Online Marketing 101: (An introduction to website optimization)

What is website optimization?

Website optimization is the term given to everything you can do to achieve the objectives you have for your site. Your website is an information packed tool that must have all the proper elements to create an interest and turn that interest into a specific action or sale in order to be successful. It includes content review, HTML and code review, submission to a variety of web based indexes and a host of other procedures each directed at giving your site the best opportunity to be found by the right targeted audience. It is all about results.

Can I do this myself? (Why should I pay a professional?)

Many of the tools you need to create, submit and manage a web marketing campaign are available to you right now, they are scattered throughout the web. Be prepared to invest considerable money, months of time searching for and evaluating the right tools, software, resources, information and reading hundreds of pages of information on the subject (much of it conflicting) and then be prepared to risk your URL and any traffic you may have now if you make a mistake or try to buck the system.

Or you could pay a professional and get a guarantee.

What are the steps?

• Evaluate your site for content - is it; interesting, informative, unique, easy to navigate, selling your product or service, relevant and professional looking.
• Evaluate all links, pictures and functions, make sure everything functions properly and loads quickly.
• Evaluate your HTML code and Meta Tags (code seen by search engines to categorize and rank your site). Are you using the right Key terms? Do you know exactly which terms are being used by your target customers? Just guessing which terms are the best or looking at your competitor's site is not enough. Please do not fool yourself into thinking that attracting any traffic is good enough. Only promote key terms or post to news groups for unique viewers that are looking for your products. SPAM will inevitably hurt your credibility and can get you thrown out of the engines or cause your ISP to terminate your hosting service.
• Perform a massive submission session including all the major search engines and newsgroups, e-zines and posting services - There are over 300,000 to choose from.
• Evaluate all your efforts and any results to date. Wait two weeks and reevaluate all your efforts and any results to date. Resubmit to all indexes periodically. Be realistic. If you are not getting the results you desire after a few months of hard work, seek competent advice and get assistance. The money and time you will invest in this process will accumulate quickly and even one small mistake could cost you an otherwise successful campaign.
• Look into other options; reciprocal links, banner ads, affiliate programs and the use of new URLs to enhance your web presence.

WEBSITE PROMOTION TIPS "a guide"

HAVE TEXT ON YOUR HOMEPAGE

Search engines catalog the text read from the various home pages the engines visit. If a page lacks descriptive text, then there is little chance that page will come up in the results of a search engine query. It's not enough for that text to be in graphics. It must be HTML text. Some searchengines will catalog ALT text and text in comment and meta tags. To be safe, a straight HTML description is recommended.

Focus on the two or three keywords that you think are most crucial to your site, then ensure those words are both in your title and mentioned early on your web page. Generally, most people will already have those words present on their pages but may not also have them in page titles. We can provide you with a Key Word Report, which is the heart of any campaign, at a very reasonable cost. Without the right Key Terms your project is doomed.

MORE RELEVANT KEYWORDS

Keep in mind that the keywords you consider crucial may not be exactly what users enter. The lack of success with some search engines does not mean that the site isn't being found. Many people find the site by entering more words. For example, if you had a web site centered on "Orange County", others might go to a search engine and enter words such as "Orange County California" or "Orange County Web." The addition of just one extra word can suddenly make a site appear more relevant, and it can be impossible to anticipate what that word will be. The best bet is to focus on your chosen keywords but to also have a complete description. These keywords should be in the text of your site and in the Meta tags. You can also use these same keywords when you submit your own site to search engines.

HAVE LINKS TO INSIDE PAGES

If there are no links to inside pages from the home page, it seems that some search engines will not fully catalog a site. Unfortunately, the most descriptive, relevant pages are often inside pages rather than the home page.

THE META TAG

Meta tags will help you control your site's description in engines that support them. They will NOT guarantee that your site appears first. Adding some meta description code is not a magic bullet that cures your site of dismal rankings, but you should still do it.

Ok.. But what is a meta tag?

A meta tag gives a spider specific information, such as keywords or site summaries, about a site. In Web lingo, meta tags are defined as "information about information."

These tags are part of the HTML code. They stay behind the scenes -- the end user never sees them. A Web author may surround sentences, even whole paragraphs, with these tags. Certain spiders then read the information in the tags as a way to help them index the site.

Can you give me an example?

Here are two common examples of Meta tags that you would put in the header of your HTML document:

<META NAME="description" CONTENT="Auto Web USA is the Automotive Industries Internet Publishing Service. Use AWUSA to find out who's who in the Automotive Industry! See how easy and lucrative it is to advertise your auto products and services on the Information Superhighway.">

<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT= "autos,cars,for sale,services,web hosting,web design,classifieds,dealerships,manufacturers.">

SUBMIT TO THE "BIG 5" AT LEAST

After you have done all the right things with text, keywords, Meta tags, etc. submit yourself to the following search engines. 90% of all traffic come from these locations:

Yahoo	Excite	Lycos
AltaVista	Infoseek

RECIPROCAL LINKS

Swap links with other sites! First place a number of related links on your site, then contact those sites asking for a reciprocal link. You will be surprised how many people are willing to do this. If they are really cooperative ask if you can include a graphic or banner with the link.

BE PERSISTENT

Once you are in an engine, check your site at least once a week. Strange things happen. Pages disappear from catalogs. Watch for trouble, and resubmit if you spot it. Many of you will be tempted to ask us for many of our successful clients' sites and listings, some are provided in our testamonial section only at their discretion. It is unwise to boast about your TOP Rankings as cut throat marketeers abound and are capable of destroying your campaign all too easily. It is for this reason and the price we have paid in the past for complete openess, that our policy is complete confidentiality on all client's programs. Every client is unique and your campaign may far exceed the results of others based on your unique site and Key Terms chosen.

RESUBMIT REGULARLY

Many engines are now visiting sites on a schedule developed from site changes. The engines have grown smart enough to realize some sites only change content once or twice a year, so they don't visit regularly. Resubmitting every month or two will ensure that your site's content is kept current.

HAVE PATIENCE

Some search engines take weeks or months before they update their catalogs. They may be "crawling" each night, but those new findings aren't available to the public until the catalogs are updated. Recent reports reflect that the major search engines are slowing down considerably due to the massive volume of submissions.

DON'T SPAM OR TRY TO "BEAT" THE SYSTEM

For one thing, spamming doesn't seem to work with every search engine. Ethically, the content of most web pages ought to be enough for search engines to determine relevancy without webmasters having to resort to repeating keywords for no reason other than to try and "beat" other web pages. The stakes will simply keep rising, and users will also begin to hate sites that undertake these measures. Efforts would be better spent on networking, link exchanges and alternative forms of publicity. In case you are interested, our programs incorporate all of these points and go beyond the basic rules to achieve the superior results we consistently get. Our expertise lies in the blending of the basics and very creative behind the scenes activities.

FEAR FACTOR

Many new Online business owners fail due to fear and poor information. There are lots of ways to waste money online and many excellent sales people who would be happy to take your money without any guarantee as to your long term profitability. Your Goal is to test your offfers and the marketplace in order to find out what works for you. We offer you the best in factual testing at a very low cost. Our profits are tied to yours.

If you wish to maintain total control of our efforts by keeping all pages on your server and retain ownership of the entire program our setup fee would be $900 per basic package. The reason we do not promote this option extensively is it removes much of the data from our overview and causes delays in revisions to your campaign. But if you need to be in total control it is an option.

INTERNET GLOSSARY OF IMPORTANT TERMS