Hello Henry041696~
First, let me agree with darrel that narrowing your focus may prove
most effective--not just for your business, but for successful
marketing. Having a very specific target audience in mind always makes
advertsiing/marketing work best.
That said, I think you'll find that you don't need any professional
help marketing your online business; take a peek:
Possibly the number one way people find online businesses is through
search engines. Therefore, a priority is to get yourself into them!
Although there are companies that offer to submit your sites to search
engines for you (AddMe, for example: http://www.addme.com and
SubmitIt: http://www.submitit.com ), you can easily do this yourself.
You'll probably do it more effectively, too, since mass submissions
rarely produce the sort of results a businessowner hopes for. Simply
head on over to the top engines and read and follow their information
on submissions. Here's the link to Yahoo's submit page:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest
And Google's:
://www.google.com/addurl.html
Also submit your site to MSN, LookSmart, About, or HotBot. If you list
with any one of these, your site should show up on the others soon.
You can improve your chances of being at the top of the search engine
results by using key words near the tops of your pages. Be careful not
to overdo it, though, or you'll be accused of key word spamming.
Be sure to use Meta Tags, too. This site explains them:
http://biz.howstuffworks.com/online-biz-promotion1.htm
Once you have some customers, create an email newsletter to keep them
coming back to your site. The best way to do this is to keep your
newsletters short, pithy, and informative. Include links back to your
website--links to articles that will help inform and instruct your
clients. A bonus to including articles on your website: They are just
another search engine hit to bring new customers in.
If you narrow down your business a little, you can also find niche
trade publications where you can write authoritative articles.
"Writer's Market" includes some trade publication listings; see this
book's Amazon listing here:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1582970440/qid=1037486975/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_2/102-3770465-9858513?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
You can also check out guides to periodicals found in your local
libraries reference section. Each article should end with your web
address, of course.
You should also attend conferences where you might meet potential
clients. Be sure to have lots of business cards with your web address
on them. Also be sure your web site has testimonals/recommendations,
if possible.
Every letter, email, brochure, invoice, or fax that you send out
should also have your web address on it.
There are also printed web directories (something like the Yellow
Pages). Don't miss the opportunity to be listed in them. For more
information on these, visit:
http://www.westward.com/byob/byob04.htm#Listed
Find sites that aren't in direct competition with you, but are still
somehow related to your business, and be sure to exchange links with
them. A good way to do this is simply to email the webmaster saying
you wanted to let them know that you're adding a link to his or her
site on your own website...then suggest that they reciprocate (and
give them all the info they need to do this).
You may wish to buy ad space on the web, but be sure that it is well
targeted. Don't buy "generic" space, or space that *might* be seen by
folks who are potential customers; make sure it is *likely* to be
mostly seen by potential customers. For more information on targeted
ads, see:
http://www.westward.com/byob/byob04.htm#Swap
If you decide to hire a marketing consultant, choose carefully. Here
are some good tips, offered by a company that specializes in online
marketing:
http://www.westward.com/byob/byob04.htm#Faster
It cannot promote any specific companies, so I would advise you (if
you decide you want help marketing your site) to do the following
Google search: website creation business:
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=website+creation+business&btnG=Google+Search
You will find not only people claiming to specialize in Internet
marketing, but businesses that not only do a little web marketing, but
create and maintain websites. However, you will most likely be better
off hiring a local advertising/marketing firm; to find one, check your
local Yellow Pages.
For a good basic article on promoting online businesses, visit:
http://biz.howstuffworks.com/online-biz-promotion.htm
For articles on creating and maintaining online businesses, go to:
http://www.onlinebusiness.com
For some tried-and-true online marketing ideas, visit:
http://www.theladiesclub2000.com/beginners.htm
An intriguing site about marketing online businesses:
http://www.gmarketing.com/
Keywords Used:
promoting online business
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=promoting+online+business&btnG=Google+Search
Hope this helps! If anything needs clarification, please don't
hesitate to post one.
