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Search Engine Promotion:
No Strategy. No Success.
By Frederick |
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Whether you're planning the launch of
your first site, or wondering why your
site counter is actually moving
backward, stop. You need a strategy to
promote your site to search engines and
to visitors. A plan of action based on
five key factors, all of which should be
weighed carefully before you take
another step. Here are the five, most
important considerations in the
development of any search engine
promotion.
1. The Site's Objectives
What
are your expectations for the website? These will
usually point you to the site's objectives. In the case
of commercial sites, the broad objective is
straightforward – to sell enough goods and/or services
to become profitable
However, you might also want to educate, motivate,
persuade and inform in addition to, or instead of,
selling. A top-down analysis of your site's objectives
is the place to start the development of your action
plan.
Once
you've determined the site's objectives, keep them front
and center during the entire development of an SE promo
strategy. It's important that any search engine
understand your site's objectives on the very first
spider visit.
2. Market Analytics
Essential. Who are you trying to reach – your sales
demographic? What do the members of your demographic
need? How do they make purchase decisions? Are they
computer savvy? Critical to the design and
implementation of a search engine promo strategy is to
know your market.
And the
best place to learn is from the competition. Pull a
Google on the competition to see how the successful
sites do it. Perfectly ethical and a measurable,
absolute guide to what works and what doesn't.
But you
can't stop there. Market metrics are also a part of a
successful promo strategy. The development of
multi-dimensional metrics will be useful in virtually
every step of the design, development and SE
optimization phases. There are plenty of metrics
software packs on the market. Some are even free.
The
problem with these number crunchers is simple: all they
do is provide the raw data. Number of hits. Average
number of pages viewed. Ratio of visitors to buyers.
Just stats, not strategy.
Analytics gathered using a variety of apps and tools
must be properly correlated and analyzed to develop an
effective search engine promotion. It's not enough to
have the data. You must interpret the numbers in order
to take actionable steps.
3. Techno-Factors
An
over-achieving website doesn't just happen. It must be
crafted. It requires highly-specialized knowledge of
everything from HTML, SEO and CSS to human nature and
purchase motivators.
Search
engines spider sites in a variety of ways. The simpler
and clearer your site is to an SE spider, the greater
the likelihood that your site will be assessed and
ranked properly. Conversely, if the technical design of
your site isn't dead on for search engine spiders, a
site may be mis-indexed or even banned from SEs
altogether for what spiders perceive as black hat
tactics, though it's simply inept (and therefore costly)
programming. You might as well hang out the 'Going Out
Of Business' sign.
Techno-factors come into play during the design phase,
the development and testing phases and after the site's
launch when refinement, optimization, content updates
and routine site maintenance are undertaken.
Any
well-considered strategy must provide the means to
design (or redesign) the site, develop it, promote it to
the SEs and optimize it over time. Search engine
promotion and site optimization aren't goals. They're
part of the process.
4. Plan Your Presentation Layer
Once
the technical aspects of the site have been incorporated
into your promo strategy, turn your attention to the
presentation layer. The presentation layer can make or
break a site, regardless of how well-designed the
technical structure supporting the site's skin.
Navigation should be simple. Buttons and links clearly
labeled. The user should always be able to go 'Home'
from any page. Check-out should be clear, uncluttered
and instill buyer confidence. A site map is useful to
visitors and SE spiders. Anything less will hurt the
bottom line.
The
site skin also presents the look, feel and tone of your
on-line enterprise. Stately and dignified, WiLd & KraZy,
helpful and concerned – all determined by the look of
the site. Color combinations, type font and size, type
placement and the tone of the content make up your
public persona.
And the
skin is spidered right along with the back office so it
should appeal to eyeballs and make spiders happy, as
well. Header placement, number of headers above the
fold, keyword density and other SE search parameters
must be fine-tuned for successful search engine
promotion
5. Promotion and Optimization
Once
you've gone live with your site, you've only just begun.
The world of ecommerce is fast-paced and cutthroat. And
if you don't promote your site to search engines and to
potential buyers your chances for success diminish
accordingly.
Today,
site success depends on promotion - search engine
promotion and eyeball promotion. You can promote on a
shoestring or you can launch a pedal-to-the-metal
campaign with banner ads, Google Adwords, links building
and opt-in cultivation. If you aren't SEO-experienced,
you'll be best served by professionals who can track
site activity, develop useful metrics and devise and
implement a strategy for improved site performance.
The
same goes for the process of optimization. Sites must be
search engine optimized and conversion optimized – two
very different things. Much of SEO takes place behind
the scenes. That's why it's essential that you use SEO
pros to actually build your site. This is not where you
can cut a few corners.
Then
there's conversion optimization – converting visitors to
buyers. Most of this takes place at the presentation
level. Does the site meet or exceed the visitor's
expectations? You have 6.4 seconds to convince a visitor
to explore your site. That's how much time web users
devote to site evaluation.
DYI or Go With The Pros?
94% of
all ecommerce ventures tank. Down in flames. Many of
these failures are based on poor business models, but
just as many are due to poor site design, lack of SE
recognition, an off-putting presentation layer or a home
page that looks like a carnival midway.
If
you're a start-up and you don't know much about SEO and
SE promotion, do not let your teen-aged nephew design
your site. And if you're the owner of an underperforming
site and you can't figure out why, don't waste your time
tweaking. You're losing sales every day.
If you
know ecommerce, develop a strategy that encompasses all
five of these critical facets. If you don't know
ecommerce, hire somebody to do it for you.
It's
the best money you'll ever spend.
About The Author
Frederick Townes is the owner of
W3 EDGE Web Design.
W3 EDGE is a Boston web design and
Internet Marketing company that provides
bleeding-edge web development solutions and marketing
services to help you make the most of your online
presence. You can contact him at their Boston office at
1-617-375-6134 or via email at
ftownes@w3-edge.com.
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