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Why is search engine marketing important to today's business person?
Isn't such marketing just for dot-commers? What about the ordinary
bricks-and-mortars store owner? How might search engine marketing
benefit him or her?
How does one pursue search engine registration, if it is decided to
pursue an Internet marketing program? How complicated is this? Is it expensive?
What does one need to know about search engine registration?
Let's consider a few facts. With each passing day, thousands more
in North America are flooding onto the Internet. Among the first stops for
newbies on the Web are Yahoo, MSN and America Online. Each offers a search
function. It is only a matter of time before every new Internet user is doing
a search. Eventually, that user will try using search for local services.
Effective search engine registration, in other words, will put your local
business in a position to be found without the searcher having to resort to the
old Yellow Pages phone book.
For those who have a national business, search engine marketing is the
way to drive that business to greater heights. For those with a local store, it
will be strategically smart to consider how they can drive additional sales to
the national or even international market.
Search engine marketing is the way for smaller business that don't enjoy
broad-based brand name recognition to be found through use of the most
popular search websites or portals. It is also through search engine marketing
that brand name awareness can be built very affordably.
Effective search engine registration can have a powerful effect. About
85% of Internet users seeking products or information use search engines
to find them. Billions of dollars in online product sales are being earned annually
by larger Internet services such as AOL and Yahoo.
Search engine registration can be done by anyone. For example, to
submit a website to Google, the world's most important search engine, merely
go to: www.google.com/addurl.html. But for registration to be really effective,
it needs to be handled by an Search Engine Optimization consultant with specialized
knowledge. Costs can range from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands. Those who
charge the highest prices aren't necessarily the most knowledgeable or effective.
At Clayton Web Designs, we possess an excellent track
record of search engine marketing. We have consistently applied our techniques
to business websites of many different kinds, and successfully achieve very high
ranking in extremely competitive categories, on extremely popular keyword
phrases. Your first consultation is free. We would very much like to be considered
for your search engine registration business.
All right, here are tips for getting top 10 ranking on the search engines and
directories, in case you don't care to hire an SEO professional to do the work for
you. What follows is NOT a comprehensive course in SEO, just some useful tips
to get a top 10 ranking.
Let's discuss getting a top 10 positioning on the directories, the human-compiled
indices, which include Yahoo and the Open Directory. It is extremely important to
have a business name which includes your most important keyword phrase. If
you sell fuzzy blue widgets and your real business name is Jones & Smith, change
it so the directory editor thinks your business name is: Jones & Smith Fuzzy Blue
Widgets. That dramatically improves your chances of top 10 positioning.
To get optimum placement on the spider-driven search engines (such as Google,
AllTheWeb, Teoma, AltaVista, etc.), you need to include your most important
keyword phrase in your title tag, in headlines, in body text, in ALT tags, and in
text links. PLUS you need to have text links into your site from other (preferably
related) sites, where the keywords appear in the anchor text. This is critical. Done
properly, you will achieve excellent placement.
Submitting your site to the search engines each month is a waste of time.
Don't bother with trying to retweak your site each time the engines change the
the way they shuffle the index, it's more effort than it's worth. Success comes
from using clean HTML pages with correct coding, coupled with inbound text links
from similar websites.
Achieving a high ranking involves a great deal of specialized knowledge in
a field where things are constantly in flux. If you don't have the time to spend doing
the research, consider outsourcing to professional to get top positioning.
Search engine placement on the engines and directories that matter, for keyword
phrases that are important to your business, is critical to success on the web.
When it's time to get your site positioned, get it right the first time. If you choose
the wrong company, or do it yourself and mess it up, you will waste some
money, of course, but you will also waste several months of your valuable time.
You need an qualified company because search engine optimization is complex work.
The rules of this search engine game change constantly. A full time effort is required
to stay abreast of developments, and only a specialist from a proven company will
have the expertise.
Search Engine Optimization is both an art and a science. It involves creating a site theme.
It also involves writing and editing, building inbound links that constitute "votes"
for high positioning of the client website, and the strategic use of keyword phrases
in important places.
Those who depend upon software alone to provide the expertise might benefit
some if the website in question is badly optimized to begin with. But to achieve top
positioning in a competitive category will require the use of SEO services from a
specialty Search Engine Optimization company. Let a professional handle your
Search Engine Optimization tasks.
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