kriswrite |
Request for Answer Clarification by
henry041696-ga
on
16 Nov 2002 19:05 PST
Hi Kris & Darrell, my client responds to you directly, for
clarification:
I recently had a 3-page website up, but forgot to renew it, and now
need to put it back up. I can either renew the old site and get that
text back, or produce a new site from scratch. I remember putting
metatags on this site, or I should say "submitting" them to this
company, who provided my website from a template I played with. They
assured me that my "metatags" were on my website. However, I did
attempt to get listed on the major search engines, once on my own and
then later, through one of those "mass" listing providers. Either
way, I did not seem to get traffic from the web, as I would have
expected. I have been told by colleagues that there are tricks to
this. I assumed I didn't know the tricks, so should have someone who
has time to specialize in learning these tricks apply them to my
website. But, from what you said, it does sound like it might be best
to just do it myself. I have narrowed my topic down, but didn't want
to take up a lot of space clarifying that in my question.
But... after contemplating this a bit, and your responses, I think I
should say that I have narrowed my focus down to medical (including
veterinary) writing, scientific, and fiction, in terms of search
engines and promoting web traffic. I think that there are enough
"tricks" involved in proper website promotion with search engines that
I should have a professional in this arena do this for me. I think
that is the best way to ensure response to my website; I have plenty
of colleagues to work as contractors should I receive too much
traffic. I have done this myself before, as you suggested, but I did
not get much response at all. I don't know if this is because I am
primarily relying on website design and promotion by a company/ies
(Network Solutions) or whether I dnon't know precisely what to do.
At this point, my primary question is whether there are special
"tricks" that I need to be aware of simply to get web traffic. I
assume that some of that might be answered in the articles you
mentioned. However, I don't have time to do a lot of reading right
now to figure this out. I have a friend who has so much business from
the web that she has developed a set of about 20 contractors to help
her with her writing/editing/mentoring work. I know plenty of top
people in different fields that I can use as contraactors. I would
prefer to get more traffic than I can handle than none or little. The
truth is that I could readily have others handle anything I could not.
But, there is no point in having a website if you can't get
appropriate traffic to it. And that was the point of my question,
really.
If I simply submit my site to the search engines you suggested, I'm
not sure I can be certain of receiving traffic, since I did that once
before. This is why I thought I must need a professional, but I was
not looking simply for a reference to the yellow pages. However, I
would be glad to do this myself if I knew precisely where I should
submit my site and what the "tricks" are. If you truly think the
references you mentioned will provide me with everything I need to
know to successfully submit my site and get immediate response to it,
then I will follow your gameplan. However, if I am not likely to get
immediate traffic that way, then I would prefer to hire a professional
in this arena who could affirm that and I would rather have you tell
me specifically who would be good at that by your research on it,
rather than how I can do it myself.
So, in conlcusion, if you can go to your references and provide
step-by-step instructions for me to follow, as I essentially
requested, to adequately promote my website on my own, then I will
follow those guidelines. However, if that might not produce optimal
results or if it seems too time consuming to you, then I would
appreciate it if you would use your research skills to provide me with
the names of individuals or companies who have shown promise in
providing this service to others. That was my original question.
What I would then expect would be references to their recommendations
by others, rather than references to how I can do this myself. If you
trulmore traffic doing this myself, then please summarize the steps
for me.
Thank you very much. I will provide a tip commensurate with what I
interpret to be the time, care, and sincerity involved with answering
this question. If you don't want to answer it at this point, please
make it available for others to answer asap. Thank you, again. And,
actually, if you decide to provide a thorough, step-by-step
instructional response to this, you could publish it in various
sources. And/or, I will post it on my website (or a link to it) with
a reference to you as a good resource for whatever you do, whether it
is research or (?).
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
henry041696-ga
on
16 Nov 2002 19:18 PST
I'm not sure whether I need to post this, but just wanted to make sure
that it showed up that the answer needs "clarification."
|
Clarification of Answer by
kriswrite-ga
on
17 Nov 2002 11:31 PST
Thank you for your clarification, henry041696; it is now more clear to
me precisely what you are looking for :)
I do believe that the best route is to do the work yourself.
Unfortunately, most companies that offer to do the work for you don't
take a lot of time and care to do so. Most submissions are made en
masse, with little thought about meta tags, keywords, and such.
Therefore, let me summarize some of the information provided in the
links I gave in my original answer.
