|
Ok, so you have a great website but nobody's coming to it. You're not alone - this is very common.
Having a new domain name is a lot like having a new phone number. As soon as you get that new number, the phone doesn't start ringing, does it? Of course not. You have to give your number out to all your frends and family and then you get calls. If your new phone number is for a business, you would do things like get it listed in the phone book and put it on your ads, business cards, stationery and maybe even some pens or t-shirts - you get the idea. After the name of your company and a description of what you offer is out there, people would give you a call. You need to do the same thing with your website.
Getting Found in Search Engines
One of the best places to be found is in search engines, like Google, right? Other good ones are Yahoo!, MSN and Ask.com. That's where people are looking so that's the best place to be.
There are lots of techniques to get ranked well on search engines. Let's talk about a few of them here. This is just meant to be a primer on the vast subject of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is quickly becoming an industry all on its own. To become an expert, like anything, you need to devote time to it and study it. The good thing is, the information you need is out there. It'll just take time reading articles - like you're doing now.
- Get links from other websites. Every other site out there that links to your site is like that site "voting" for you. The higher that site ranks and the more relevant it is to your site, the greater benefit your site will receive in terms of your ranking. So find other sites that relate to yours and ask for links.
- Get one-way links from other websites. What this means is, instead of trading links ("I'll link to your site if you link to mine") you just get other sites to link to your site without you linking back to them. Sometimes this is done by having 2 similar sites. You use one to just give links out to others (along with having valuable content)0 and use the other one to receive links from others. This could be a lot of work since you have to maintain 2 sites instead of 1 but it could be very well worth the effort if you choose this as a main strategy.
- Get links from directory websites:
- Get listed at DMOZ.org. This is a good, free directory which helps your website, but it's hard to get listed in.
- Get listed at Yahoo's Directory. The listing fee is $299 but having this link is important.
- Get listed at Best of the Web.The listing fee is $249.95 but this is one of the oldest directories on the web.
- Get listed on other directories that pertain to your site. The best ones are website directories that have a small, one-time fee and do not require a link back to them - so a one-way link. This site, WisconsinClick.com, is a good example and others can be found at OneWayTextLink.com and at MadisonClick, Inc.'s main website.
More Help With SEO
It's true that many factors go into getting a good site ranking. It often starts with a website that's coded well. You want as much as possible to be text and not images - including the navigation. Your page titles should be meaningful. If they say "Untitled" then change them immediately.
The text (or "copy") of your website needs to be meaningful, original and relevant. Come up with a list of keywords you want to be found with and write some content focusing on 3-4 kewords per page and no more than that. Use those words enough in your copy but not too much. If you're not a writer, then you can hire a copywriter to write content for you.
You can also hire an SEO firm to help you promote your website. This is a costly option but is very well worth it for e-commerce websites.
SEO Elite Software: The Grand Daddy Of All SEO Software!
Get A Top 5 Google Ranking In Under 30 Days! |
There is also some software out there that can help you pick the best keywords. You'll want to start off finding keywords that relate to your site, are words that people are typing into search engines but keywords that are not too saturated with results. With this strategy, you can focus on your selected keywords when writing your copy and titling your pages and it'll be easier to get good rankings.
The Bottom Line
You're only going to get out of website promotion what you put into it. Either you'll work at it a lot or you'll pay someone else to work at it a lot. There are a lot of sites out there and many thousands of pages being added an hour. You can rank well if you work at it. And once you're there, it's a lot easier to stay up there - you'll probably put in 1/3rd as much work as it took to get there so that you can move on to your next project.
Have fun!
More Links / Resources:
|
Help