Marketing products and/or services on the Internet seems to be
direction taken by many of todays businesses. However, are we
really prepared for what the Internet has to offer? and are we
equiped with the tools and knowledge to exploit the web and make
our web based businesses successful? In most cases the answer is
NO. Why? - some simple statistics offer the answer: 1) - only
16% of all the web pages submitted for registration to the
Internet search engine are actually registered or 'indexed' 2) -
95% of the business web sites that are indexed by the search
engines are listed outside of the top two pages of searches
returned against keywords that describe the products or services
offered by the particular business. What does all this mean?
Simple. Your site is invisible to potential customers searching
for your products and you may as well not be there! Without
visibility through the leading search engines you must turn to
other forms of marketing your presence. These are often
expensive and very unpredictable. So what options do you have?
The most sensible is to employ a specialsit organization to
improve your search engine listing or position. This can be
expensive depending on the competition for your particular
'keywords', but in most cases a radical improvement in search
positions can be attained. Follows is a brief summary of what
the search engines are and how they work. This is an essential
starting point for anyone serious about Internet trading or
'E-Commerce' Search Engines And How They Work.
What is a 'search engine'? It is a software utility or program
that is used to find information on the Internet, related to a
specific subject that is being sought by the user.
How do I use it? You log on to a particular search engine web
site, such as Alta-Vista or Excite, where you are presented with
an 'input' box, allowing text relating to the subject for which
you are searching to be entered. The text may be inputted as a
single word or a string of text. It may be with or without
capitalization, abbreviation, punctuation or parenthesis. The
inputted text is termed a 'keyword' or 'keyword phrase'. These
keywords are used by the search engines to retrieve web pages
with the required subject matter, which are then presented to
you for selection and viewing.
How do I get my site listed on the search engines? In order for
a web page or site to be found by the search engine it must
first be indexed, that is a record of it's existence made by the
search engine in it's extensive library or data base of pages.
If your site is not indexed by a search engine, then it can only
be found in one of two ways: Through direct input of the URL or
site address into the location bar of the web browser, (user
must have prior knowledge of the site address), or: By clicking
a 'Hyperlink' or advertising banner that connects directly to
the site. For a site to be 'visible', it must therefore be
indexed by the search engines. To have a site indexed by a
search engine, the site URL or address must be individually
submitted to each search engine. The search engines are
programmed to examine the pages of a site (sometimes called
spidering) and record specific information about the site, in a
manner that permits easy retrieval of the relevant pages, when
called to do so during a user search. What is search engine
'ranking' or 'positioning', and how is it important? Most people
or businesses that have Internet presence do so because they
want to be visible, they want to inform others of their products
and services. The Internet if utilized correctly is the perfect
medium for attracting prospective customers to your business.
The most effective method of generating traffic to your site is
through the search engines, i.e. someone is searching the
Internet for a product that you happen to offer, and your web
site is presented, along with others, to be viewed by the
searcher. The problem is one of volume. For example, if the user
enters the keywords 'surfing in California', and a list of
20,000 web sites is returned, then 19,950 are probably going to
be ignored, the user will generally find what he needs in the
first 50 or so. In other words, if your site is all about
surfing in California, and you are not positioned or ranked in
the top 50 of sites that are presented to the user, then you may
as well not be there.
What specific information should I include on my site to attract
favorable ranking or positioning? The type of information that a
search engine spider records from a specific site varies with
each search engine. A working knowledge of what the specific
search engines look for when compiling their indexes can
considerably boost a site's position in the rankings. Much of
the content important to the search engine for indexing is not
visible to the user and is entered in the background by the site
programmer. A difficulty arises when the site has a theme or
subject that is extremely popular, and is contending with a
large number of other web sites for top position. In this case
it can take some time to achieve a favorable position, and only
after employing extensive techniques in attracting favorable
indexing by the search engines. There are many techniques that
can be applied to gain favorable search positions.
My business is in a popular category, and I can't achieve
favorable positioning, what can I do?. Contact an expert.
What is 'Spamming' and could it help get my position higher? Yes
it could, but the risk is too great. Spamming techniques are
various, but generally it is a deliberate attempt to manipulate
search engine indexing, to gain an unfair advantage over your
competitors. An example could be the repetitive use of keywords
in your body text, masked from the viewer by setting the text
color to the same color as the background, or repetitive
submission of the same pages to the same search engine. Search
engine programmers are fast becoming wise to the techniques of
spammers, and will drop your site form their listing if you are
caught. There are always legitimate ways to reach a good result,
they sometimes take a little longer!
The benefits gained through successful ranking in the search
engines can be tremendous - increases in traffic ten fold are
not uncommon, and if proper attention is paid to targetting the
appropriate keywords, most of the traffic will be relevent
prospects.
About the author:
Carl Hruza. For more information on this subject, or if you have
any information you may like to offer, or require any assistance
with your business promotion, please contact
carl@connectgreenbay.com or visit us at
www.search-engine-positioning-ranking.com
