Internet marketing article "How to Attract Visitors to your Website"

25 April 2005

Every day an increasing number of people use search engines to find a business on the web. According to latest statistics by ACNielsen 16 million people in Australia used either Microsoft, Yahoo or Google to find a website in March 2005. This number doesn't even include other search engines such as AskJeeves, Teoma or AOL which are also popular. What this means is that in order for your website to attract large numbers of visitors, you need to make sure people can find you in the major search engines.

HOW DO I SUBMIT MY SITE TO GOOGLE, YAHOO, OR MSN?

Unfortunately we can't tell Google how we want to be listed, and we can't tell Google that we want our websites to appear on the first page of search engine results. If Google enabled businesses to dictate these terms, they would not be any different to the Yellow Pages, and the whole model would move to a paid listing basis where only the big companies can afford the higher ranked listings.

Fortunately, the search engines are not like Yellow Pages, so even the small business with a limited budget can get a high search engine ranking. However, like anything in life, there is no quick fix to achieve a high ranking for your website. This will only happen as a result of dedication and hard work.

Additionally, how fast and how successful you are is largely dependent on the subject matter (does your website provide highly sought after information or service?) and competition (are there many other websites that are also vying for top search engine spot?).

For those businesses that are prepared to do the work, below is a pragmatic 15 point guide on how to improve your rankings. Implement all 15 points and you are guaranteed to rank highly within one year of launching your website and attract thousands of visitors.

PREPARE A SOLID FOUNDATION

1. Establish a Good Domain Brand

Buy a domain name that has strong branding, rather than a domain that uses your services keywords. For instance, google.com is better than searchengine.com. Keywords in your domain were once seen as critical but now are of very little importance.

You can check here for domain name availability.

2. Use a Quality Hosting Solution

Host your website on servers with high service availability, fast access speeds, and get a dedicated IP number for your hosting account. It doesn't help if your website is down when a search engine decides to visit your site, or equally if it takes a long time to retrieve data from the web server.

3. Plan Your Website Content

Make a plan for how your site will look in one year's time. Plan for 100 pages in terms of how you structure your site and set-up your navigation menus. 100 pages might sound daunting, but you will get there with doing a little bit every day. Proper planning of site design will accommodate organic growth and will reduce development time down the road.

4. Write Good Content Based Around Your Keywords

Make sure when you write your content that you are keeping in mind the keywords for which you want your site to be found. Remember that search engines will only include your website for keywords that they can find on your website. Follow some basic rules when writing your content:

When purchasing the Search Engine Optimisation Plus package, we make a full assessment of the above and will provide you will a full set of recommendations on how to address your issues.

5. Use the Right Keywords

Understand what your customers are looking for when they use search engines. There's no point in building your website content around a keyword like "liquid dairy products" when 90% of search queries are for "milk". Invest a little bit of money to find out which are the most used keywords for your business type and ensure your site is built around those keywords.

Redalto can provide a custom keyword report for AUD$120. Contact us to find out more.

6. Don't Be Too Specific (Use Broad Keywords For Your Site)

It is better to be have website content of 50 related subjects rather than focussing only on one subject. You are more likely to be found when doing so and as long as the subjects relate directly to your business, will increase your chances of selling your goods or services.

BUILD YOUR WEBSITE FOR SEARCH ENGINES

7. Build Your Website Correctly

When building your website, it is very important that your website is constructed correctly. The reason for this is that it is important that search engines can effectively read and navigate through your website. If they can't do this it will be that much more difficult for them to index your keywords into their database. The basic rule is keep your website simple and logical:

For the average business owner, this item is difficult to monitor without having web development skills. This is why it's important to choose the right web developer such as Redalto Website Design, who can be counted on to adhere to the above rules.

8. Include a Site Map

Create a one page index which lists all your pages in your website. Search engines like site maps as it makes their job easier. Ensure every listed page links through to that page, and use the most important keyword in your anchor text when listing that page. Place a link to the sitemap at the bottom of every page on your website.

9. Create In-Site Cross Links

Make sure whenever you include a keyword in your site that you create a link through to the main page of that keyword. Make sure you use correct anchor text for the link (see below). Also Include your top 5 keywords as cross links at the bottom of every page.

10. Use Your Keywords In Your Link Anchor Text

Link anchor text is the text that is included in the link itself. Make sure you use your keywords as the in the anchor text of your links. For example if you're writing about mountain bikes rather than writing, "I use Brand X mountain bikes [click here for information].", Write, "I use Brand X mountain bikes" Doing this tells the search engine that "brand X mountain bikes" are important keywords for the page/site you are linking through to.

PUBLISH & PROMOTE

11. Submit Your Site To Search Engines, Directories, & Subject Authority Sites

Submit to the main search engines; Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and AOL. These cover over 90% of search queries, and most other search engines use content of the top 4.

Get a listing with the major search engine directories. Below are the 2 main ones, and being linked by one or both will give your site considerable credibility with the search engines.

Additionally, for every subject of interest there will be several authority websites. Contact these sites about getting included in their directories, or gaining a link. Remember that all links to your site need to include your keywords in the anchor text.

All websites that are developed by Redalto are submitted to the major search engines for free.

12. Obtain In-Bound Links From Websites With Similar Topics

The popularity of your site is an important factor determines how well your site is ranked in search engine results. Popularity is essentially measured by the number of websites that link to your website. The more websites that have links to your website, the more "valuable" your site is to potential website visitors.

A few rules need to be followed in obtaining links:

To obtain links, simply email the webmaster of a website with a request. Usually you have to reciprocate a link in order to get one. Redalto can providing assistance with setting up a link exchange and source inbound links for you.

13. Update Your Website Regularly

This is probably the most important factor in achieving search engine success. Search engines value websites that provide fresh new content on a regular basis. Ideally add one page of new content per day. If you can't do this, at least add one page per week, or as often as possible. Adding or updating content on existing pages also helps but not as much as adding completely new content.

Tip: when you come across an article related to your industry or service you provide, think about making a summary and linking back to the source article (do not copy articles as this breaches copyright and search engines can pick up on duplicate content and penalise your site for this).

Also when updating your site, make sure you keep up-to-date with your industry and add topics that are being most talked about.

MONITOR, REVIEW & ADJUST

14. Monitor Your Website Visitors

Good website statistics packages will not only show you how many visitors your website receives, but what keywords they used to find you, and which search engines they used.

Use the right statistics package and make sure you check for the following things

Redalto Web Hosting solutions include free full featured graphical website statistics.

15. Check Search Engine Ranking

After 6 months (and not earlier), check how your pages rank in search engines. That is, what position are you on search engines for each keyword. There are several software packages that can assist with this, or if you are a Redalto Web Hosting customer you can obtain a free report once every 6 months.

Don't check this too early as you are likely to get frustrated at the lack of success in the beginning. Accept from the start that it will take at least 3 - 6 months for your site to start appearing in search engines. It is a known fact that Google will not include new sites in their search engine for at least 8 months (a phenomenon known as the Google Sandbox).

If you have a high ranking, keep doing what you're doing.

If you have a low ranking, review the above points to ensure you are covering all the points and improve your activities accordingly. Check back again in 6 months.

KEY POINTS TO REMEMBER

1. Write good content
2. Build your site with search engines in mind and build it right
3. Publish your site to search engines and 3rd party websites to generate interest in your site
4. Update your website content regularly

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