Search engines are by and far the largest supplier of traffic to
your web site. Moreover, its targeted, meaning the visitors that
arrive at your site were looking for information that you are
delivering. At least this is the goal of the search engines: to
deliver high quality results to web surfers.
Recent major changes in Google, Yahoo and MSN have put the
internet market however in a frenzy. As the search engines battle
it out to be the one producing the highest quality results by
frequently altering their index algorithm, search engine
optimization has taken an almost obsessive importance.
The problem I see is that the battle is not going to end soon and
repeatedly trying to stay ahead by optimizing after each re-
indexing is truly a never ending battle. A balance must be struck
between search engine advertising and other online venues.
Starting out with an online home business business is
intimidating. There is pressure to build a quality site, offer
valuable information, promote, build subscribers,...and the list
goes on and on. Having a few different forms of advertising that
you slowly utilize can payoff big in the long run. With a market
that can change on an hourly basis, you musn't focus too heavily
on any single form of site promotion.
Think of it as your advertising bag of goodies. You reach in and
pull out one method and give it a try. Don't dump all of your
resources into it. Spread them out. Reach in and pick another,
until you have a few in the works. Now pause and see which is
working. Tweak a bit here and there and sit back again.
Continuously re-evaluating your advertising campaigns, you will
begin to grow a deep feeling as to which works for your online
business.
Here are a few types of advertising for your home business you
should consider:
(1) Classified Ads - cheap and short to write.
(2) Article submission - write an article and post for free.
The rewards reaped can be enormous in the long term.
(3) Paid ads in E-Zines - hit those seldom used small niche
markets!
(4) Link exchange - can you bring in traffic from another
site? You betcha!
(5) Newsgroup and Discussion lists - join in on discussions
and pass out a small blurb about your business at the end.
(6) Sig files - after all your online! Make use of all of the
emails you send out daily.
(7) Flyers - yep, offline!
The bottom line here is not to stagnate. Search engines are
important but not the only way to promote. Its better to balance
your site optimization with other promotion strategies. If one
method fails you at least have others to fall back on.
Showing posts with label Search Engine Optimization. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Search Engine Optimization. Show all posts
Friday, October 17, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Pay-Per-Click Advertising & Search Engine Optimization
There are pro's & con's to both Pay-Per-Click advertising and optimizing for natural search engine traffic.
PPC advertising has many great benefits. First of all, you get your traffic going quickly. I have used this advantage many times. I test new products and even new websites through PPC advertising before making a decision to promote or scrap my new website or product idea.
I am a firm believer in testing new products before throwing large amounts of money into advertising. PPC advertising is a great way to do this. For example, with Google's Adwords program, you can post your ad, pay a $5 sign-up fee and have highly targeted traffic to your website within an hour. How is that for efficiency?
Also, you can moniter your click charges and stop them before they get too expensive. By the time you have spent your budget on clicks, you should have a pretty good idea of how successful your product is going to be.
I think of PPC advertising as being the most useful when starting a new business or product. WIth PPC advertising, you can quickly and efficiently find out which keywords you need to target and which products are the most popular.
Once that testing period is over, however, it's time to look into Search Engine Optimization. PPC advertising can be very expensive, costing hundreds, even thousands a month in advertising costs. Once you know what keywords to target, it's time to put together a plan on how you are going to optimize your website. The drawbacks to search engine optimization is that it requires a lengthy amount of time to get your site to rank high with your keywords. That is why I suggest using this method after the testing period is over, when you already know your business will be profitable.
Search Engine Optimization is definately a slow way to get your website traffic if you plan on not using PPC traffic. It could be a long, expensive road before you even begin selling your product. Search engines can take months, even years to start pulling up high with the search engines. But, natural search engine traffic is definately the best long term way to get the majority of your traffic.
When getting your site to start pulling up in SE natural listings there are 2 main things that need to be done:
Add Content
Add Backlinks
Search engine traffic requires you to submit your site to many different search engines and wait, maybe even months for them to spider your website.
