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Website Marketing Tips

It's a fact: Many small business owners manage to get an attractive, functional website up and running, then sit back and wait for business to find them through their website. They complete step 1 of 2, and wonder why nothing good happens. How many times, we've heard the words, "I get NOTHING out of my website. It's just sitting out there costing me money. It's a money pit and not bringing me a dime!"

Our first question is usually, "Have you registered your website with search engines?" quickly followed by "Has your website been optimized so that it can be found and indexed by search engine robots?"

If you're not sure what these questions mean, you probably need to address them now, if you expect your website to help you achieve your business goals.

Optimize your web site! Many top positions in searches now go to companies that pay big bucks to be at the top, but there are still selected search engines that scour the World Wide Web to find and index text-rich websites. Your site must show your keywords and phrases in two places in your text (minimum):

  1. In the visible text that users see when visiting your home page and key pages, in sentence form. Display your major keywords and phrases at least three times for every 150 words, always in a sentence or phrase.
  2. In the meta tags in the HTML code that supports your home page and major pages. (If you have a web developer, you can simply type the following information for each major page, starting with your home page, and email it to the developer. He or she will convert the material to meta tags.
Here's an example for Career Builders Network (a fictitious name):
For:   (home)______ page at www.___________________.com
Page Title
Career Builders Network of Calabasas invites those in career transition
Page Description
We welcome all job seekers, all ages and occupations, to Tuesday meetings at the Holiday Inn
Page Keywords
career builders network, Calabasas, Los Angeles, job seekers, career transition, support groups, meetings, employment support, career counseling, career support, employment opportunities, networking opportunities (list all the appropriate terms you can think of, up to 250 words)

Our book, Successful Website Marketing, addresses this topic and provides examples and worksheets you can customize for your site and business. Visit our marketing website at www.mywebsavvy.com to order.

Want to find out if you have keywords in your HTML meta tags?
 If you use Microsoft Internet Explorer, simply open your website and, as you are displaying your home page, click on your toolbar at the top of your screen on "View", then select the option called "Source". Look for the word HEAD. There should be two instances of the word HEAD. Between those two instances (we call them 'tags"), you should find the tags beginning:

  • <meta NAME="Description"......>
  • <meta NAME="Keywords".....>
  • and one for the page itself, called <TITLE>.

If you do not find these "meta tags", develop the information (per the above example) and send it to your developer for HTML coding.

What should your keywords include?
Keywords are all the main terms one might use to find a company or service like yours. For example, if you operate a career counseling service, your keywords might include: "career counseling services, career consultant consulting, resume preparation, employment service" and more.

In addition, for the benefit of people who search for services in their local area, or who remember you but cannot remember your web address, you should include: your name, your company name, city and nearby cities, county, state.

Tip: In the meta tags in your HTML code, also include common misspellings of your name, company name and city!

In what other ways can you market your website?
Don't abandon traditional marketing methods such as displaying your web address on all your literature, offering incentives for people to visit your website, giving your web address when you introduce yourself or address a group, listing your web address in all your advertising and in listings of your company in organizational directories.

Explore online opportunities as well.
Ask associates and companies with services or products that relate to or support yours to exchange links. They install a link on their site to yours, and you reciprocate with a link from your site to theirs. (In some search engines, such as Google, links are like votes and the more "popular" your site is the higher it will appear in a search.)

There are many ways to optimize a website for search engines and those who visit the site. We've barely scratched the surface of the topic here. We can perform this service for you, so get in touch and get your site working for you right away! Contact Wordpix.

Working with Search Engines and Online Directories

Most major search engines now offer paid position or premiere sponsor plans -- they place sites higher on a search results page for a fee. Search engine directories can be compared with your local "yellow pages," i.e., the more you pay the bigger your ad (the higher your placement) on the page. Certain search engines now place sites they have "reviewed" higher on their search results pages, and you must pay to get your site reviewed. Major search directories (including Yahoo! and LookSmart) charge substantial fees to review your site. Yahoo now charges $299 annually. Still, there are FREE listings available at many search engine sites. The rules are changing daily, so check with the individual search engines for their services, opportunities and guidelines. Visit our master list of Search Engines.

It's really very simple to register your site with most search engines. With most, it's a matter of finding the "Add Your Site" link on their home page and typing in your website address. What could be easier?! Start today. Register with one search engine a day. It only takes a couple minutes. See our master list of Search Engines.

The success of your web site is more likely when it is set up to be "search engine ready" and utilizes as many of the methods on this page as possible.

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Tip O' The Day: 95% of web site hits come from the top six search engines. This means it's not really necessary to register with all 1500+ search engines, just the top ten or so! 

Don't use an automated submission service to register your site with the major search engines, as some of the majors actually boot your site out of their database if it's automatically submitted (vs manually) entered and submitted. 

Manually register with the top search engines and directories and then, if you want to have lots of  valuable inbound links to you site, sign up with an automated submission service but on their list of choices, de-select the ones you already registered with.

As you progress through the eye-opening process of registering your site with search engines, you'll discover countless opportunities for promotion -- including online directories for your industry or interest area that could provide valuable links to your site. 

Before you begin the process, have a sheet of paper handy which includes this information:

  • Title for your site
  • URL (beginning with http://)
  • Ten- to fifteen-word description for the site
  • Name, address, phone and email address for the contact person (yourself)
  • Twenty keywords (some sites request these)

Check our master search engine list and get started today.

Start Promoting Today!

Let us walk you step-by-step through
online website promotions with the
Successful Website Marketing workbook
available at our marketing site at
www.mywebsavvy.com

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