Planning to
do business online? It is not enough to have a professional
website developed. You need to have that site optimized so
that your prospective customers can find you. Here are some
basic things you can do to help your website get found in
the search engines.
- Register the right Domain Name: does it represent what
you are selling, is it memorable and easily spelled, does
it contain your keywords example: joejohnson.com is not
as effective as bcfishingcharters.com. Discuss this with
your webdesigner before you register the name. You can
register more than one name and have them all pointing
to your main domain.
- Competitive Research: have you researched your competition
online, how did you find them, what keywords did you use,
is your target market more likely to use your industry “buzzwords” or
more commonplace terms, how optimized is your competition,
how much competition is there, have you GOOGLED it?
- Keyword Research: put together sets of your keywords
and see how many competing sites there are, have your friends
and coworkers try them out, test your combinations using
a keyword analysis tool BE A BIG FISH IN A SMALL POND!
- Site Statistics Planning: if you are
going online for the first time have you determined the
success factors
for your site, do you have a program for tracking your
site stats. Site Statistics Analysis: if you have already
been online for a period of time, have you assessed your
web logs and site statistics for :
- How many visitors do you get per day, month, week
- What search engine did they use
- How long did they stay and how many pages did they view
- What keywords did they use to find you
- Do you need to track how many visitors purchase from
your site?
- Budgeting: It often takes 6 to 8 weeks for a site to
get indexed properly by the search engines, have you planned
for other methods of marketing both on and offline to compensate
for the lag time, will you be using paid submission or
pay per click programs.
- Optimized Coding: Have you ensured that your site will
be built with clean code and CSS, no flash navigation or
frames, minimal use of javascript and lots of text
- Content, Content, Content: have you planned for updated
content, is it informative and well laid out, will you
be making regular updates. Sites that are left unchanged
for long periods of time will often be dropped from the
search engines.
- Search Engine Submission: have you developed a search
engine submission plan or will your web designer be doing
this for you?
- Link Exchange: Will you be searching for sites and directories
complimentary to your business that you can exchange links
with to increase your pagerank in Google, the number one
search engine? Have you included a links page on your site
so you can list your link partners?
- Planning and Tweaking: you should be checking your ranking
in the main search engines (Google, MSN, Yahoo) on a regular
basis. Tweak your keywords where needed, your position
will be constantly changing. Resubmit your site to Google
everytime you make an update to your site or every two
months.
Written for the IRC Technology
Breakfast Meeting
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