META TAGS
"Meta tags are coded lists of your key words and company or business
descriptions that do not show up on your pages when viewed with a
browser, but are visible within the HTML code of the page for the
crawling spiders to see. For example, you would set up your meta tags
like this:
<meta name="description" content="PUT YOUR COMPANY DESCRIPTION HERE">
<meta name="keywords" content="PUT YOUR KEY WORDS HERE">
There are also some other meta tags you can use to tell the [web
search engine] spider what type of document it is, how often you want
the spider to revisit, and how your content should be classified (i.e.
consumer, business, etc.). This code is then placed right below the
<title> of your page which falls directly below the <html> and <head>
of the page. You can also include a meta tag for your page title to
help reinforce it. Your page should look like this:<html>
<head>
<title>INSERT YOUR PAGE TITLE HERE</title>
<meta http-equiv="title" content="PUT YOUR TITLE HERE">
<meta name="resource-type" content="PUT YOUR DOCUMENT TYPE HERE">
<meta name="revisit-after" content="PUT YOUR PREFERRED VISIT INTERVAL
HERE">
<meta name="classification" content="PUT YOUR PRODUCT CLASSIFICATION
HERE">
<meta name="description" content="PUT YOUR COMPANY DESCRIPTION HERE">
<meta name="keywords" content="PUT YOUR KEY WORDS HERE"> " ("Promoting
Your Online Business" by Lee Ann Obringer, HowBIZWorks,
http://biz.howstuffworks.com/online-biz-promotion1.htm )
KEYWORDS
See the meta tag that says "name=description"? Well, remember that
your meta tag descriptions should be more than a string of keywords.
Some search engines will simply list those descriptions as the
description for the home page...which won't be as attractive to
potential customers as a real, meaty description. Generally, the
description should be 200 to 250 characters, though only a small
portion of this may end up being displayed in the actual search engine
listing. An example of a meta tag description is: "This tutorial
explains how to change the oil in your car or truck, whatever make or
model it may be. From YourCar.com, a layman's guide to maintaining and
caring for vehicles."
Your actual web pages should also have keywords, up toward the top of
each page. Also use your page titles to list keywords; the latter is
often neglected and can really affect your search engine ranking. It's
also a good idea to create a separate page for each keyword that
potential client might find you with. Remember that you can use
keywords to list synonyms of words that don't actually appear on your
page, too.
"Be very selective about your keywords. Be your customer. Think the
way they think. Use the most likely key words and phrases that your
customers will be looking for and use them in your titles and meta
tags. Also think about excess words you might be putting in that
simply get in the spider's way. For example, you don't need to use
"Services: Lawn Mowing," just use "Lawn Mowing" as your page title. To
get a list of the most frequently searched keywords you can go to
searchterms.com. You might see a word or phrase that would fit your
product listing that you hadn't thought of before." ("Promoting Your
Online Business" by Lee Ann Obringer, HowBIZWorks,
http://biz.howstuffworks.com/online-biz-promotion1.htm )
Be sure that your keywords are visible. Sometimes people try to "hide"
the keywords from web users by putting them in the same color as the
background, or in a tiny font, etc. Most search engines these days
know these tricks, and ignore those keywords. So remember, if it isn't
visible to your customers, it is probably not visible to a search
engine.
"Consider 'expanding' your text references, where appropriate. For
example, a stamp collecting page might have references to "collectors"
and "collecting." Expanding these references to "stamp collectors" and
"stamp collecting" reinforces your strategic keywords in a legitimate
and natural manner. Your page really is about stamp collecting, but
edits may have reduced its relevancy unintentionally. " ("Search
Engine Placement Tips," by Danny Sullivan,
http://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/tips.html#position )
SUBMISSION
You should submit pages of your web site on a regular basis. Every day
some sites are dropped from search engines, and others are added. To
submit your site to a search engine that I haven't already mentioned,
go to their home page and look for a link (usually at the bottom of
the page) that says something like "add a site," "add a link," or
"suggest a site." It will give you instructions on how to submit your
site to properly. Be patient, though. I can take a month or two for
your site to show up in the search engine.
When you submit your site to a search engine, list your key words and
site description, as well as URLs for specific pages within your site
(unless the instructions tell you otherwise). You may have to submit
each of your page's URLs.
