage. Web designers can set these
up, or the Page Generator feature of Web Design Gold can
help you create them yourself.
Alternate Web-Based Marketing Ideas
- Post messages/advertisements to bulletin boards, discussion
groups and newsgroups.
- Add pages to existing website.
- Find and advertise in e-zine.
- Submit articles to a list of e-zine publishers.
- Sign on a joint-venture.
- Sign on affiliate and/or merchant programs.
Internet Marketing FAQ
- I have a great looking website, so why would I need
to have it marketed?
In general, website marketing is necessary because having
a site on the Internet does not guarantee that it will
get traffic. The purpose of marketing your site on the
web is to let people know that your business exists.
-
Who needs to have their site marketed?
Any site that want to increase their visibility on
the world wide web can benefit from having their site
marketed.
- Isn't website marketing just having a couple of
banner ads and maybe some reciprocal links on websites?
Website marketing are those things and much more; it touches
all aspects aspect of the web, with the highest focus
on search engine and directory listings/rankings, reciprocal
links, banner ads, newsgroups, online and print advertising,
affiliate/merchant services, web rings and much, much
more.
-
I own a small business, what if I just buy some
banner ads to drive traffic to my site?
Banner ads are one way for the owners of larger businesses
to market their site, but most small businesses realize
that they can't afford to buy banner ads. They can cost
several thousand dollars a month and may not produce
immediate returns. Banner ads are brand builders: they
let people know who you are, but they do not guarantee
visitors. If you surf the Internet today, consumers
are constantly bombarded with the colorful flashing
signs and symbols of banner ads. In abundance, banner
ads, can become an incoherent clutter of information,
and most of the time, they are simply tuned out. Bottom
line: banner ads can be expensive and not quite effective
for the needs of a small business.
- Are search engines and directories the only ways for
a small business to get noticed on the web?
This is a tricky question because directories are extremely
important in the web marketing strategy, but ranking isn't
everything. A rule of thumb: don't put all your eggs in
one basket. Having a good ranking in a search engine can
be effective if used along with having a well-designed
website, establishing reciprocal links, joining affiliate/merchant
programs, using print and web advertising, having a web
ring membership, etc. The bottom line: if you diversify
the marketing strategy you increase the probability of
true results.
-
What is the object of website marketing?
Having a good ranking and good solid site to back up
that ranking is the basic object of website marketing.
An image-heavy site with great graphics and flash pages
will not get noticed by a search engine as much as a
site with pure text on it's home page. The key is to
find a balance between what is aesthetically pleasing,
and what is pleasing to the search engines.
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This article was written by Jason Sommer,
Internet Marketing Specialist and Copywriter for Chicago
Internet.
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