Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization & Search Engine Marketing Feb. 24, 2003
Preface
After talking with a number of my clients and colleagues I started to notice a trend with regard to Internet Marketing in general, specifically related to Search Engine Optimization & Search Engine Marketing. It was therefore decided that I would publish, here on my web site, a series of articles on these topics. I have been in the field of Marketing & Internet Marketing since 1997 so I have acquired a vast amount of experience in these fields. In this period I have seen both great success stories along side with huge failures due to unethical marketers and contractors.
Instead of waiting to finish the entire series and then publish it, I decided to publish the individual articles as they are completed. So please be patient as they come and do not forget to check back every few days for new articles and advice.
It is my hope that beyond general enlightenment, they will be usefull for you, a kind of reference manual. Obviously, if you wish to retain my services that would be more than welcome. However, as I stated earlier, the main purpose of this series is to teach you how to successfully market your web site and to avoid falling victim to fraudulent or unethical SEO companies.
Introduction
If you have your own web site, or are planning on starting one, chances are you want as many people as possible to know about it. Most websites are there for a profit, they can sell you something directly or they can just be a kind of online brochure. Just having a web site without marketing it is similar to opening a store in your back yard...with the exception of your family and friends no one will know it is there.
So, how can you market your web site? You start off by making sure that the URL (website address) is on every single piece of paper that leaves your office.
That in itself is not enough, so most people think that the next stage is buying advertising for your site. This can be something small for example an ad in a local newspaper, or it can be a huge investment in a television commercial during the Superbowl. Another way to go is to buy ad space in different web sites and their newsletters. While all of these can work they all have the same basic flaw:
When the time period is up, you have to pay again to be included in the next available slot. If we go back to the newspaper you would have to pay every week or every month to constantly be there.
Most people think that this, having to re-pay again and again, is the only way to advertise....WRONG!!! Among the most cost effective ways to advertise your website is thru the various search engines. Think about it for a minute, most of the search engines do not charge anything to be included in their search results. That is free advertising for you, if you know what you are doing. I personally know of a owner of a web site, who I will not name online, who makes a huge amount of money just thru search engine traffic. This person started his site in April 2002, and by the end of August he was making more than $20,000.00 per month. All while working from his home. How did he do it? He studied the way that search engines work and built his site accordingly.
"Where is the catch?", you ask. The catch is that you have to optimize your web site and web pages, hence the term Search Engine Optimization a.k.a. S.E.O., so that the search engines can "read" them and include them in their results. While the placement itself, in the search engines, usually does not cost you anything, you have to put the time and effort to make sure that the search engines can index your pages. Search engines can not read the text inside of images and most of the do not read any of the texts in flash files.
O.K., so how do I optimize my site for the search engines? We will start off by going over the history of the internet and the search engines and how they work. This will help you understand later on why some practices work while others do not work. Some practices can get your web site penalized or even banned from the search engines, so you have to be very carefull.
Check out our next article on Internet History
SEO & SEM How-to Online Articles Index
|
|
|
|
|
