TLCI not only designs and develops web pages, but works with clients to make sure their sites are found prominently.
With all the changes taking place in the search engine/directory community, I encourage regular content updates along with search engine submission and promotion. I offer these services based on hourly rates or for a regular retainer.
Not only should some content change regularly on a site, the search engine promotion strategies need to be revisited and resubmitted regularly to be sure your web presence has high visibility.
At the very least, search engine resubmissions should be done annually.
I am looking for clients who are interested, not only in a great website, but who want to maintain a prominent position in search engine placement.
How do you ATTRACT CUSTOMERS TO YOUR SITE?
To get high search engine visibility there are five major factors involved:
- Content
- Popularity—the more clicks to your site, the better the rank
- Do something to vary content—keep them interested and coming back regularly
- Capture new traffic- suggest that customers tell a friend, or add a little program so they can do it easily
- Establishing yourself as an expert that people want to go to for advice. Create an E-Newsletter, post articles for other sites to use, create a Blog, join online Newsgroups. Be sure your website address is a obvious and you have a link to your website in any and all of these options.
- Establish a permission based email list. Ask people to submit their email address to you so you can let them know about changes, promotions, or new information on your site.
- New website? Put a announcement in the paper to promote the site and your business.
- Give aways-- mousepads, notepads with your logo and webaddress
- Include your web address and a good tag line in your Email Signature File
- Linking
- Submissions
- Search Engines
- Paid Inclusions- Pay Per Click or PPC
- Directories - based on categories
- Meta Indexes
- Coding
You have 5 seconds to catch their attention, make sure you provide pertinant information to your target audience so they stay and learn more
TLCI can then design to meet your needs and make sure your look and content is compelling
Encourage repeat traffic
Find the organizations, directories, local business sites where a link to your site is appropriate and submit your site for inclusion in them. The more strategically chosen links you have to your site the better. Many of these links will be free; others may have a relatively low cost associated with them.
Do reciprocal links only if it makes sense for your site!
The more links to your site, the more opportunity for search engine spiders to find you. The more links, the better chance for visits. You should target the high-traffic sites that are of interest to your target market.
Even though a number of spiders constantly crawl the web, its better to be proactive and submit your pages to appropriate free search engines. If you change content, the pages should be submitted again. If location is important, make sure you included this information
It can take from 8-12 weeks for your submitted pages to be indexed, or rejected, by the engines that are still accepting free inclusions.
This is a completely different kind of ad campaign. It’s got to be researched and prepared carefully. But if you are concerned with being on the first page of search results, it is a necessary step.
Pay per click refers to online advertising programs that let users bid on specific key words or phrases. When a user searches on these key terms, he sees your ad, your sponsored link. If he decides to click on that ad, you are then charged a fee for the referral.
With PPC advertising, you don’t have to wait months to see yourself show up in a search engine, your product or service shows up almost immediately. You determine what your keywords are, the maximum you are willing to bid for your keywords, and you can decide on a maximum you want to spend each month. And the text of your ad can be changed at any time and as frequently as you wish.
With PPC, generally the higher you bid for a term, the higher you are in the search results for that keyword.
If you advertise on Google, you also show up on NYT, AOL, Ask Jeeves, and other search engines though partnerships that have been developed. And with AdWords, you are able to target geographically where you want your ad to appear
With Overture, your search results show up on Yahoo, Alta Vista, MSN and many others.
The cost per click can range anywhere from 3 cents to $50 or more.
Directories are maintained by human administrators. Some directories permit free submissions, others require you to pay. In general, you can wait up to 8 weeks for submission in a directory, or you can pay a fee for “expedited” review.
Metaindexes are list of internet resources that pertain to a specific category or topic and are developed as a resource for people interested in that topic
Some meta indexes have Submit or Add your Site buttons, others may require an email to the owner of the list.
Some are free, others may charge.
Use HTML to your advantage.
Create unique and meaningful Title tags for each page
Include Metatags on each page, tailored to that page - keywords and description
Make sure your content makes use of the key terms you think should be on the page
Use other html tags within the document to ensure search engines know what terms you think are important.
Provide internal links to other pages in your site.
Understand that search engines read text, they can not read graphics. Keep this in mind as you plan your site.
TLCI will work with both owners of site I develop and sites I haven’t to support to insure their sites are effective.
Effective—meaning they meet your goals—that your target audiences both find your site and take advantages of your services.
Promoting you site, is not a one time thing. You need to keep at it to make sure your content and rankings are where you need them to be.