Didn’t the old expression go, “If you build it … they will come?” Yes, so imagine how disappointed website owners are when they spend thousands of dollars on a new website (probably complete with flashy animation, cool artwork, tons of photos and a great online store) and yet no one comes. It’s discouraging enough to kill a web marketing campaign entirely.
It’s important to understand that building a website is merely ‘step one’. Creating great content is ‘step two’, and then there all of the steps afterwards, and this is what many website owners forget. Creating a website is just the first part of an aggressive campaign of content development, community outreach and linkbuilding.
If you have created a website (perhaps even overseen its development for a few years) and yet things are stalled as far as traffic, it’s time to re-evaluate your strategy.
Understanding the Role of the Website
One common misconception is that a website is like a brick and mortar store built right in front of a crowded highway. Chances are, if you build a McDonald’s in front of an old highway you’re going to get some decent foot traffic, because they all see the development. A website’s development is practically invisible to the masses, unless you happen to buy the ‘JustinBieber.com’ domain.
Instead, websites have to be ‘discovered’ and there are only a handful of ways to do this for free. The website is not the catch-all solution that web hosting marketers and companies make it out to be. A business website is just one avenue in a complete set of business applications that can be used online.
In the coming chapters, we are going to discuss multiple traffic generation methods that can be exploited, and all without you having to spend more than a couple of dollars.
How Websites Are Found by Search Engines
A refresher course on how websites are discovered may prove helpful as you start your free traffic campaign. Based on each search engine’s unique algorithm, your site will then be ranked and your Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) returned based upon keyword requests from users.
The question is: “How do you get the attention of search engines?”
When the Internet was young, the best way to do it was to simply submit your URL to a search engine’s ‘Suggest’ page. Now, companies prefer that you notify search crawlers by way of ‘pinging’ search engines when new content is available.
Just because a search engine has been ‘pinged’ does not mean you’re going to get the royal treatment. While some search-friendly sites and popular sites have the privilege of practically ‘live’ search results, less popular, new and rarely updated sites will only be crawled and indexed on a periodic basis.
For that matter, if your optimization methods are poor, you may actually be listed, but appear far down in the rankings that you might as well not be listed at all. This usually happens when you disregard advice about proper “optimization” techniques. : · Each page should have a proper title · Each page should contain meta tags and descriptions
· The domain should be keyword friendly · The website should be updated on a regular basis You also have to remember that some search engines customize their own SERPs. Many search engines are powered by Google, but actually individualize search results based on various algorithm ‘tweaks’, and their own human editors’ judgments.
There are multiple factors a search engine application will consider when listing your site for various domains and they can include everything from content-centric reasons, to keyword usage, to local interests or even personal affronts– that’s right, you can inadvertently annoy the search engines and they will penalize you!
Yes, so imagine how disappointed website owners are when they spend thousands of dollars on a new website (probably complete with flashy animation, cool artwork, tons of photos and a great online store) and yet no one comes. Based on each search engine’s unique algorithm, your site will then be ranked and your Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) returned based upon keyword requests from users.
Now, companies prefer that you notify search crawlers by way of ‘pinging’ search engines when new content is available. · The domain should be keyword friendly · The website should be updated on a regular basis You also have to remember that some search engines customize their own SERPs. Many search engines are powered by Google, but actually individualize search results based on various algorithm ‘tweaks’, and their own human editors’ judgments.