LINKING
Linking is also crucial, since the more links you have pointing to
your site, the more some search engines will give you a higher
ranking. So don't neglect exchanging links with other sites! Lots of
linking within your own site will also make it easier for search
engines (and potential customers) to discover more about you and your
site.
Some search engine "crawlers" will respond well to a page on your
website devoted to links to all of your URLs. The page shouldn't have
viewable text, except for links to each page on your site. It should
be connected to your home page.
GRAPHICS:
While having graphics toward the top of your web page may look nice,
they won't help your search engine ranking. Try to have text toward
the top of your page...because text is what search engine's read. This
applies to links within your website, also. If they are only provided
via graphics, search engines will have trouble reading them, and
therefore won't get to meatier pages within your website.
OTHER TIPS
* "Use your key words in the "alt tags" for all of your images and
links.
* Make your file names consistent with your key words.
* Create a site map and link it to all of your pages (this will
operate similarly to the "crawler" page)."
* Some major search engines can't follow frames, so it's not a bad
idea to avoid them within your site.
WEB DIRECTORIES
The most popular one is probably WebBound:
http://www.webbound.com
Another is WebGuide:
http://www.webguidemag.com
As mentioned previously, these can help make your site more visible.
And once you are listed in search engines, check for your listings
frequently. If your pages disappear, or are altered somehow, or are no
longer active, resubmit right away.
That covers it! But if you need further clarification because you feel
your question hasn't been answered well, please don't hesitate to post
another clarification.
kriswrite
|
henry041696,
You are correct that simply submitting your site to search engines may
not be enough to actually get it listed. There are a number of key
elements that must be incorporated into your website to make it
search-engine-friendly and likely to get indexed. Furthermore, there
are other elements than you definitely don't want on your website,
because they can get you banned from search engines entirely.
I would like to caution you that, just because a company that provides
website design and/or marketing services SAYS that they know what
they're doing, it may not necessarily be true. In fact, we recently
had a question posted here by the proprietor of a company promoting
itself on its website as an expert in SEO (Search Engine
Optimization). Their question was something along the lines of "How do
I get my site listed on Google?" Pretty scary, huh?
One good way to check the credentials of a company which you are
considering hiring to design and/or promote your site is to ask them
for a list of at least a dozen clients. Then, take that list and visit
every site on it. Check each site to see if there is any sort of
"designed by Website Designs, Inc." or "a partner of XYZ Marketing
Company", etc. If you can't find on that site any mention of the
person/company you are considering hiring, then note the phone number
and e-mail address of the company. Also look on the main page for a
couple of keywords other than the company's name that would probably
not be common to all other similar sites, such as "since 1967" "first
and foremost" "for 50 years".
While you're on the site, if the company says they designed it, poke
around for a bit. See how it looks. Do the pages load fairly quickly?
Is the site organized logically? Can you get to any page on the site
in 3 clicks or less? Are the graphics pleasing, but not too noisy?
Does the site seem to communicate its company's business clearly and
concisely? Do all the links work?
Then, take your list of phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Call each
of these companies and ask them who is doing their web design and/or
marketing for them. It is not at all unheard of for
less-than-reputable companies claim that they had a hand in certain
successful sites, when in fact the owners of those sites have never
even heard of the person/company in question. Don't just take their
word that this is their work. Verify it.
If it turns out that they really ARE responsible for the sites they
provided, go out on several search engines and look up each site using
common key words that you would expect to bring up that site. For
instance, for a mortgage company in Nashville, TN, try various
combinations of keywords like "mortgage" "mortgages" "loan" "loans"
"home" "homes" "financing" "Nashville" "TN" "Tennessee", and the
unusual keywords that you noted while you were visiting the site.
If you can't get the site to come up in search engines, try adding the
company's name with several of the other keywords. If you still can't
get the site to come up this way, the website design/marketing company
might not be nearly as good as they say they are.
Finally, when you do hire someone, get it in writing in the contract
that if your site isn't coming up on search engines within 2 months of
its launch, you get a full or partial refund of the fees you paid. If
they aren't willing to agree to this, I would say that it's a real red
flag about the reputability of the company.
I hope this information helps you make your website very successful!
Regards,
aceresearcher |
