In the quest to develop and publish the world's number one business related
web site I knew we had cracked it when we entered NorthernLight at No 7 out
of 4,876,060 sites on the key phrase 'business start up'.
Coming from a Sales and marketing background, with a background in IT, but
no knowledge of the Internet, I had to approach everything from the ground
up, with an open mind.
This proved to be of significant advantage, since I was prepared to listen
to everyone, try anything, reject the bad and improve on the good.
We also appear on Lycos, Google, AltaVista, Excite and a myriad of other
search engines and know that with 12 months work ahead we will be the No1
Business site by 2002.
So here are my ten top tips for successful web placement
1
Most web designers assume that the customer is the reader, wrong. It's a bit
like assuming the customer for an old people's home is the resident - it
isn't it's the residents 45 year old daughter. Therefore sell to her and the
place is full.
The main customer for a web site is 'gulliver' or 'arachnia' or whatever the
search engine spider is called. Observe it, profile it, get to know it
intimately, what does it like and loathe. How can you get it's attention?
2
In my experience only AltaVista takes
seriously. I know this
because I used mingmong21 as a keyword and, despite all the search engines
we appear on, if I search on all of them for 'mingmong21' I only turn up on
AltaVista. Don't put too much store in keywords.
3
The of the page is the single most important thing to Google, Excite
and a host of other search engines, so why, why, why are we so vain that we
call our web site 'XYZ inc.' if they knew who we were before they got on the
web they would have called us on the telephone. The of your site
should be what you do, not who you are.
4
Many of the search engines pick up the first paragraph of the content
(in other words what's written on the page). Don't confuse it with 'last
updated on...' and counters, etc. Just have a simple paragraph that says
what you do and... use the same words as the .
5
If each search engine spider likes different things, give them exactly what
they like in the form of 'portal' pages which are dedicated to one keyword
or phrase and aimed to satisfy each search engine spider. For example a page
with the title 'business start up' and the KEYWORDS 'business start up'
where the BODY says 'business start up' will put you pretty high when
someone searches for 'business start up. Make sure that you have a link from
your index.html page to this portal and from this portal, that way you don't
have to submit each page (it will be found on the next spider) and be
accuses of spamming.
6
Make the of the page tie in with the and -
obvious but some of us get a bit carried away.
7
Tell the spider what to do index, follow and 10
days. then you get a regular visit.
8
Content is king - that means that when the spider visits you, and you appear
on the engines, if your content is negligible or static (never changes)
don't expect anyone to come back - you can only sell rubbish once.
9
Subscribe to, and read, every newsletter on web marketing that you can. If
you only pick up one tip per month you can improve your web site placement.
10
The KING of all tips. Most Search Engine spiders cannot follow graphically
embedded links!!!!!
In other words if you have a 5000 page web site and have linked it through
gifs or buttons then, as far as the spider is concerned, you have stuck the
pages together and it sees only page one. If, however you place text links
or links that the viewer cannot see, within those pages then you
have 5000 pages that can have a , , , etc to
sell to 'gulliver' and his little friends.
Mark my words by 2002, fastlinksolutions will be the No 1 business related
web site in the world.
About the Author
John Saxon is a grandfather of 3 and Technical Director of Fastlink
Solutions Limited. He is a Companion of the Institute of Sales and Marketing
Management (one grade above Prince Philip) and has 25 years experience in
helping new and growth businesses develop and profit
http://www.fastlinksolutions.btinternet.co.uk is a free access site
providing advice for anyone considering setting up, or expanding a business.