QUESTION: What is the biggest
mistake most Web designers make when it comes to marketing
a Web site?
By far the biggest mistake
made is not taking into account the marketing of a site while it's being
designed. Most webmasters / designers are overly concerned about animated
GIFs and JAVA-related effects while ignoring how "sales worthy" the site
is to it's visitors.
Having the most beautiful,
dazzling and state-of-the-art Web site means nothing if no one sees it.
I cannot stress enough to those looking at building a high traffic site
that they develop a 'Game Plan' and share it with your Web site's designer.
Regarding Web sites themselves,
it's important that the designer make them simple and relevant. To a large
degree, many sites on the Web today are modern-day versions of online Taj
Mahals --a tribute to interactive architecture, but not the most utilitarian
or convenient venue to navigate through.
QUESTION: I've listed my Website
with over 100 search engines but I'm still not getting many "hits". Why?
Well, first of all, a
"hit" is a deceptive statistic to use. But remember, a "hit" is NOT a visitor.
A hit is a call for a file. Every file you reference from your page creates
one hit. So, if you have three images on your home page, one visitor will
equal four hits: three separate image files, plus the page file.
Getting back to your question,
though, the answer probably is that your website is listed too low for
anyone to find you when doing a keyword search. Basically, only those websites
listed in the top 10 to 30 of a search engine or directory will bring any
visitors to your site.
QUESTION: What is the best way to
get people to visit our business's Web site at little or no cost?
Do-It-Yourself marketing
may be the least expensive way to publicize one's web site, but you get
what you pay for and if you don't pay anything, you won't get anything
in return!
Do-It-Yourself search
engine submission isn't effective either, unless you (a) really know what
you're doing and (b) keep working on it month after month. There are a
number of services that will register you with multiple engines and directories
for no charge (www.AddMe.com). Be aware, however, that while these services
will get your site listed, you will lose control over how you want your
site described and even if your site is indexed at all!
That is why using Blurt,
Inc. to promote your site is the most "cost-effective" thing you can do
to publicize your Web site.
When we promote your Web
site, we do more than just get your site indexed by the major search engines
and directories. We do research because proper internet requires lots
of tedious research so that all possible ways of publicity and promotion
are utilized such as;
-
Search Engines: still the
most important way to get visitors
-
Reciprocal Links: absolutely
critical in building consistent traffic
-
Newsgroups: an excellent
source for targeted marketing efforts
-
E-Mailing Lists: becoming
the preferred vehicle for 'Net advertising
-
E-Zines: often overlooked;
always under appreciated
-
Press Releases: contacting
the media equals free advertising
After the proper research
is conducted in each of the above areas, we analyze the Web site and then
conceive a marketing plan based on the site's "Business Model". A Web site
can have many purposes, including selling a product/service, reducing printing
or customer service expenses, improving communication with vendors and
agents, or simply buttressing a company's image.
Lastly, we identify the
site's marketing strengths (as well as its' limitations) and systematically
follow through exploiting all existing Internet-related promotional resources
to achieve maximum exposure for the client's Web site.
However, we cater to those
web sites whose owners are frugal, thrifty and... cheap. So don't expect
to pay thousands of dollars like the other web site advertising/ marketing
firms charge. Whatever your needs, we have a publicity package that will
suit even the tightest of budgets.
To discuss exactly how
Blurt, Inc.can market, promote or publicize you web site, click on Yes
and we'll get back to you to discuss your Web site's marketing options.
QUESTION: What are the ways people
find a given Web site, percentage wise?
Via search engines...................................................................
22.50%
Links from other Web
pages........... ......................................... 22.00%
Via printed media ads...............................................................
16.00%
Recommendations from
friends.. ............................................. 13.80%
Newsgroups / Chatrooms...........................................................
9.74%
Signatures on emails..................................................................
8.10%
Via TV commercials...................................................................
7.86%
QUESTION: What are the
key elements in improving a Web page's ranking in the major search engines?
<TITLE> TAG
Include and repeat keywords
that people might search for to find you in the TITLE of all your pages.
This is very important. Keep common word groups or phrases that people
might search on together if you can. The TITLE is EXTREMELY important to
achieving good rankings.
PROMINENCY
Keywords that are more
prominent will be weighted much higher with the search engines. Most
engines rank you higher if the keyword or phrase is near the beginning
of the title and as close to the beginning of the page as possible.
REPEATING KEYWORDS
Experiment with repeating
keywords up to six times and more on some engines. If this
makes your page look bad, consider putting the keywords at the top of the
page preferably in the same color as the background. That way nobody
can see them but they should still get indexed.
Warning: Most engines
are now detecting wording in the same color as the background and either
ignoring such text or leaving the page out of the index altogether! Proper
"netiquette" discourages blatant "spamming" of keywords. You should
not try to go overboard repeating the same keyword or using keywords that
don't apply to your site.
META TAGS
You should fill out META
tags for keywords, author's name, and page classification. You can
find the syntax for this in most good HTML editors. Many editors
such as Netscape Gold let you simply fill in the values under the Document
Properties screen. META tags tell search engines what keywords or categories
you would like to be listed under. A couple of engines factor this
in to their indexing algorithm. However, generally it will not make
a significant difference in how you are positioned. It doesn't hurt
to try though especially since any of the engines can change the rules
tomorrow and it could catapult you to the top of the list (assuming you
took the time to add the META tags).
EXPERIMENT
Try different page designs
and submit them. Consider making different secondary pages tailored for
each engine when necessary. Avoid submitting too many similar pages to
the same engine (particularly on the same day) or you risk your site being
banned or rejected.
THE RIGHT WAY TO USE SEARCH
ENGINES
The problem is that too many people don't
know how to properly use the search engines to bring people to their Website.
For instance, did you know that over 95% of internet surfers use only
six search engines (these engines are referred to as the "Big Six" and
include Yahoo, AltaVista, Google, Lycos, MSN and AOL dispite the fact that there are hundreds of engines to submit to? Did you also know that each of these search engines use different criteria
when ranking (indexing) your Website so that while you site might rank
in the top 20 in one engine, another engine may not even accept your site
at all! And as if that weren't enough, search engines are constantly changing
the criteria that they use so what works with one engine one month won't
work with it again three months later.
Below is a partial list of "Do's" and "Don'ts"
when submitting your site to the search engines.
DO spend some
time determining your website's keywords/keyphrases and title for the
<TITLE> tag; time spent on this endeavor is time very well spent.
DO finish your web site
before submitting its URL to the search engines; unfinished sites look
amateurish and negatively reflect upon your business.
DO submit your URL to
search engines "by hand", or one at a time; using software that claims
to be able to submit your URL to multiple search engines all at once never
seems to work, at least in my experience.
DON'T expect a search
engine to automatically index your site just because you submit your URL
to them; search engines can and do take weeks to index you URL if at all
so keep checking the search engines to see if and when your
site gets indexed.
DON'T ever attempt to
"spam" your site by using large amounts of hidden text in your HTML code
unless you know what your doing; improper use of your keywords or keyphrases
will get your URL rejected by almost all of the major search engines.
DON'T rely solely on the
search engines to drive visitors to your web site; instead, try to convince
other web sites to 'link' to yours. In the long run, I've found this method
gets better results.