Promoting Your Web Site
Can't you just hire an expert to promote your site for you?
Certainly. Many people offer Web site promotion services for a fee. In
fact, having someone help you with your site promotion is not a bad
idea, at least if you find the right person. But even if you use a
professional submitter, you need to know the basics of site promotion.
The first reason is that there is a lot of misleading, inaccurate and
just plain fraudulent information out there. The business of promoting
Web sites is as thick with shysters and scam artists as the used car
business. Many a Web site owner has paid big money to some sharpie who
made wild promises, only to get little or nothing for their money. The
sad part is that many of these site owners never even know they've been
taken - their nice new Web sites are simply getting no visitors, and
they don't understand why not.
The second reason to educate yourself is that site promotion is an
ongoing process. To maximize your site traffic, you need to monitor it
constantly, and make judgements about what you can do to improve it. If
you know at least the basics of how the process works, you'll be in a
good position to decide whether it's best for you to hire an outside
consultant, train someone in your company, or simply do it yourself.
Before proceeding further, let's define some terms.
Traffic - The number of people who visit your site. The more of this
you get, the better. Whether you're selling something online, putting
out information about your company, or whatever, more traffic means more
potential sales. If you don't promote your Web site, your traffic will
probably hover around zero.
Promotion - Anything you do to increase your site traffic. This
includes site submission, advertising, sending out press releases, etc.
Submission - The process of notifying the various search engines and
related sites about your Web site.
Search Engines - Sites that people use to search for information on
the Web. This is the primary way that people find Web sites, so a Web
site owner needs to know as much as possible about search engines and
how they work. Although some popular sites such as Yahoo are more
accurately described as "directories," the term "search engines" is
often used to include all sites that act as tools for people to find
other sites.
Submitting to Search Engines
What's the first step in promoting your Web site? Submitting to the
search engines? Not quite. Good Web site marketing is something that
begins with Web site design. Your site should be designed with promotion
and marketing in mind. You'll see why, once you understand how search
engines work.
There are millions of Web sites out there today, and the total number of
pages must be in the billions. How do people find the information they
want? By using search engines and directories. True, some people type in
URLs they got from a TV or magazine ad, or that some guy whispered to
them on a street corner, and quite a few find sites by following links
from other sites. But the majority of Web surfers find stuff using one
of the most popular search engines: Yahoo, Excite, AltaVista, Google,
Lycos, etc.
Each of the search engines is slightly different, and people have
their favorites, but they all work in basically the same way. The user
types in a word or a phrase, hits "search," and is rewarded with a list
of links (the "search results") that hopefully have something to do with
what's being looked for. The words the user typed in are called
"keywords," and the search engine finds links by matching these keywords
to ones found in its database.
Do you suppose the search engine actually visits every site on the
Web to see if it can find the keywords, every time someone does a
search? Nope. That would be like Santa Claus visiting every house in the
world every Christmas Eve. No, the way it works is this: a search engine
has a database, which lists every Web site that the search engine knows
about. When a search is performed, it tries to find matches in the
database for the keywords entered.
As a Web site owner, you want search engines to send you as many
visitors as possible. Therefore, you want to make sure that you are in
the databases of as many search engines as possible. This is pretty
simple. Most of the major search engines allow you to register your site
free. You can simply go to each major search site, click on "Add Your
Site," "Submit URL," or something similarly worded, and fill in your
site information.
As this is a rather tedious process, there are several tools
available that will automatically submit your information to several
search engines at a time. Instead of visiting all the sites and copying
and pasting in the same info a dozen times, you simply enter it once,
and the "auto-submitter" sends it to the search engines. Auto-submitters
include SubmitIt (submitit.com) and AddIt (addit.com). All these
services offer a basic free service, with additional features available
at a small price.
As long as you follow their rules, and don't attempt to "spam" the
engines with multiple submissions, most or all of the major search
engines will be happy to list your site in their database (although they
may be less than punctual about it). So far so good, but this by itself
isn't enough to make sure your site gets noticed. Think about what
happens when you search for something at a search engine. Unless your
search term is something really unusual, the engine will come back with
dozens, if not thousands, of links that matched the search term. Of
course, they aren't all displayed on one page. Only the top 10 or 20
results will be displayed, with a link at the bottom to click on to see
the next 10 or 20 (most search engines allow the user to specify how
many results will be displayed on a page). Guess what? Most people
seldom or never click on the link to see the second page of results,
much less the third page or the thirty-third. If your site doesn't come
up near the top of a particular search, then it almost might as well not
be in the database at all.
