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There are eight elements that are required to get listed and ranked by major Search Engines and Directories, like Google, MSN, AOL, Yahoo, Excite, Looksmart, Lycos, Netscape, All-The-Web, Ask Jeeves and many others.

Those elements are: Statistics, Content, Meta Tags, Submission, Reporting, Links, Tweaking and Patience.

Getting listed and ranked by major search engines does not happen by sheer luck. It takes some organic (on-going) effort. Web site owners who wish their sites to show up, when people are searching the engines uisng keyrwords/phrases, need to pay close attention to, and address the following major elements.

Statistics - The first step is to monitor your web site and see how much traffic you are currently getting and from what sources. How much traffic comes from Search Engines and which ones produce the most traffic is critical information. You can automate this process using tools such as Web Trends. Analyzing the traffic report can also tell you a lot about its. For example, if you find out that most people are “entering” to your home page and “exiting” from home page, that tells you that visitors do not find your site serious, or attractive, and you need to improve the look&feel of the site, or improve its usability.

Content - Your web pages should be content rich. This means that your pages must be well written and based on the keywords and phrases that best describe your company’s products or services. As an example, if you make “copper jacketed clamps” and “heavy duty vises”, you need to write a web page specifically for those phrases and other keywords/phrases related to your business.

Meta Tags - Meta tags are the HTML codes that go at the beginning of your web page that list your title, description, keywords/phrases, and other important elements. Not all Search Engines use Meta tag information. However, the ones that do will rank your web site high, if you use the proper tags.

Submission - Submission is the manual process that requires submitting your URLs to the Search Engines in which you want to be listed (indexed) in. After you submit, some Search Engines can take weeks or months before your web pages are indexed. You will want to submit every month or so until you see that your web pages are being listed. When you do get listed, your listing might start out low, but with on-going tweaking, your pages should rise up higher in the rankings.

Reporting - Keep a monthly record of your ranking for each keyword/phrase on all the Search Engines you submitted your site to. Using this report you will always know how well the pages are ranked. Over time, this report will help you determine if you need to make any further changes to your pages to improve their ranking.

Links - Creating links going from your site to other sites, links on your pages (linking pages within your site), and links from other Web sites that directly point back to your web pages are very important. The more specific (based on your keyword/phrase) these links are for a particular page, the higher ranking you will get on Search Engines like Google and others.

Tweaking - It might take a few months before your pages are indexed by the search engines. Once they are indexed, and positioned, it will be time to decide what changes are necessary in order to obtain an even higher ranking. Remember, it is an organic process. These changes might require modification to the page content, and tweaking the HTML code and Meta tags.

And finally, Patience - Getting your pages to rank high on the major Search Engines will take patience and persistence. The process of making your pages Search Engine friendly (optimized) is an organic process. Therefore, one has to stay with the process for as long as it takes. The results are well worth the effort.

Hadi Shavarini is the General Manager and co-founder of Blue Robin Inc.- Building eBusiness Infrastructures. Hadi has been involved with web development since mid ’90s. http://www.bluerobininc.com

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Does your website not live up to its fullest potential? Does it not deliver the leads or sales that you originally hoped for? Does it give an inaccurate representation of poor professionalism? Is it such a pain to update that you have almost given up on it?

As a web design and internet marketing firm we come across complaints like these every day, and with good reason. Gone are the days when having a successful web presence simply meant throwing up a simple page with your name, address, and phone number. The internet is becoming more competitive every day and it is important to triumph over your competitors in the online realm of cut throat marketing. Here are a few key tips to get you headed in the right direction to have a profitable website:

Would you buy a pair of shoes in a run-down, dirt floor, straw hut?
Although this is an extreme example hopefully you got the idea. If your website does not convey that your company is professional, respected, trusting, and better than your competition then most likely your website visitors will not want to purchase your products/services or give you their contact information. Yes, this does cost some time and money, but it is well worth the investment. Too many websites give the impression that the real business behind the website is smaller and inadequate compared to reality. How many employees do you think MWI has? 1? 20? 50? If you thought of a higher number then our website has done its job. Get your website up to date and professional. You can do this yourself, have internal employees work on it, or higher a web design firm to take the load off your shoulders; just make sure you make a goal to get it finished.

