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PROMOTION IS MY BUSINESS

Affordable Web Site Promotion That Gets Results



 


 


 




































































































































This Web page and all contents Copyright © 2003 Blurt Inc. All rights reserved.

Phone: (973) 402-0191

Email: KenKowalsky
@PromotionIsMyBusiness.com

FAQ: PROPER WEB SITE PROMOTION
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;

  1. Search Engines: still the most important way to get visitors 
  2. Reciprocal Links: absolutely critical in building consistent traffic 
  3. Newsgroups: an excellent source for targeted marketing efforts 
  4. E-Mailing Lists: becoming the preferred vehicle for 'Net advertising 
  5. E-Zines: often overlooked; always under appreciated 
  6. 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%

Study done by the Georgia Institute of Technology: Spring '99
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.



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