The Importance of Search Engines

It is the search engines that finally bring your website to the notice of the prospective customers. When a topic is typed for search, nearly instantly, the search engine will sift through the millions of pages it has indexed about and present you with ones that match your topic. The searched matches are also ranked, so that the most relevant ones come first.

 

Remember that a prospective customer will probably only look at the first 2-3 listings in the search results. So, it does matter where your website appears in the search engine ranking.

 

Further, they all use one of the top 6-7 search engines and these search engines attract more visitors to websites than anything else. So finally it all depends on which search engines the customers use and how they rank your site.

 

It is the Keywords that play an important role than any expensive online or offline advertising of your website.

 

It is found by surveys that a when customers want to find a website for information or to buy a product or service, they find their site in one of the following ways:

 

• The first option is they find their site through a search engine.

• Secondly, they find their site by clicking on a link from another website or page that relates to the topic in which they are interested.

• Occasionally, they find a site by hearing about it from a friend or reading in an article. 

 

Thus, it’s obvious the most popular way to find a site, by search engine, represents more than 90% of online users. In other words, only 10% of the people looking for a website will use methods other than search engines.

 

All search engines employ a ranking algorithm and one of the main rules in a ranking algorithm is to check the location and frequency of keywords on a web page. Don’t forget that algorithms also give weightage to link population (number of web pages linking to your site). When performed by a qualified, experienced search engine optimization consultant, your site for high search engine rankings really does work, unless you have a lot of money and can afford to pay the expert. With better knowledge of search engines and how they work, you can also do it on your own.

 

Tips to Get Repeat Web Traffic

1. Update the pages on your website frequently. Stagnant sites are dropped by some search engines. You can even put a date counter on the page to show when it was last updated.

 

2. Offer additional value on your website. For affiliates and partners you can place links to their sites and products and ask them to do the same for you. You can also advertise their books or videos, if these products relate to your industry and are not in competition with your own product.

 

3. You can allow customers to ‘opt in’ to get discounts and special offers. Place a link on your site to invite customers to ‘opt in’ to get a monthly newsletter or valuable coupons.

 

4. Add a link to your primary page with a script ‘Book Mark or Add this site to your Favorites’.

 

5. Add a link ‘Recommend this site to a Friend’ so that the visitor can email your website link, with a prewritten title, “Thought you might be interested in this”, just by clicking on it.

 

6. Brand your website so that visitors always know they are on your site. Use consistent colors, logos and slogans and always provide a ‘Contact Us’ link on each page.

 

7. Create a ‘Our Policies’ page that clearly defines your philosophy and principles in dealing with your customers. Also post your privacy policy as well so that clients know they are secure when they visit your site.

 

8. Create a FAQ page which addresses most of the doubts and clarifications about your product or your company that are likely to be asked. This helps to resolve most of the customers doubts in their first visit to your site. 

 

8. Ensure that each page on your website has appropriate titles and keywords so that your customer can find their way back to your site if they lose the book mark.

 

9. Never spam a client, who has opted for newsletters, with unsolicited emails. Later if they decide they want to ‘opt out’ of the mailings, be sure you honor their request and take them off the mailing list. They may still come back if they like your products. But they will certainly not come back if you continue to flood their email box with mails they no longer wish to receive.

 

Tips to Increase Ranking and Website Traffic

It is worth cataloguing the basic principles to be enforced to increase website traffic and search engine rankings.

 

• Create a site with valuable content, products or services.

• Place primary and secondary keywords within the first 25 words in your page content and spread them evenly throughout the document.

• Research and use the right keywords/phrases to attract your target customers.

• Use your keywords in the right fields and references within your web page. Like Title, META tags, Headers, etc.

• Keep your site design simple so that your customers can navigate easily between web pages, find what they want and buy products and services.

• Submit your web pages i.e. every web page and not just the home page, to the most popular search engines and directory services. Hire someone to do so, if required. Be sure this is a manual submission. Do not engage an automated submission service.

• Keep track of changes in search engine algorithms and processes and accordingly modify your web pages so your search engine ranking remains high. Use online tools and utilities to keep track of how your website is doing.

• Monitor your competitors and the top ranked websites to see what they are doing right in the way of design, navigation, content, keywords, etc. 

• Use reports and logs from your web hosting company to see where your traffic is coming from. Analyze your visitor location and their incoming sources whether search engines or links from other sites and the keywords they used to find you.

• Make your customer visit easy and give them plenty of ways to remember you in the form of newsletters, free reports, reduction coupons etc.

