|
As many as 300 million people may be using the Internet daily.
The overwhelming majority of them begin their online sessions at a search
engine, directory or other "Internet portal" that contains search features.
How does a group of users – which may be interested in your product or
service – know that you have information to share or products to sell? When someone queries
a search engine for a keyword or phrase related to your site's products or services, does
your page appear in the top 10-30 matches? Or, do your competitors' sites?
If you are listed, but not within the first two or three
pages of results, congratulations. You're listed in the index; but, no one will find you.
Try a search yourself for a keyword or
phrase that relates to your business, products or services on
any major search engine. Notice the hundreds, thousands, or
hundreds-of-thousands of Web pages (not sites) that are indexed.
Where do your pages fall within that index?
Visibility on search engine indexes is crucial for
any organization to take advantage of the Internet. You will want
to optimize your web site's ranking for keywords and phrases relevant to the
content provided. The
theme you'll hear from most Web marketers these days is this, "Do more than just
submit your page(s) for indexing."
Each search engine or directory has its own quirks, preferences and
taboos. Your pages need to be constructed and written properly, coded correctly, and submitted
effectively to be indexed. However, what may be acceptable to one index, say Lycos, may be
entirely rejected by AltaVista or MSN, or one of the other majors. Then, you face the challenges of directories
like Yahoo--one of the most popular Internet portals.
The most efficient way to insure that your targeted markets
find your Web site is to systematically improve your site's relevance for keyword and
phrase queries through those major search engines.
This is not an easy task. Nor, is
it just a matter of requesting a search engine to index your site's pages. It
will require long hours of trial and error and frustration. The learning curve is
phenomenal – even if you have the time to wrestle with dozens of how-to guides.
Tandem offers different levels of service to achieve high search
engine rankings for client Web presentations. Techniques include Web
site optimization for search engines, email and opt-in marketing.
The links below navigate through a short
course on SEO. To learn more of our programs that have paid handsome
dividends for our clients – and will for you, too,
start
here. The cost for three- and six-month activity
plus monthly maintenance after that period could be less than what you
are paying for a single advertising insertion in a national
publication. |
