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You've spent time and capital by investing in a website but...

Monday 20 October 2003   

You've spent time and capital by investing in a website, but take a few moments to think about this ... if someone wants to find your website where would they look and could they stumble on it by accident or is it like searching for a needle in a haystack?

Normally the first port of call when trying to find a website is via the search engines or directories, the most commonly used of which are Google, Yahoo and MSN. If you have a site why not visit a search engine, type in your company name or relevant keywords and see where you rate. Obviously web traffic is important to the success of your site so it is important to get listed on as many search engines as possible.

So how do you get listed? In a lot of cases this is made to appear a lot more complicated than it actually is. Search engines are a relatively recent phenomenon but a great deal of confusion existed as to how they actually work. What follows are some of the general rules within a search engine strategy.

Firstly your site needs to be optimised which helps achieve higher rankings, this means:

  • URL
    The URL/Domain Name of your web site is its actual address. While looking for matches during a search, most search engines trawl the URL first to check if it matches the search query. A good domain name is therefore vital to a good Web Marketing strategy.
  • Title Tag
    The title tag is the description of your site which search engines will scrawl through after your URL. The title could quite easily go unnoticed to the untrained eye but it appears on top of the browser and can be viewed by the visitor. It performs a dual role: displaying a comprehensive and succinct description of the web site and including keywords for a better ranking.
  • Keywords
    Keywords are words relevant to your site although not visible on the web page as they are hidden in the coding of the site. They should match any possible combination of words typed by the user of the search engine. (You can check the keywords included on your site by going to "View" then "Source" on the home page. If they are included they will be clearly visible near the beginning of the code.)
  • Web Site Content
    Alongside the above elements, search engines also read the web site content to find keywords. The content of your web site is therefore important for your ranking. Think about all the keywords you have in your tags, they should appear in the actual content of your web site.

Search Engine Registration

It is vital for your site to be registered with the top search engines. This can take from 2 days up to six week depending on whether or not you choose the guaranteed paid 'express' option or the free option, which has no guarantees about when the site will be included but is normally within 2 weeks. The following is a sample of web addresses where you can register your site

Although search engine registration is essential you must remember that a web site is essentially a marketing tool and must be supported by other marketing activities. It is not enough to put your business on the web, then sit back and wait for all sorts of marvellous things to happen. You've got to work continually at promoting your site and the following are some suggestions -

  1. Make sure all your existing customers, sales people, distributors etc know you are on the web. Send a targeted e-zine (online magazine) giving details of specific events/promotions etc.
  2. If you're willing to invest a little more time you can try Link Exchange to shepherd traffic to your site. Reciprocal links are of most benefit if the site linked to you has high visitor numbers. There are also a number of useful directory sites including www.4ni.co.uk/www.yell.co.uk which are relatively inexpensive to be added into. Create relevant links with other sites, newsgroups etc. that will be of interest to your customers, your site can then be seen as an information point for users and will encourage people to come back for future information. Check out the Advanced Search in Google to see which sites are linked to your web site.
  3. If you have an updateable section e.g. news & events, get into the habit of regularly adding new information so that people will be encouraged to visit every week/month. Each of the search engines have certain criteria as to how they will rate your web presence and normally this includes when your site was last updated.
  4. Provide an on-line form to allow visitors to register to receive updates and enable you to build up a useful database. Invite feedback.
  5. Monitor your web statistics, one of the best methods available is Web Trends, which allows you to see reports on visitor numbers, which sections of your site are most/least popular etc.

Your web site can be marketed through a variety of means that include conventional offline methods such as newspapers, radio and television, and online methods such as search engines, banner ads and bulk emails. It is generally accepted that any web site development project should include a well-tuned search engine marketing strategy in order to achieve high search engine placement.

For further advice on additional web marketing services available through Biznet please email: info@biznet-solutions.com

 



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