• Demonstrate your industry and product or service expertise by writing and submitting articles for your website or for article banks so you are perceived as an expert in your field.

• When selling products online, use simple payment and shipment methods to make your customer’s experience fast and easy.

• When not sure, hire professionals. Though it may seem costly, but it is a lot less expensive than spending your money on a website which no one visits.

• Don’t look at your website as a static brochure. Treat it as a dynamic, ever-changing sales tool and location, just like your real store to which your customers with the same seriousness.

 

Tools to Monitor Your Website

You can’t just put your website on the net with right keywords and all the right touches and expect your traffic and ranking will remain constant. As the web is an ever-changing landscape, you have to keep track of your own web results like what is happening with the competition and also the best and highest ranked sites. There are many useful tools to help you find out what exactly is happening. 

 

1. A tool which you can use to test your own website links or other websites for broken links:

http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html

 

2. With this tool you can check search engines for the number of back links to your URL i.e. other web pages linking to your site:

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/backlinks/

 

3. It sometimes becomes important to know where the servers of your hosting company are physically located. Because, some search engines like Google have the ability to filter search results based on their physical location called geotargeting. This could be used to determine why your site is showing in only a certain country. This link can also be used to research the country location of a particular competitor’s website:

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/website-country/

 

4. In order to track the location of the visitor or a customer to your website:

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/geovisitors/

 

5. In order to check the Yahoo! web ranking of your’s or your competitor’s website use :

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/webrank/

 

6. Here is a link to check the web ranking of a website using a Mac or Apple computer:

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/pagerank-mac/

 

7. You need a Google AdSense account for using this. This link provides you with charts and reports which will help you analyze traffic, clicks, and results from your AdSense advertising

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/adsense-charts/

 

8. If you have an AdSense account, you can analyze your website address or another website address to see what Google ads will be displayed when the customer selects certain website names or keywords:

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/adsense-sandbox/

 

9. This link will take you to a cooperative advertising network where you can join to display and

share your ads with other website owners:

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/ad-network/

 

10. You can add the Search Functionality on your website which uses Google. This works only if your site is listed in the Google Index.

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/search/

 

11. Here are some links to free website counters which you can use on your website to track your traffic and hits:

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/counter/

http://www.amazingcounters.com/?ref=gad033

http://www.cyber-counter.com/signup.php

http://www.statcounter.com/free_hit_counter.html

http://www.free-counters.net/

 

Use Keywords In Page Titles

It is recommended to use keywords in page titles itself. This title tag is different from a Meta tag, but it's worth considering it in relation to them. Whatever text one places in the title tag (between the <title> and </title> portions) will appear in the title bar of browsers when they view the web page. Some browsers also append whatever you put in the title tag by adding their own name, as for example Microsoft's Internet Explorer or OPERA.

 

The actual text you use in the title tag is one of the most important factors in how a search engine may decide to rank your web page. In addition, all major web crawlers will use the text of your title tag as the text they use for the title of your page in your listings.

 

If you have designed your website as a series of websites or linked pages and not just a single Home Page, you must bear in mind that each page of your website must be search engine optimized. The title of each page i.e. the keywords you use on that page and the phrases you use in the content will draw traffic to your site.

 

The unique combination of these words and phrases and content will draw customers using different search engine terms and techniques, so be sure you capture all the keywords and phrases you need for each product, service or information page.

 

The most common mistake made by small business owners when they first design their website is to place their business name or firm name in every title of every page. Actually, most of your prospective customers do not bother to know the name of your firm until after they have looked at your site and decided it is worth book marking.

 

So, while you want your business name in the title of the home page, it is probably a waste of valuable keywords and space to put it in the title line of every page on your site. Why not consider putting keywords in the title so that your page will display closer to the top of the search engine listing. 

 

Dedicating first three positions for keywords in title avoiding the stop words like ‘and’, ‘at’ and the like is crucial in search engine optimization.

 

Web Hosting Companies

With thousands of web hosting companies in the market it can be difficult if not impossible to know which web site hosting companies truly provide an excellent hosting solution at an excellent price. When you have an established domain name with a good web hosting company, you can get reports on your traffic and which of your pages your customers are visiting most often, as well as many other statistics.

 

Your web host will charge you a fee for monthly service that ranges from $10 or $20 to the more expensive $50.00 per month. Plan to pay between $300 and $500 per year to your web host.

 

Always avoid free or very inexpensive web hosting services, because you may experience bouts of server downtimes and you are likely to have significant limitations in storage, number of email addresses, FTP upload etc.

