How do you
look for information? You search the
internet, right? If so, you're not
alone. According to Marketing Sherpa,
almost 134 million people in the U.S.
regularly use search engines when
looking for information online. Of
that number, 63 percent look only at
the first page of results--at most.
And if you
want your site to be there, you need
to put a family of strategies called
search marketing--a catch-all term for
search engine optimization and
pay-per-click advertising--to work for
your business.
Search Engine Optimization
SEO encompasses the strategies for
earning top rankings in free search
engines. These are called "organic" or
"natural" listings. You can actually
direct the way your site's listed--and
improve your ranking--by giving the
search engines what they’re looking
for.
The goal is
to optimize your site so search
engines will consider it relevant.
Then, they’ll place your site in the
top results when people are searching
for your product or service. Here are
some key SEO strategies:
-
Find the hottest keywords
for your market. This
is the starting point for any
search marketing campaign.
-
Plug keywords into the
right locations in your copy and
code. Your website is
full of hot spots search engine
spiders check regularly for
keywords. Put your keywords in the
headlines, subheads and body copy
of your web pages. In your code,
use them in anchor text, alt text,
title tags, image tags and meta
tags. But use them sparingly: The
old strategy of loading up your
meta tags with keywords doesn’t
work anymore.
-
Use keywords that relate
directly to your content.
If you sprinkle keywords like
"guaranteed weight loss" through
your site that sells shoes, search
engines will ignore you. Your
keywords will work best if they
reflect what your site is about.
-
Keep the spiders coming
back with frequent new content.
The more fresh, relevant content
they find, the higher the search
engine spiders are likely to rank
your site. Keep all the copy on
your pages current, including any
changes or updates to your
business or products. And archive
your newsletters or bulletins on
your site. A blog or forum also
keeps people heading back for
daily updates and discussion.
-
Fine-tune your keyword
density. Make sure
you integrate your keywords as
naturally as possible into your
copy. You won't keep your
visitors' attention if the text on
your site is just a jumbled bunch
of keywords. Aim for keyword
density of 4 to 6 percent.
-
Collect links from other
sites that are considered
reputable and relevant.
Natural, relevant inbound links
are search engine gold. Focus your
strategy on requesting one-way
links from sites with high natural
rankings in search engines. Also,
put out "link bait"--quality
content that contains a link back
to your site. Distributing free
articles and press releases is a
great way to get quality inbound
links. Learn more on this subject
in "Write a Keyword-Rich Article
to Increase Site Traffic."
And don't forget the power of
social networking. By taking part
in online communities or uploading
your video to a site like YouTube,
you can drive new traffic to your
website and get new sites linking
to yours.
-
Use a site map to boost
your ranking in Google, Yahoo! and
Windows Live Search.
Site maps help spiders find their
way through all your pages. And
with the new sitemapsformatting
protocol, the three search titans
are giving site owners more clues
than ever about how to help index
their sites.
SEO should be
at the core of your overall internet
marketing strategy. It's one of the
most inexpensive and effective
approaches available. In fact, much of
what you can do to optimize your site
for the organic search engines is
totally free.
However, it
can be slow. When starting out, you'll
probably have to wait before you show
up in search results. So here’s
something that'll get you targeted
traffic faster.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Do a search on Google or Yahoo!, and
you'll notice a different type of
listings set around the organic
results. These "sponsored results" are
pay-per-click ads that appear when
people search using the keywords in
the ads. PPC has some tremendous
advantages for online businesses:
-
PPC ads show up
immediately. You can
drive traffic to your site right
away, even if you haven't been
indexed by search engines yet.
-
You only pay for results.
No matter how many times your ad
is displayed, you pay only when
someone clicks on it. And by
watching your results carefully,
you can determine how well each ad
is converting and if it's worth
continuing.
-
It's a great testing tool.
With PPC, you can run several ads
simultaneously, allowing you to
see very quickly which ones work
best. Test your keywords this way
and use the best ones on your site
to boost your organic search
results.
In fact, you can use PPC to test
everything from your product
offerings and price points to your
ad headlines and sales copy. Read
"How to Attract Visitors to Your
Site" for more PPC information.
With a
combination of PPC and SEO you can
make sure your target market will find
you. No other set of strategies offers
you so much scope as search marketing.
You can dramatically improve your
search engine rankings and direct
quality, targeted traffic to your
website--often without spending a
single dime.
A lot of the techniques here are
basic, but some techniques come and
go. What worked last year may fizzle
this year. And discovering a great new
search marketing trick could put you
far ahead of the competition.
So have the
basics covered, but also try new
techniques and strategies. With
ongoing search marketing, you'll be
where your market can find you--front
and center in the search results.
Derek
Gehl is Entrepreneur.com's
"E-Business" columnist and the CEO of
the Internet Marketing Center, an
internet marketing firm that has
helped thousands of people learn to
start and run their own online
businesses. IMC hosts a new
Search Marketing Lab Forum, where
members have their strategy questions
answered by search marketing
specialists.
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Entrepreneur.com, Inc.