By Jim Moore, Phoenix Technologies
CHAPTER ONE
Too many website designers - not only the do-it-yourselfers but many of the "pros" as well - don't have a clue when it comes to getting your website listed higher in the search engines - like Google, Yahoo, Bing, MSN and the rest.
A month or so ago I spoke with a reportedly wealthy businessman (I won't names) who sells men's suits all across the country. He was referred to me by a very happy local customer. First, he informed that he was probably going to sign up for a cheap do-it-yourself website he could design by himself online.Yet the next comment he made was "I want to get it at the top of the search engines."
What a paradox - or oxymoron. You don't get top listings with "freebie" or "cookie cutter" websites.
There's another reason you shouldn't use "freebie" or "cookie cutter" websites. If you want your business taken seriously, are you going to print your business cards on the back of someone else's discarded business cards? Of course not!1. The search engines don't like these kinds of sites because (a) they're usually done, and done poorly, by amateurs.
2. In these cases, your website is usually not your own "domain" but a "sub-domain." An example is the now-defunct Geocities, where your website address (or URL) may look like this: "www.geocities.com/western/1227."
Your page is in a "western-themed community" and your account number is "1227." While Google or Yahoo will certainly find Geocities.com (and their search results are so outdated they still list it years after it went out of business) because "www.geocities.com" is a "root" domain name.
3. Amateurs usually have never heard of such phrases as "keywords" "tags" or "description" or "title."
Further, "cookie cutter" sites such as Cityscape all look pretty much alike. There is a title, name, address, phone number, brief description and maybe a map ... and you'll pay upwards of $69 a month just for that. Everyone's site looks basically the same. My wife, before we were married, had just such a site for her chiropractic practice. The salesman pulled the wool over her eyes and fed her a line of B.S. but the site was a total failure in terms of the results it got.
Now I would assume if you're in business, the purpose - and it should be the sole purpose - of your website is to either (a) make money or (b) establish a brand. Most small businesses want to make money, especially in tough times.
The best-looking website is not necessarily the most effective website. Pretty boys aren't always good workers - and you want your website to work for you - all day, all night, seven days a week with no time off for vacations or sick days.
The following videos (with transcripts available) are from an excellent piece of software called WordTracker. WordTracker is generally regarded as the Cadillac keyword tool - and the price tag would confirm that! Are you prepared to spend $329 a year or $59 a month just for a keyword tool? Is it really worth it to you? Unless you're investing tens of thousands of $$$ into your website, probably not. The good news is - there is a free online version here.
Now, while I recommend that you watch at least some of these videos, if not all, I would not jump right in and buy the program or even use all the approaches they cover (such as Pay Per Click). I'll tell you why in a little bit.(These links will open up in the same window, so when you're done, just click your BACK BUTTON and you'll be right back here.)
Day 2: Assess your market with keyword research
Day 3: How to build an effective keyword strategy
Day 4: How to optimize your web content
Day 5: Pay per click (PPC) for testing and profit
Day 6: How to use keywords in linking text
Day 7: How to expand into new markets (and beat your competition)
No comments:
Post a Comment