.
Editor:
Tara Lang
Tara Lang publishes
a free e-zine called Webstrands, every month in conjunction with Jane McLain,
a specialist in online retailing. Tara has also been designing custom made,
affordable web sites for small businesses for two years. She is experienced
in all aspects of web design, including cgi/perl script implementation,
database integration, asp, JavaScript, graphic design, search engine registration,
and other advanced elements. |
| Ok,
so you have a website for your business. But where is all the traffic
that you were told would come if you built it? Well, that's the million
dollar question. There are many ways to market your website and business
online. But which are effective and which are a waste of time?
Well, other than
search engine promotion, which is always number one, the success rate of
the other types of online marketing really depend on the type of business
you are marketing and the market you are targeting. I have given
you information and links on several different marketing techniques here,
but the bulk of it is on search engine registration, since that is the
most important. I encourage you to read the whole article, but here
are the links to the subsections: |
|
|
|
First
Impressions
First impressions are
everything! Before you market your website, there are a few very
basic things you need to be sure of.
-
Your website is complete
- I can't tell you how many sites I see with pages upon pages that say
"under construction". I'd rather they didn't link the pages up yet,
and have the site be smaller, than see that it's unfinished. Some
indexes such as Yahoo and ODP won't even add your site if you have any
unfinished sections.
-
Get a tag line - it
doesn't have to be fancy.
-
If you don't know what
you are doing, don't do it yourself!
Ok, I know that everyone
nowadays wants to design their own website. My best advice is that
if you don't know how to do it, don't learn this way! I have visited
websites - even competitors sites - where I have thought to myself
"what a bad site". Graphics not showing up, images and text not lined
up right, misspellings, bad quality, every page looking different.
I have many clients who hired me to design their site and teach them how
to maintain it. This is a good way to go if you really want to do
it, but don't have the knowledge. You can drive all the traffic in
the world to your website, but if it's poorly done, no one will take you
seriously.
top |
Search
Engine Registration
In the beginning, I
was sure that all I had to do was register my client's site with the search
engines and all would be well. Wrong. I had politely asked
all the major search engines and indexes to please list my site at the
top of the list and no one listened! So I started doing some research.
What I found is that search engine registration is an art. It takes
a lot of hard work, a lot of knowledge of how each engine works, and a
lot of time.
How They Work
Each search engine
has certain criteria it looks for in a web page ( indexes rank your page
solely on the information you submit to them). These criteria determine
the page's ranking. These criteria are also always changing, so it
takes a lot of time and energy to keep on top of them. Some of the
things search engines base your ranking on are:
-
Keyword frequency
- how often your keyword or keyword phrase are repeated on the page.
Each search engine recommends a different number of keywords per page to
get top ranking.
-
Keyword weight
- the "weight" balance of where your keywords are on the page. You
generally want your keywords more toward the top of the page. Most
search engines like your weight to be around 70%.
-
Case and Partial
Matching - some search engines are case sensitive, some are not, and
some recognize partial matching of words.
-
Meta tags - those
hidden tags with your description, keywords, and other stuff in them.
-
Link text and
URL names- some engines take into consideration the text you
use in hyperlinks and the names of the urls you are linking to. Make
them both relevant.
-
Title tags - some
support multiple title tags, most limit the number of words you can use.
-
Alt tags - a
good place to add hidden text to boost your overall word count and also
a good place to put a keyword.
-
Body text - number
of words in the body part of the page. There is a huge range for
this with the search engines. One only wants around 150 words while
another may want 650 words.
-
Overall text
- number of words on the page as a whole. View your source code and
start counting. You can increase the amount with hidden text, or
decrease by getting rid of unnecessary tags.
If you decide to tackle
this job yourself, there is a program out there that will keep track of
the search engine criteria for you, as well as help you create your "doorway"
pages (pages created to meet the criteria of one search engine to maximize
rankings), submit all the pages in your site to the top 13 search engines,
and give you reports on where you rank. Web
Position Gold can be a expensively helpful tool, but please don't think
that it is a magical cure. Even using the software, it still takes
me hours and hours to promote a site to the search engines.
If you want to see
what the current top search engines and their use statistics, check out
Netratings.
Common Misconceptions
You can't submit
your site to the search engines once and be done. You must maintain
your submissions to acquire and keep your ranking. Search engine
submission can take many hours a week, and it's ongoing. What makes
you rank number one today, may not do anything tomorrow when the search
engine changes it's criteria.
Yahoo is not a search
engine, it is an index. It does not "spider" the web and pick up
sites, it is simply an online database of the websites the editors there
decided were "allowed" in their index. I would have to look up the
exact statistics, but the number of sites that actually get accepted to
Yahoo compared to the number submitted is staggering. Last time I
checked, Yahoo's database represented less than 1% of websites. Yahoo
is such a very biased and small representation of the web that it amazes
me that so many people still use it as their number one search tool.
Until it stops being number one, however, you are going to have to do everything
you can to get yourself listed on Yahoo, and you have to do it right the
first time. You can find some advice on how to increase your chances
of getting listed at SelfPromotion.com.
While you are there, try their service, it's the best I've found for mass
submission on the web.
