Search Engines
The art of promoting your website may be your most daunting task. The
increased popularity of using a search engine, to find and sift your way through
the millions of existing websites on the Internet, has spawned an entire
industry devoted to helping you get your website listed prominently. Who hasn't
received a flood of SPAM devoted to submitting your website to 10 thousand
search engines?
Clearing the Air
 Although
there are hundreds of search engines out there, there are only a handful of them
that can actually help direct more traffic to your website. So if you are
looking for help, you can scratch anyone offering to submit your website to
hundreds, or thousands of websites. In fact, you can actually kiss goodbye good
rankings on a meaningful search engine by having your site submitted in this
fashion.
You should concentrate your efforts on the few search engines that can make a
difference for you and your business.
 Search Engine Addiction
It is important to keep in mind that a war exists out there. The basic
premise of a search engine is that of providing you with the most relevant
website, based on keyword phrases that you submit. With the recent shakeup in
rankings at Google, it is clear that the commercialization of the top keyword
phrases has begun. Thousands have lost top rankings at Google. Speculation
abounds, especially since many believe Google will go public during 2004. The
lesson here is not to put all your eggs in one basket. No one knows how long it
will take Google to achieve a proper balance of commercialization and of
returning the most relevant results for the top keyword phrases.
Website Promotion Strategies
There are three basic methods available to you to market your website. It is
recommended that you pursue each of them in a balanced fashion.
- Organic optimization is the process where you optimize your website
pages for the most relevant keyword phrases likely to be used to find your
website. Keep in mind, this is a delicate act and can only be accomplished by
someone familiar with search engine optimization strategies. Too much
optimization or optimization using the wrong techniques can be counter
productive.
- Pay per Click, as the name implies, is where you pay for a text
ad that is listed along side a search engine's returned results and you are
charged every time someone clicks through to your website. The cost per click
varies and can be as cheap as 25¢ per click for the less popular keyword
phrases, or as high as $1 or $2 per click (or more) for the most popular keyword
phrases. While for some, this may be the only option for your website to be
listed on the first page or two of a search engine's returned results, paying
$1 per click can add up fast.
- Traditional Marketing includes all
of the advertising avenues available that are not Internet related. Radio, TV,
magazine, 3 page brochures, etc.
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