If your Web site's goal is only to
expand your message to customers and existing prospects,
simply include your site address in your newspaper ads
and on all of your printed material.
However, you probably would like to
extend your advertising reach to new prospects, people
that do not know you and have not seen your ads or
brochures. That requires a little more effort but is
necessary if sales growth and a return on your Web site
investment is important.
How People
Find Web Sites
There are only two ways people can
find any Web site. One way is to type the known URL into
the locator bar on the browser screen. The other way is
to click on a link to your site from another Web site.
Here are the places people may find
links to your site:
- Search engines
- Industry-related directories
- Banner ads
- Online articles about your
company
- E-mail solicitations
- Discussion groups
For the purpose of this article,
we're going to focus on links from search engines and
directories since those are the tools most people use to
find what they are looking for on the Web.
Search Engines
and Directories
Search engines and industry related
directories are the two most important means for bringing
traffic, especially new prospects, to your Web site.
Search engines are Web sites
devoted to indexing other Web sites and delivering those
sites when someone types in words relevant to the subject
of the sites.
For example, someone looking for a
new home in Florida may type in "Florida new
homes" or "Florida builders" and the
search engine would respond with a list of Web sites that
contain relevant content.
Directories are Web sites that list
other Web sites by subject matter. A directory may serve
many industries, a single industry or even a specific
niche within an industry. They may further categorize
sites alphabetically, geographically or any other way
that expedites finding a site.
SEARCH
ENGINES
Search engine promotion can be
divided into two parts. One, being indexed by the search
engines and two, getting a position (relevancy ranking)
near enough to the top so that your site will be found.
Most of the important search
engines such as Google, Yahoo or MSN index new sites when
they find a link to the new site on a web site they
already have indexed.
Most search engines use a software
program called a ‘spider’ or 'robot' to
determine what a Web page is about. The spider 'crawls'
the page that has been submitted and uses words and
phrases in the title tag and text to determine what the
site is about and how high on the list to put it.
A high ‘relevancy
ranking’ is important because searchers often will
not go beyond the first few listings delivered,
especially if they feel their needs were met in those
first few listings. This important job of positioning
actually begins at the design stage of
creating your site.
Each search engine crawls the
content of sites differently. Some in great depth, others
just sample the content. Some ignore certain words. Some
don’t recognize certain design techniques such
as ‘frames’. None are able to recognize graphic
images.
Search Engine Watch is a Web site and resource for
understanding and utilizing search engines. There you
will find a lot of in-depth knowledge about getting
positioned in the important search engines.
Doing some online research is
another great way to discover the secrets of good
positioning. Go to a couple popular search engines and
type in various words and phrases you think someone
looking for a builder like yourself might use in their
search. You’ll not only discover who your online
competition is, but if they come up higher on the list
than you do, a little detective work will show you how
they manage that. Check out their title tag and
introductory text.
At American Builders Network we
spend a great deal of time keeping up with the major
search engines. Knowing how to design sites to take
advantage of every opportunity for favorable ranking is
our business.
DIRECTORIES
These are the Web sites that list
Web sites by industry or otherwise. Given proper
attention, this aspect of your promotion strategy will
bring traffic to your Web site that may have missed your
search engine listing.
Because most directories are
typically operated by Internet professionals who spend
more time and effort to promote their sites, they are
more likely to be well positioned on the search engines.
Because of the specific nature of their content and the
links to their site, they tend to congregate traffic that
is looking for something specific.
There are many directories of home
builder related Web sites on the Internet. Having your
Web site listed on as many directories as possible
increases your chances of being found by someone looking
for a builder.
Getting your site listed in many of
the directories is free. Those that provide additional
services such as site hosting, promotion, site
maintenance or lead reporting will typically charge a
fee.
For the free directories it’s
just a matter of submitting the information on the
directory’s online form. These directories list your
company alphabetically or on a first-come-first-serve
basis. The listing will be a link, which
when clicked on, will take a visitor directly to your Web
site.
The downside to many of the
directories is that it’s easy for your site to get
lost in a long list of builders. That's
especially true if you’re a late-comer to the Web or
your company’s name is alphabetically challenged.
It’s tough to keep someone’s attention long
enough to get through more than a few Web sites.
Often Web site designers include
some degree of promotion in their services, but not
always. It’s a tricky task that requires on-going
attention and effort. You can handle it
internally or outsource the task, but without due
attention your Web presence will be for naught.