I have had much better luck with another route. You can pay a fee to have your website listed in a very high ranking directory like www.dmoz.com (free), www.yahoo.com's directory ($299), sbd.bcentral.com (only $50), or another website where your link is on a page that has a page ranking of 4,5,6 or higher. The sites I mentioned above have rankings of 8 or 9. When you have your link on a site with that high of a ranking, the search engines are spidering those sites constantly and will find your website and spider it very quickly. Not only will they find it quickly but because you are linked to a high ranking site, you will also rank higher with the SE.
When looking for backlinks, focus on sites with content related to yours and high page rankings of 4 or higher.
As for content on your site, try to include about 200-500 words of content or text on most of the pages of your site. Text makes your site bulkier. Make sure to integrate all of the keywords you want to target within the content of your site. Don't worry about cramming the same keywords in over and over. Search engines may possibly even blacklist your site for keyword stuffing, if you try to do that.
There is a lot to know about Search Engine Optimization but, those are the 2 main factors when getting started.
In summary, when starting out, I suggest using PPC advertising for testing products and keywords. Spend time optimizing your site for search engine traffic after you have tested your products and keywords.
Carrie Reeder has been a web marketer for 3 years and has various websites where she sells a variety of products from software to clothing accessories
PPC advertising has many great benefits. First of all, you get your traffic going quickly. I have used this advantage many times. I test new products and even new websites through PPC advertising before making a decision to promote or scrap my new website or product idea.
I am a firm believer in testing new products before throwing large amounts of money into advertising. PPC advertising is a great way to do this. For example, with Google's Adwords program, you can post your ad, pay a $5 sign-up fee and have highly targeted traffic to your website within an hour. How is that for efficiency?
Also, you can moniter your click charges and stop them before they get too expensive. By the time you have spent your budget on clicks, you should have a pretty good idea of how successful your product is going to be.
I think of PPC advertising as being the most useful when starting a new business or product. WIth PPC advertising, you can quickly and efficiently find out which keywords you need to target and which products are the most popular.
Once that testing period is over, however, it's time to look into Search Engine Optimization. PPC advertising can be very expensive, costing hundreds, even thousands a month in advertising costs. Once you know what keywords to target, it's time to put together a plan on how you are going to optimize your website. The drawbacks to search engine optimization is that it requires a lengthy amount of time to get your site to rank high with your keywords. That is why I suggest using this method after the testing period is over, when you already know your business will be profitable.
Search Engine Optimization is definately a slow way to get your website traffic if you plan on not using PPC traffic. It could be a long, expensive road before you even begin selling your product. Search engines can take months, even years to start pulling up high with the search engines. But, natural search engine traffic is definately the best long term way to get the majority of your traffic.
When getting your site to start pulling up in SE natural listings there are 2 main things that need to be done:
Add Content
Add Backlinks
Search engine traffic requires you to submit your site to many different search engines and wait, maybe even months for them to spider your website.
I have had much better luck with another route. You can pay a fee to have your website listed in a very high ranking directory like www.dmoz.com (free), www.yahoo.com's directory ($299), sbd.bcentral.com (only $50), or another website where your link is on a page that has a page ranking of 4,5,6 or higher. The sites I mentioned above have rankings of 8 or 9. When you have your link on a site with that high of a ranking, the search engines are spidering those sites constantly and will find your website and spider it very quickly. Not only will they find it quickly but because you are linked to a high ranking site, you will also rank higher with the SE.
When looking for backlinks, focus on sites with content related to yours and high page rankings of 4 or higher.
As for content on your site, try to include about 200-500 words of content or text on most of the pages of your site. Text makes your site bulkier. Make sure to integrate all of the keywords you want to target within the content of your site. Don't worry about cramming the same keywords in over and over. Search engines may possibly even blacklist your site for keyword stuffing, if you try to do that.
There is a lot to know about Search Engine Optimization but, those are the 2 main factors when getting started.
In summary, when starting out, I suggest using PPC advertising for testing products and keywords. Spend time optimizing your site for search engine traffic after you have tested your products and keywords.
Carrie Reeder has been a web marketer for 3 years and has various websites where she sells a variety of products from software to clothing accessories
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