 

Be sure your web host can accommodate e-commerce and storefronts, wireless capability, bogs, forums, chats, online interactive helps and anything else you want to add onto your site.

 

Estimate what your growth needs are and ensure that this web host can serve you as you grow. The last thing you want to do is change host mid way unless you absolutely have to do so.

 

Check your bandwidth capability to be sure that, if your website traffic grows rapidly, your customers will not have to wait to download or view information. Three things to look for in a web hosting company are:

 

1. Excellent Customer Support: Your hosting provider should be there for you 24/7 and give you instant access to the technicians you need to solve your problem. Ask them how long it takes for them to typically respond to your problem. A good test is to call them in the mid night to check if you get to a live, level 3 support. 

 

2. A Sound Infrastructure: Check whether they offer a multi-homed network powered by multiple bandwidth providers to ensure redundancy. Some offer a 100% guarantee on its network availability or network uptime. 

 

3. Financial Stability: If you're running very critical operations, you can't afford to be with a hosting company that may not be in business in a few months.

 

Web hosting Services and Domain Names

Choosing an appropriate domain name is very important. First and foremost, when it comes to domain names, try to stay away from the silly, stupid, ridiculous or clever. Keep your domain name simple and make it something your customers can remember if they lose the link to your business website.

 

Take note that, while your domain name on Geocities or AOL may seem like the least expensive way to go, it may also get you dropped from certain search engines. Some search engines ignore domain addresses that reside on these ‘free servers’ or on the ‘cheap’ servers.

 

Even if your site is recognized and considered by search engines, a professional domain name that uses your primary company name or associated words is likely to get more attention and be considered as a stable business by your prospective customers.

 

Purchasing domain names are not that expensive which cost about $100 and there are many companies that can register the name for you, provided it is available and has not already been used by another company.

 

Using one of your keywords in your domain name can increase your score on some search engines. For example, solderingirons.com could be more effective as Electric-soldering-irons.com, if that domain name was available.

 

You might also choose to establish more than one domain name using keywords and then link your ‘doorway’ domain sites to your primary site. But you will have to pay for each of the domain name and also the monthly hosting fees. It all depends on the type and size of your business and your competition.

 

Keep in mind that some search engines disregard ‘doorway’ sites. So put at least a page of content on the doorway site with some useful information and then link it to your primary site. But don’t design it as an empty page. The other reason being, you can have one, three, five, or even more email addresses that all contain your business name, and give your business a professional feel. When customers get emails from dominicstone@solderingirons.com they feel as if they are dealing with a stable, professional business operation.

 

No need for customers to understand how you manage all your email boxes on your domain. They just need to feel your business is dependable and reputable.

 

What Is Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization is a process of choosing the most appropriate targeted keyword phrases related to your site and ensuring that this ranks your site highly in search engines so that when someone searches for specific phrases it returns your site on tops. It basically involves fine tuning the content of your site along with the HTML and Meta tags and also involves appropriate link building process. 

 

The most popular search engines are Google, Yahoo, MSN Search, AOL and Ask Jeeves. Search engines keep their methods and ranking algorithms secret, to get credit for finding the most valuable search-results and to deter spam pages from clogging those results. A search engine may use hundreds of factors while ranking the listings where the factors themselves and the weight each carry may change continually. Algorithms can differ so widely that a webpage that ranks #1 in a particular search engine could rank #200 in another search engine. 

 

New sites need not be "submitted" to search engines to be listed. A simple link from a well-established site will get the search engines to visit the new site and begin to spider its contents. It can take a few days to even weeks from the referring of a link from such an established site for all the main search engine spiders to commence visiting and indexing the new site.

 

If you are unable to research and choose keywords and work on your own search engine ranking, you may want to hire someone to work with you on these issues.

 

Search engine marketing and promotion companies, will look at the plan for your site and make recommendations to increase your search engine ranking and website traffic. If you wish, they will also provide ongoing consultation and reporting to monitor your website and make recommendations for editing and improvements to keep your site traffic flow and your search engine ranking high. Normally your search engine optimization experts work with your web designer to build an integrated plan right away so that all aspects of design are considered at the same time.

 

Utilizing Videos in Viral Marketing

To a greater extent and more advertisers are embracing video as broadband continues to rise and ad-serving technologies become more advanced. Net video advertising is truly taking off. Users’ attention may be captured and ads stick out from the crowd in a progressively ad-cluttered online environment. It's true that video formats cost 5 to 10 times more to serve than standard banners and they involve a great deal more production and execution work but they might well be worth all of that if they accomplish greater response rates. 