Make your website a marketing machine!
Having a website that markets your website 24/7 is one of the great benefits of the internet. People are searching for products and services at all times on the internet. Setup your website so it is constantly seeking out new potential clients for you. There are many ways to start online marketing campaigns. You can invest in SEO (search engine optimization, services); this is the process of getting your website to come up in natural search result pages of search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. You can start a SEM (search engine marketing) campaign, sometimes called PPC (pay-per-click). SEM is when you pay search engines like Google or Yahoo to display advertisements in search results in designated “sponsor” areas. With SEM you pay-per-click; i.e. every website visitor you receive from the service you pay the search engine, usually ranging from $.50-$2.50 per visitor. You can start a company blog, write about current hot topics in your industry. You could try website banner advertising; displaying banner ads on other websites. For some having a newsletter is an effective marketing tool. There are many other options out there for marketing your website on the internet, you can find a more comprehensive list on our website.

Don’t let your current website visitors run away!
Your website probably already gets some traffic from different sources. They could come from search engine optimization, links from other sites, offline advertising methods, or many other sources. However in the end it does not matter where they come from or how many website visitors you have every day, if they all leave what is the point? Is it better to have a website that has 30,000 visitors a day with 10 buying a product or 100 visitors a day with 50 who buy your product? Website conversion is a key element to a successful and profitable website. You need to start by analyzing where website visitors are going on your website, what they are doing, what page they are leaving from, and why they are leaving. Installing web analytical software can jumpstart you in the right direction to improve your ROI for your website. There are many free web analytical programs you can install on your website; if you want to know a few resources let us know. After you have analyzed the activities of your website visitors then start making some changes by providing the information they are looking for, making it easy to find what they are looking for, and having an option to take an action (buy product, give you their contact information, etc.) on every page of your website.

We hope this information has helped you realize your goals and the actions you need to take to make your website shine! If you need any suggestions, advice, or guidance on how to make your website turn into your best and most profitable employee we are here to help. We offer free analysis and advice if you simply let us know what your goals are.

Eric Morgan is an internet marketing manager at MWI Web Design.

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Each day more companies are turning to the Internet to provide a targeted way to market their product/services and generate leads and sales. Marketing on the Internet provides a greater return on investment and is more cost effective then most traditional marketing avenues. It can be incorporated with conventional offline marketing to result in lower cost, expanded reach, better measurement and accountability.

For companies to be successful they need to concentrate first on the foundation of their business - their products, services and customers. A combination of specialized technology and skills is required for Internet marketing due to the ever changing markets.

Any search engine marketing firm that you choose should concentrate on two key areas that have a direct impact on your business and have access to the latest commercial seo tools. The first area of concern should be helping your business increase the number of relevant visitors to your website. This can be done thru optimizing your site for the search engines or pay-per-click advertising on Google Adwords for example. Sponsored or paid advertising on such sites as Google Adwords or Yahoo Search Marketing can provide an immediate flow of targeted website traffic provided one has properly chosen the right keywords for your business offering. The second area of focus should then be on what I call “conversion optimization”. This is basically increasing the percentage of those visitors that respond to your business offering before leaving your website.

Here’s a list of questions a search engine marketing company should be able to help you with

Which search terms really matter when it comes to attracting the maximum number of relevant visitors to your website?

How does your company’s website stack up against your competitors
for those terms?

What specific type of action do you want your website visitors to do? Examples: Sign-up for newsletter, download company brochure, schedule a live demo, etc.

Where is your company dominant and where do you have opportunities to grow?

If you choose the paid advertising route in the beginning to generate immediate targeted traffic then a good search engine marketing firm should be able to help you streamline the process from the impression of your ads to conversion, testing the offer that is presented at each step, and boosting overall conversion rates. A Web Analytic tool is absolutely essential in helping you better understand visitor behavior, identify user experience issues, time spent on your site, and overall campaign conversion tracking. Be sure a web analytics tool is part of the seo services you decide to invest in.

Market-Vantage LLC - A Search Engine Marketing Firm - specializes in Integrated web marketing, helping B2B and B2C companies develop and implement effective Internet marketing strategies for positive impact on business. Please call us at 978-448-4333 or email us at drd@market-vantage.com for a free initial consultation to discuss your specific situation in confidence.

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