Cempetitive Edge - Marketing Strategies
Keeping your Web site search engine optimized. Search engine optimization (SEO) improves traffic to your Web site and the quality of return for those searching the Internet for products and services. The higher your site ranks in a keyword search result, the more the searchers will visit your site. A Web site can be search engine optimized at any time. However, the most cost-effective process is to “build” your Web site with SEO in mind. The Internet has evolved tremendously in the past 3 to 5 years, and the leading search engines—Google, MSN, and Yahoo—have refined SEO techniques to a science. Without getting too technical, there are aspects to think about regarding your Web site and the traffic it does or does not generate.
Keyword search capability is critical for organic and paid advertising searches. It’s how people find your Web site. When you look for a product or service, you enter the name of a product or service then get a list of sites where that “key” word appears. Most likely, there are multiple pages of results. The closer your site is to the top of the list in organic or paid searches, the better your chances that someone will visit. Search engines use a variety of methods to help you find what you are looking for. These change often to keep the playing field even, using what is “relevant” based on sites visited, frequency and duration of visits, and more.
One of the most important things you can do for your site is to keep it fresh. Update content frequently using e-newsletters or by blogging, which can entice potential customers to return. Not only will they visit more often, but search engine spiders will index your site more frequently, leading to higher organic rankings.
We talk with many laboratory owners about their Web sites, and most do not take the time to look at their site statistics, which hold a wealth of information about Web site performance, such as where your visitors come from (which search engine referred them), how long they stay, and where they exit (Figs. 1-3). Webmasters and site developers use all of this information to fine-tune the site to get the maximum return on the investment and make sure visitors continue to log on. To ensure people find your Web site, you can take advantage of ad campaigns on Google and Yahoo to make sure your site ranks high in the non-organic search results. These campaigns can be relatively inexpensive but effective, depending upon which keywords you choose and the amount of money you are willing to pay per click. Search engines crawl through the mountains of Internet data using algorithms, spiders, key words, and search data records to help rate sites. Some companies that opt for really busy sites with lots of movement through flash images can interrupt how your site is searched, causing the spiders to skip over your site and lower your ranking. So, developers must use caution and design the site to allow for proper search engine optimization if you want results.
Having a top-rated site cannot be more important when you sell products and services. It allows your potential customers to find you and the products and services they need. To keep your site easily found, you have to mix both organic and paid search results to help push your site to the top of the rankings. But choosing keywords is not the only consideration. Keeping fresh and relevant content on your site helps search engines index it more frequently, making it easier for potential customers to find you. It takes work, but the results far outweigh the effort.
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