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Marketing and Promotion of your Web
Site
This is one of the most misunderstood aspects of the internet. There seems to be
a mentality that unless your site appears in the top 50 listings of all the major
search engines and directories your site is doomed to failure. What a load of garbage.
Once again, the 'experts' are at it again. Here are three golden rules to keep you
on track.
For a small business, the first golden rule is to treat your web address as you would
your phone or fax number. Wherever you see your phone or fax number, you should also
see your web address. This includes all your stationery, advertising and promotional
materials. There are not exceptions. If you take this approach, you'll ensure all
your customers are fully aware of your web site and can visit to gather further information
whenever they need to. Small display advertisements or classifieds in the local paper
can suddenly permit potential customers to find out all about what your business
offers simply by going directly to your web site. This can add immense value to such
advertising activities.
The second golden rule is to ensure you have listed your web site with any local
community directories. Technically, these directories should be promoting their site
to the wider community which would benefit all those listed within that directory.
The more listing such a directory has, the more likely that people will use such
a directory to locate those businesses offering products and or services which will
satisfy their immediate needs.
The third golden rule. Don't worry if your site isn't appearing in the top 50 listings
of major search engines and directories. With an estimated 1 billion web pages currently
being dealt with by the major search engines, you don't have to be a rocket scientist
to realise that gaining a top listing is virtually impossible. Anyone who tells you
otherwise is an 'expert'. In reality, to gain the maximum benefit from major search
engines or directories, you need to ensure your site actually contains words which
would uniquely identify your web site. When a search engine visits your site, they
typically only look at words which help make your site unique. The problem of course,
is that millions of other web sites would probably also contain these words. Therefore,
someone who types in the search term "restaurants" is likely to get millions
of results. If they type in "restaurants australia" then they'd still get
thousands of listings which still doesn't help your site. If they type in "restaurants
australia sydney" then technically only restaurants within Sydney Australia
would be listed. They could refine their search by including a suburb as well, which
if that's where your Restaurant is located, it should come close to putting your
listing up there within the top listings.
What does this tell us? It tells us that you must ensure the pages of your web site
contains enough specific (local) references (words) which would allow a potential
visitors to find you among millions of other listings. Using the above example, if
the words "restaurant australia sydney yoursuburb" are found within the
pages of your site, you are likely to be picked up in a search. It's that simply.
When someone does a search, they know full well that they need to be as specific
as possible to ensure they only see listings for sites of which they actually have
an interest in.
Therefore, as you're preparing the content of your site, you need to include all
those words which someone may use to find your business amongst the 1 billion or
so web pages now located on the internet.
Again, use the forums to ask for clarification,
ideas and suggestions. |
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