When someone searches for something that has to do with your site,
you want your site to come up as near the top of the list as possible.
In other words, you want to optimize your ranking with the search
engine. This obviously makes the next question "How do search engines
determine rankings?" The answer has to do with keywords.
Using Keywords to Maximize Search Engine Positioning Search engines
use the number and relative importance of keywords to determine how a
page will rank in a particular search. For example, if someone searches
on "butterbeans," then a page which is titled "The Butterbean Bazaar"
and has the word "butterbeans" on it in a dozen places is likely to rank
near the top of the list. A site that has the word "butterbeans" on it
once or twice will rank somewhat lower. A site that has the word "beans"
on it will rank near the bottom, and beanless sites will not make it
into the search results at all. Every search engine has its own formula
for ranking search results, and they're as jealously guarded as secret
barbecue sauce formulas. The basic idea, however, is that the more
instances of a certain keyword a page has, the higher it will rank in
the results of a search for that keyword. Also, greater weight is given
to keywords that appear in things like page titles, section headings,
and so on.
This well-known fact has led many smart-alecky souls to load their
pages down with endless repetitions of words like "sex," "free," and
whatever else they think people search for. Every sneaky trick in the
book, like invisible text, keywords hidden within HTML tags, etc. has
been employed in the mad rush for higher rankings. Such ploys are
counter-productive, however. If everyone chose to use excessive and/or
inappropriate keywords, then search engines would quickly become
useless. Sooner or later, no matter what you searched for, all you would
get would be MLM and porno sites. Therefore, the search engines wage an
ongoing battle against "keyword stuffers" and "spamdexers." If they
suspect you're trying to abuse the system, they can and will bar your
site. As just one example, many search engines will disqualify any site
that uses invisible text.
The point of all this is twofold - in order to maximize your rankings
at the search engines, it's important to be sure that your pages include
plenty of appropriate keywords. However, it's also important not to
overdo things, and do harm to yourself in your zeal (see How to Avoid
Spamming the Search Engines) This is why we said earlier that submitting
to search engines is not really the first step in site promotion. The
first step is designing your pages to be "search-engine friendly." This
means not only using keywords appropriately, but also avoiding certain
design techniques that can confuse search engines, such as frames and
certain types of dynamic page delivery.
The proper use of keywords can be an arcane subject, and we won't get
into the fine points here. Basically, what you need to do is to think of
all the words that someone might type into a search engine if they were
looking for a site like yours. Visitors who aren't looking for
butterbeans (or whatever it is you have) do you no good, so pick only
keywords that relate to what your site is about. Normally, most or all
of these keywords will be found in the text of your site. Once you have
a list of keywords, you want to craft a site description that uses some
of the keywords. This should be a brief (many search engines have a
limit of 25 words), readable sentence that sums up what your site has to
offer. For example, if you're selling butterbeans, and you've come up
with the following list of keywords:
Butterbeans
Beans
Lima beans
Biscuits
Southern cooking
Then a good description might look like this:
"We sell butterbeans and lima beans, which taste great with biscuits and
other Southern cooking. Free butterbean recipes and a butterbean
discussion forum."
Notice how we worked in all the most important keywords (in reality,
your list of keywords should probably be longer, perhaps 10 to 20 words
or phrases), and we even managed to mention the most important one,
"butterbeans," twice. However, the description reads like a normal
sentence, not just a list of keywords. Notice also that we mentioned a
couple of site features that might entice people to visit.
Craft your site description carefully, because it will be used in
several places. When you submit your site to the search engines, you'll
be asked for a description. This description will come up when someone
finds your site in a search, so make sure that it will make people want
to visit (but never use marketing copy like "The leading company? or
"The most useful site?). This description, or a variation, should also
be used in your TITLE tag.
The TITLE tag appears in the HEAD section of your HTML page. When a
surfer views a Web page, it is the TITLE that appears in the top bar of
the browser. If someone selects your site to be a "bookmark" (Netscape)
or "favorite" (MS Explorer) in their browser, the TITLE will appear as
the name of the "bookmark" or "favorite." Also, some search engines
assign greater weight to keywords that appear in the TITLE tag. Your
TITLE tag should begin with the official name of your Web site. It
should also include a very brief description of the site. For example:
The Butterbean Bazaar - We sell butterbeans and lima beans, and offer
free butterbean recipes and a butterbean discussion forum.