 

Whether to use online video if wishing to maximize its effect is what advertisers must cautiously consider. Video to be utilized on the Net should be info and communication centered while video to be utilized on TV should be centered on entertainment. 

 

Like everything else, there are beneficial ways and bad ways to utilize video advertising. Right now many marketers are integrating their audio-visual content into existing embedded advertisement formats like banners or over-content formats like pop-ups. Although this may reach a potentially big audience, viewers are likely to be less fascinated and more annoyed by these disruptive and perturbing placements. 

 

Cached or streaming video on a particular destination web site offers the best chance of interesting consumers in brand messages, but it isn't likely to reach a big audience unless it brings forth a viral outcome.

 

Whatever you issue forth with, don't forget to make it simple to open and distribute. File size is crucial, as is the media format. If your viral video has been produced for a certain type of software that not a lot of individuals use, how will you get individuals to spread it like wildfire?

 

Likewise, if you've made a video the affect will be better if you send the clip as an attachment instead of stream it. It's cheaper and, if you're not hosting it, it's more viral, as well.

 

Search Engines

Search engines have the chief purpose to index 1000s of 1000000s of web pages. Once you search a word or a phrase, the search engine scans automatically the entire database where it has the stored pages indexed and it returns to you as a result a list containing the most relevant outcomes for that search. 

 

Search engines came along someplace in the early 90’s when Alan Emtage, a student at the McGill University in Montreal produced the first search engine like tool. It was named Archie. Its purpose was to search through the data available on the FTP servers. The files on these servers were available for anybody, but one couldn’t utilize them unless knowing the exact address of the server and of the file. Archie looked through this database and amassed lists of files for each server. It was utilized by individuals to match phrases and characters in order to take them to the server address the file they were seeking was on.

 

Archie is today an old technique, but its creation was the first step in the search engine rally that's going on today. As the public grew more and more aware of the existence of the Net, the need for a search tool became obvious. 

 

So, first there were a few software robots, using the concept of spidering to index the web, following links from one web site to the other and saving the text from all visited sites in a database.

 

Between 1994 and 1995 3 crucial search engines appeared: Lycos, WebCrawler and AltaVista. At about the same time Yahoo! appeared but Yahoo! Isn't a search engine. Yes, it has a search engine routine, but yahoo is firstly a director or data and articles, supplying different services as email and hosting. 

Nowadays search engines are in a ceaseless competition. There are 1000s of search engines, but just a couple of big ones. This small group of top search engines is responsible for more than 90% of net searches.

 

But the query arises: if search engines are free and they can be utilized by everybody what keeps them financially alive? The answer to the question is really easy: advertising and traffic. The more visits they have, the greater the traffic then the more money they may make providing promotion space.

 

Search engines are competing to evolve the best formulas and algorithms to evaluate the web pages accordingly to the keywords supplied.

 

If somebody is seeking a top position in search engines, then he has to be sure that his site is projected in such a way that search engines would discover it easily, being relevant for the keywords and phrases the owner wishes it to be found by.

Internet Business Tips

You've your net business up and running. But are you making as much as you may? Do you wish to stay at current level or do better and make this full time revenue? If you're thinking this way you might want to consider some making a few changes.

 

The 1st thing to consider would be changing your site or sales letter. There are a few sites that offer free content to help draw in buyers and establish your credibility. Then you've sites that are just one single sales letter. There are a lot of individuals who believe that the creation of mini sites is better for producing sales. The reason is they don’t have any additional content and will center on you message. If you don't feel you write well it's a really worthwhile expenditure to hire somebody. A well written sales letter will pay for itself many times over.

 

Can your net business bring repeat buyers? What sort of ideas do you have about complimenting products? If somebody is happy with a product they bought from you they'll be less hesitant on buying again. Make sure to let your current buyers know of any fresh product additions. If you're selling services contact your buyers to let them know you're available for work and perhaps offer some discount or other incentive to utilize you again. These repeat and satisfied buyers may be great referrals to other people about your net business.

 

You never know what fresh information you have might significantly alter your business for the better. There are so many manuals that offer advice it would be essentially impossible to read them all. Choose one or two and really study them, put the ideas to work after you've read them and track the progress.

 

Attempt widening your income opportunities. For instance, if you sell a home repair book, you might also then market blueprints or a series of common project plans like a deck, utility shed to name a couple. The trick is to occasionally find a natural connection. Occasionally this might also be profitable to consider a new market to become jointly involved with. Such as home repair book and then become a home loan or construction loan affiliate. It's a matter of finding a different target group that may benefit from your service or product.