Small indexes, classifieds,
and free for all pages are not necessarily a waste of time. Some
search engines value how many pages are linked to yours, and that's where
FFAs and small time indexes come in. Take the extra time to submit
to these.
Places to Go,
People to See
The new up and coming
competition to Yahoo is Open Directory Project, of which I have the honor
to be an editor. Their rules are pretty simple, if you spam them,
you will lose ALL of your listings, please make sure your site is finished
before you submit, follow the instructions in the category where your site
belongs (make sure you get that right) and you will get listed. It
may take a while, as they are very backlogged now that AOL search, Snap,
HotBot, and even Alta Vista are using their database. ODP is very
fair and will usually tell you if there is a reason why they can't list
your site.
If All Else
Fails
If you feel overwhelmed,
don't feel alone. Even I am overwhelmed and I deal with this every
day. If you are beginning to think that this can take hours and hours per
week, you're right. If you don't have that kind of time or dedication,
consider hiring someone who does search engine submissions for a living.
I have a wonderful person who I have decided to turn all of my search engine
work over to. She has done such extensive and in depth research on
how to get top rankings, and is so sure of her work, she guarantees a top
30 seat in at least two of the top search engines. With that kind
of a guarantee, it didn't make sense for me to try to handle my clients
registrations along with designing their sites.
top |
Contests
and Giveaways
Let's face it, everyone
wants to win something. A very good way to get traffic to your site
and exposure is to give something away. It doesn't have to be anything
huge or expensive, it can be something small, back stock, or simply a free
service. Raffle off a collection of small samples in a basket, or
a free consultation. It really doesn't matter, people see the word
"free" and they enter.
I do recommend you
check your local laws for running a contest or sweepstakes. You are
not allowed to require a purchase to enter, although you can offer additional
entries with every $25 they spend. And, if you ask for personal information,
you might want to put a privacy statement saying what you use the information
for. People will get angry at you if you are putting them on a mailing
list without their knowledge, so if you plan do do that, announce it on
the contest page.
top |
Message
Boards and Newsgroups
Message Boards and Newsgroups
are great places to announce your business. They don't even have
to be boards in your field. Create a signature line that incorporates
your tag line and your web address. Add it to the end of every post.
Offer your expert
advice on the message boards. Answer questions, give information.
People will remember. |
Bulk
E-mailing
Personally, I am totally
against bulk emailing. I consider it spam. And you have to
be careful, if people complain, your ISP could throw you off. There
are several services that will bulk email for you for a hefty fee.
The return business is so small, I feel that it's not worth the time and
money.
An alternative is
to offer a free e-zine or newsletter and promote your product between the
lines. I started my newsletter as just a list of freebees and coupons
and got a staggering amount of subscribers. And if they like an article,
they are likely to pass the newsletter along to others.
|
Banner
Exchanges and Web Rings
Statistics show that
the amount of business you get through a banner exchange are extremely
small and dropping quickly. Banners are becoming so commonplace on websites
that people don't even really see them anymore. I personally
don't feel the trade off of having an ugly ad on your site is worth the
small amount of traffic it may bring, especially when you have several
animated ads going at once. Although if you are part of a banner
exchange program specifically targeted toward your audience, it may be
worth it.
I don't feel that
Web Rings do anything on business sites, although they are nice for "hobby"
type sites.
top |
Business
Practices
Once you get your traffic,
how do you change visitors into customers? This is the easiest part.
Here are some suggestions:
-
Offer a catalogue.
-
Offer free samples or
charge only shipping.
-
Offer a money back guarantee.
-
Accept credit cards
-
Put your signature line
every email you send with your web url.
-
Reply promptly and courteously
to emails. An autoresponder isn't necessarily a bad thing - it tells
the customer that you did indeed get their email.
Digital Women offers
a very reasonably priced merchant account. Get the info here.
Another great service
for accepting credit cards without a merchant account can be found here.
top |
Networking
To me this is the most
important and critical part of marketing.
Answer requests for
help on mailing lists or message boards in your area of expertise.
Offer friendly advice and opinions when asked. People always remember
a kindness, especially one that didn't come with a price tag.
Word of mouth is
probably my best marketing tool. I offer a "finders fee" to anyone
who brings me business. It doesn't have to be much, money is money,
after all, and if someone feels you have a great business, they will tell
people about you regardless. Satisfied customers are your greatest
tool! |
| There
is so much information that I would have loved to add to this page, but
it would go on forever! So, if you have any questions, or would like
more information on any of the topics listed here, would like to see a
topic discussed on this page, or on any other query relating to web design
or promotion, please email me.
Scarlet's Web has
been designing custom made, affordable web sites for small businesses for
two years. We provide all aspects of web design, including cgi/perl
script implementation, database integration, asp, JavaScript, graphic design,
search engine registration, and other advanced elements. We have
extensive experience in hand coding and Microsoft FrontPage 98 and 2000
webs. We also provide coordinating marketing services.
Tara Lang publishes
a free e-zine every month in conjunction with Jane McLain, a specialist
in online retailing. Included are articles about internet trends,
statistics, news, and other information about the web that can affect your
business. We also have a "fun" section of coupons and freebees.
If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please send a blank
email to webstrands-subscribe@listbot.com
or visit our website at www.scarletsweb.com. |
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