Resist the temptation to make your TITLE a mindless list of keywords -
it will hurt more than it will help. And never include useless verbiage
like "Welcome to the Web Site of? in a TITLE tag. It's a waste of
important virtual real estate.
There are two other tags that appear in the HEAD section which are
important to site promotion: the META DESCRIPTION and META KEYWORDS
tags. Some, but not all, search engines use these tags to determine your
ranking. The rules for the META DESCRIPTION tag are basically the same
as those for the TITLE tag, although it's fine for the two to be
slightly different. The META KEYWORDS tag is basically a list of
keywords. There's nothing to be gained by packing this tag with an
endless list of words - most experts believe that the search engines
don't index more than a certain number. Pick the ones that you really
think people are going to use to search for sites like yours. Most of
the gurus agree that these keywords should be all in lowercase,
separated by commas or spaces.
The most important place to include keywords is in the body text of
your pages. Again, don't go wild - write in a normal, readable style.
But be sure that your most important keywords are mentioned at least
once or twice, and consider using some of them in page headings and
subheadings.
Ready to submit?
Well, we've mixed up the order of things a bit, but it's necessary to
understand how search engines work in order to realize why keywords are
so important. Once you've got your pages nice and optimized, make a
final system check before you start submitting. Never submit your site
to the search engines until it's 100% ready for the public. See the
article Before You Submit for a list of things to check before you
submit your site.
As we mentioned earlier, there are actually two different kinds of
search site, which are often lumped together under the term "search
engine." A search engine proper uses an automatic software agent called
a "spider" to search (or "crawl") the Web for sites to index for its
database. Theoretically, it's not necessary to submit your site to
spider-based search engines, because the spider will sooner or later
find your site on its own. Of course, no wise Web owner would leave such
a critical matter to chance, so you can and should submit your site to
all the major search engines. It's only necessary to submit your home
page, however - the spider will automatically find and index all the
other pages by following links. Although the search engines hate (and
punish) overzealous souls who try to use tricks to get more listings,
they have nothing against autosubmitters (at least the major ones), so I
recommend using one to save yourself a lot of tedious work.
At the risk (nay, the certainty) of repeating myself, here is a fact
that may save you a lot of wasted time. There are not, repeat not, a
thousand, or even a hundred, search engines that are worth submitting
to. Yes, there are thousands of sites claiming to be, or wishing to be,
search engines, but most of them are simply attempts to get your money,
or to get your email address so that they can send you spam. Almost all
search engine traffic goes to the top twenty or thirty search engines.
Submitting to all the piddly little ones is a complete waste of time,
and will net you only spam. The exception is specialty search engines,
which focus on a particular topic or geographic area. They are well
worthwhile, and will be discussed in more detail later.
The most important "search engine" of all is more accurately
described as a "directory." This is Yahoo, by far the most popular
search site on the Web. A directory does not use an automated spider to
find sites to index. Instead, real human beings comb through the
trillions of sites submitted to choose which ones are worthy of being
listed. For the searcher, this is good, as it means that Yahoo includes
far less flotsam and jetsam than search engines do. For the Web site
owner, it's not so promising, because Yahoo is very hard to get into. If
you do get in, you'll see your traffic climb immediately, so it's well
worth putting some time in to try to get listed.
Resist the temptation to submit over and over - it won't work.
Submissions are reviewed by real editors, so follow their instructions
to the letter, and really try to convince them that your site is a
useful resource. Some good tips are to be found on the rather obscure
page called "How to Suggest Your Site," and selfpromotion.com also has
some good Yahoo tips.
Another directory that's very important is the Open Directory
(http://directory.netscape.com/). It's far easier to get into than
Yahoo, and unlike Yahoo, it's pretty easy to get listed in multiple
categories, or to have several pages from your site listed (assuming
that they really have different types of content). You shouldn't use an
autosubmitter to submit to Yahoo and Open Directory. Take your time and
craft your submissions carefully to these two important sites.
After You Submit
Submitting to search engines is a bit like washing windows - some
panes just don't come clean without some extra scrubbing, and they all
get dirty again. Getting listed can take anywhere from a few days to a
few months. Sometimes a search engine just won't list your site at all,
for reasons which elude even the most expert Web promotion gurus. For
this reason, it's absolutely essential that you check all the search
engines a month or so after you submit. If you're not in there, submit
again. Don't forget our warnings against spamming the engines, but
resubmitting every month or two is not likely to anger them.