 

Occasionally it is just a matter of some slight changes that will bring the desired revenue increase from your net business.

 

Craigslist for Novices

While Craigslist has been around in one shape or another since 1995, there are yet some who have no clue how to utilize Craigslist. These people are missing out on a fantastic opportunity to be a part of a growing and continually evolving net community. This community is a great resource for discovering info, finding jobs, finding acquaintances or dates, making buys, selling items or discussing crucial issues. 

 

The community segment of Craigslist is very valuable for finding much local info. This might include activities, events, and lost and found just to name some. This is decidedly the section to check into if you're seeking things to do or see in a specific area. 

 

The Personals segment is where people may meet platonic acquaintances or romantic partners. This section is set up with a number of different classes making it conceivable for people to find potential dates. The personals segment is restricted to users over eighteen years of age. 

 

The discussion forums supply a location for people to voice their beliefs, answer questions or otherwise exchange info. This section is divided into a number of different classes to make it simpler for users to find other people who share their interests. Particular categories let users post without logging on while other sections demand users to log in prior to posting.

 

Craigslist’s housing segment provides a variety of options related to lodging. Users of this segment may find apartments or houses available for rent, sublet chances, potential roommate situations, home or apartment swaps, real property sales, vacation rentals and even storage, parking and office space for rent or sale. 

 

The For Sale segment of Craigslist is mostly self-explanatory. Like most sections, it's divided into a number of different classes. Each of these classes describes the sorts of items which are offered for sale inside the category. Additionally, there's a wanted section where users might post ads seeking to buy specific items. Not all of the items listed in the For Sale section demand a fee to be paid to receive the item. A few of these items are available gratis or in barter situation. 

 

In the services segment, service providers might place ads for the sorts of services they provide. Ads should be placed in suitable categories but if there's no appropriate category the ad might be placed in the generic small business section. 

 

The job section is by far the most voluminous segment on Craigslist. This segment is broken into a number of different classes to make it easier for users to search for likely career matches. Users might find full time as well as half-time opportunities in this segment as well as telecommute positions and contract positions. 

 

The gigs segment is similar to the jobs section but ads in the gigs section are supposed to refer to one time only chances as opposed to ongoing work. For instance, ads for volunteer staff needed for a one day event ought to be placed in the gigs section while ads for full time staff positions ought to be placed in jobs. 

 

The resumes segment enables job seekers to post their resumes. The key to getting noticed in this segment is to utilize a catchy headline for the resume. The resumes are not divided into different categories making it hard for users to search through these resumes.

 

Advertising Your Business with Craigslist

Craigslist may prove to be a great avenue for business promotion. Whether a person has a little business which they run on a part time basis or a flourishing business which has become a time-consuming enterprise, Craigslist may help the business to gain profits and popularity. The 2 chief components to successfully advertising a business on Craigslist include gaining the target audience and running a marketing drive which will attract this target audience. 

 

Marketing a business on Craigslist doesn’t have to be a hard process. However, it is not inevitably automatically simpler than promoting offline either. Marketing your business through Craigslist does have a few similarities to the process of promoting your business offline. The chief similarity is that the business promoter must do their research to discover who's included in their target audience. 

 

Even the most considered and innovative marketing effort will falter if it is not reaching the designated audience. This is why it is so crucial for those who are attempting to promote their business on Craigslist to be certain they categorize their ad correctly. The bulk of posts on Craigslist are available free. Therefore, small business owners may capitalize on the free posting on Craigslist to get hold of their target audience in a number of different locations. 

 

Besides being gratis for most postings, Craigslist provides additional Advantages. The most important benefit is a big audience. With such a big audience it makes it possible to reach a big audience. However, care ought to be taken when placing the post to categorize the ad correctly to ensure the ad is reaching the target audience. 

 

Among the most crucial elements of an effective marketing effort on Craigslist is professionally written copy that appeals directly to the target audience. Hiring a freelance writer skilled in writing sales copy is a great idea in that situation. 

 

The other factor to marketing effectively, is placing the ad in the correct part of Craigslist. Categorizing the ad correctly is crucial but it's likewise crucial to place the ad in the correct physical location. Products and services which are only offered in a limited area like a particular city or county ought to be advertised in these precise locations. However, those who provide products via a site may consider placing their ad in all of the location to which they're willing to ship their products.