Search Engine Optimization, Advertising 101
COPYRIGHT 2008 PC World Communications, Inc.
YOU CAN’T SIMPLY open a new Web site, sit back, and expect a horde of visitors to show up at your virtual storefront. You must promote your site. Search engine optimization (SEO) and paid advertising on search engines, if done right, can strengthen your online business and your bottom line.
Maximizing Search Position
SEO is the practice of modifying Web pages to enhance their visibility in search engine results. If your business sells, say, left-handed widgets, your goal is to be listed near the top of the results if someone performs a search using the keywords “left-handed widgets.” If your site isn’t within the top 30 search results, research shows, very few visitors will click through to it.
To reach a high rank in a search engine, you must learn to think like the robots (also called spiders and crawlers) that search engines such as Google use to find and catalog Web pages. First, learn to describe your products and services at your Web site using words that your prospective customers will likely use in a search (most search engines understand words, not images).
Search-engine robots give certain aspects of a Web page, such as its title and its major headings, special emphasis. So don’t squander the potential benefit by using a nondescript title like “Home Page of Rick’s Online Store” (search bots won’t even notice that). Instead, devise a detailed title that reinforces the primary anticipated search term for the page, such as “Left-Handed Widget Superstore, San Francisco, CA.”
Links to your site from other, well regarded sites can boost your search-result rankings, too. I recommend contacting the Webmasters of related (but not competing) sites for link opportunities. Contact them personally, not via an annoying automated link spammer (which most recipients will ignore).
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How can you tell whether a potential link partner site is generally well regarded? The Google browser toolbar’s PageRank tool rates the popularity of a given site from 0 (worst) to 10 (best).
Monitor your progress by checking your site’s “referer log” (yes, that’s how it’s spelled, typically) to see where your visitors came from and what search terms they used to reach your site.
Don’t expect instant results from SEO. The robots must comb through millions of Web pages, so you may have to wait three months or longer to see the full benefit of your optimized site.
After implementing basic SEO measures, don’t stop. The Search Engine Optimization Forum (www.highrankings. com/forum), run by Boston-based SEO services firm High Rankings, offers many more SEO tips and discussions.
Search Engine Advertising
If you don’t want to wait months for SEO benefits to kick in, consider advertising on search engines. This approach can increase site traffic within a day.
The easiest and most popular type of search engine advertising to set up is the pay-per-click (PPC) text ad. You write short text ads that appear next to the search results for specific terms or keywords that people enter in a search engine; then you pay for each visitor who clicks your ad and jumps to your site.
According to the Web traffic measurement company Hitwise, the most popular search engines in the United States are Google (with a search share of 66 percent), Yahoo (21 percent), and MSN (5 percent). Given Google’s dominance, PPC ads on Google AdWords are likely to deliver the greatest number of visitors to your site. Running PPC ads on Yahoo and Microsoft, however, will increase your advertising reach and may cost less for certain search keywords.
The cost can range from a few cents to several dollars per click, depending on advertiser demand for keywords. You may set a daily or monthly maximum charge to ensure that you don’t exceed your budget.
Crafting your PPC ad is a bit like writing a two-line classified newspaper ad with a heading. Choose your phrasing and keywords carefully to attract the visitors you want. Test several ads to determine which works best.
Finally, if you sell only locally, don’t waste money advertising nationwide. Use the service’s geotargeting capability to restrict ads to visitors from a limited area, such as your city or state.
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