Some search engines may drop your site from their database for
reasons unknown, and some place older listings lower in their rankings.
Also, if anything changes on your site (as it should), then the search
engines should be instructed to reindex your site. For these reasons,
it's a good idea to re-submit to the major search engines at least every
six months or so, or any time you make a major site revision. Sound like
a lot of work? Not really, especially if you use an autosubmitter. Some
of them can also automate the process of checking to see if you are
listed.
Submitting to search engines is an essential first step, but there
are lots of other things you can do to promote your site. The name of
the game is to get as much traffic as you can, so you want to get as
many links pointing to your site as you can. The Web is so large and
complex that there's practically no limit to the amount of time you can
spend trying to stir up traffic.
Specialty search engines and directories are well worth
investigating. There are lots of sites that feature links to sites about
a particular topic, such as travel, investing, food, etc. Some are small
search engines, which allow users to search for sites, while others are
"links pages," which simply have static lists of links that users can
browse. These can be very worthwhile if your site happens to fit into a
topic that they cover. Don't forget our caveat about all the marginal
sites out there. If a page looks amateurishly done, or appears not to
have been updated in a long time, it probably gets little or no traffic.
Link exchanges are very valuable for new and/or smaller sites. These
outfits let you submit a banner ad to them in return for placing their
ad on your site. Every time someone sees the banner on your site, you
earn credit towards displays of your banner on other member sites. The
largest of these is the Internet LinkExchange, but there is also the
Hyperbanner and several others.
A time-honoured and effective way to build traffic is to exchange
links with related sites. Your competitors probably won't want to put up
a link to your site (then again, they may), but your suppliers,
customers and other companies that you work with may do so. Content
sites that cover topics related to your site, and sites of companies
that make related products, are good candidates for reciprocal links.
Most folks will expect you to respond in kind by adding a link to their
site. If you like, you can put all these links on a special "links page"
so they don't clutter up your home page. If you have lots of useful
links, your links page may even become a valuable resource in its own
right, building even more traffic for your site.
Email newsletters are terrific traffic-builders. An announcement
newsletter, which allows you to send email to visitors who sign up for
the list, can be used to notify customers and potential customers of new
features on your site, special offers, etc. A discussion list, which
allows any list members to post messages, can be a valuable resource for
members, and can be used to plug your site. For details of how email
lists can be used to build site traffic, see the article, Mailing Lists
for Web Sites.
Don't confuse mailing lists with spam. A mailing list consists of
people who signed up to receive messages, and who can unsubscribe from
the list at any time. Spam is mass email sent to people who never asked
to receive it. Don't believe the promises of the scamsters who offer to
set you up with spam lists. Spamming will cripple your traffic, and
quite possibly put your Web site out of business, as all hosting
services have strict anti-spam policies, and will cancel the account of
a spammer in a heartbeat.
Whether you have your own mailing list or not, participating in
appropriate discussion lists and online forums can be a good way to
increase awareness of your site, and build traffic. Be careful to use
proper netiquette, and obey all the guidelines of any group that you
participate in. Most lists won't tolerate blatant advertising, but see
nothing wrong in sneaking in a plug for your site here and there, in the
course of contributing meaningfully to the discussion.
What about paid advertising? As an employee of an
advertising-supported network of Web sites, I hate to bite the hand that
feeds me, but in my experience, buying banner advertising is seldom
cost-effective for a small business. To get results from banner ads, you
need to spend some serious money, and you need to be prepared to refine
both the banners and their placement on an ongoing basis. Mailing list
ads, however, are generally far cheaper, and often reach much more
finely-targeted audiences, than banner ads. If you can find a mailing
list or two that target the type of people you're trying to reach, it
might be well worthwhile to try a few ads.
Some more tips on things you can do to promote your Web site can be
found in my recent WDVL article, You've submitted to all the search
engines. Now what?
Promoting your Web site is an endless task. You could sit at your
computer for twelve hours a day for weeks, and still not exhaust all the
potential ways to stir up traffic. But don't despair. As with all
things, there's a point of diminishing returns - submitting your site to
the major search engines carefully and thoroughly, and taking a few of
the other steps listed above, should be quite enough to get some traffic
rolling your way. After that, the most important thing for Internet
success is the same as in any business - sell a quality product or
service at a competitive price. If you don't do that, then all the
promotion and marketing in the world will be a waste of time.
>> Fast
Website Submission Service <<
COPYRIGHT 2007 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WWW.1SECUREDOMAINS.COM