CMS Website Development
Website Visibility - How Do You Ensure that People Find Your Website?
Website Visibility is the process of getting your website found on the internet when your prospects are searching for your related products and services.
One of the best ways to increase your visibility is to get your site ranked in the main search engines of Google, Yahoo, and MSN. There are hundreds of search engines, but these three account for nearly 80 % of all search engine traffic.
Search engines have been a hot topic in marketing over the past several years, however, most companies have yet to take advantage of the opportunities available to increase their search engine rankings.
You may have been frequently contacted by companies claiming they can get your website ranked in the top of the search engines; many even making claims that they can do it overnight.
These are all false claims. The search engines don’t reveal their algorithms so no one knows the exact process of how the search engines work. These companies are making guarantees based on guesswork, at best.
However, the search engine companies themselves explain that there are three main keys to getting your site ranked in the search engines.
Three Keys to Getting Your Site Ranked in the Search Engines:
1. Content. The more unique and interesting content your website contains the better. Think of it this way:
If you wanted to learn the process of bottling wine and went to the library to check out a book on the subject…
Would you choose a book that has 5 pages of basic information, or would you choose a book that has 500 pages of detailed wine making information?
The search engines view your website in this same manner, giving preference to sites with the best information.
2. Formatting of Content. Going back to the library book reference, when you are searching for the wine book, you will find 5 or 10 books on the topic.
You are able to find these books because they are named with a title that relates to Bottling Wine. When you open up to the table of contents, the book contains further categorization, as it names the titles of each chapter in the book.
To rank your website, the search engines also rely on you to name each page of your website according to the content of each page.
Example: Joe Smith owns a winery in New York City named Heavenly Grapes. Joe gets a website built that has 20 pages. At the top of every page the web designer names the page: Heavenly Grapes.
Joe has just made a big mistake. The reason this is a mistake is because most people don’t search for wine by a company’s name; instead they search by the subject and the city or state, or by some other similar method.
Since Joe’s website designer named all of the pages of his website with the title “Heavenly Grapes,” Joe will now be at a big disadvantage compared to other New York wine businesses who have used search engine friendly titles such as “New York Wine,” “New York Wine Tasting Events,” “Wineries in New York City,” etc…
3. Link Recommendations. Continuing with our theme of finding a book on the wine bottling process, another key factor you may consider when selecting your book, would be the recommendations you received from wine bottling experts.
For example: If you called up a wine expert that had been bottling wine for the last 30 years and he recommended a particular book entitled “The Comprehensive Wine Bottling Guide,” then you would hold his recommendation in high regard. However, if some random person in the library made a recommendation to you, this recommendation would not figure very highly in your decision making process.
The Search Engines work in the same manner. They look for link recommendations to your website from well established, “authority websites” that are related to your industry.
If your website has a link from another industry related website, then it tells the search engines that your site is credible and the search engines will give your site higher rankings than a site without links.
Other Ways to Increase Your Visibility
Get listed in Google Local.
To sign up, go to http://local.google.com/ and click on “add your business” in the bottom left hand corner of the page. You will need to sign up for a free Google account if you do not already have one. You will then be able to add your free Google local listing which includes your company name, address, website, and phone number.
Submit your site to industry related directories.
Conduct an internet search for “your-industry directories” and see what you find. Only submit to quality directories, for a quality check just ask yourself would you use this directory to find a business in your industry? Would you trust the directory or does it look spammy? It also never hurts to do a quick Google search with the directory's name to ensure that their are no fraud or other warning signs about the directory.
Send online press releases about your company.
Here is a list of free and paid press release distribution sites:
Free Press Release Services
Inewswire
Press World
AddPR
PRFree
PR.com Promotion
PRWeb
24-7 Press Release
PR Leap
PressZoom
Free Press Release
24 7 Press Release
PR9.net
Paid Press Release Services
PRWeb SEP
Send2Press PR Service
Marketwire
URL Wire for link development
Internet News Bureau
Bacon’s PR Services
Enewsrelease PR manager
PR Newswire Direct
Use RSS technology to syndicate your website content and get links and exposure on hundreds of websites.
RSS is a technology that automatically distributes content. If you write a monthly newsletter, then RSS would give you the ability to automatically publish your newsletter on other websites.
For example: A winery in New York could contact a New York travel website and request that the travel website publish their monthly newsletter. The travel website would simply add a small piece of code to their website. The next time the winery writes a newsletter page, the RSS will automatically post it to the travel website. This arrangement benefits both companies. The winery gets added exposure and a link from the travel website and the travel website gets free, unique content added to their website each month.
You can add your RSS feed to the following sites for free:
RSS Network
To submit to this site, click here http://www.rss-network.com/submitrss.php
Syndic8
To submit to this site, you must first register. Click on one of the following links for registration and submission directions:
To add a URL of a syndicated website:
http://www.syndic8.com/suggest.php?Mode=data
To add a URL of a non-syndicated website:
http://www.syndic8.com/suggest.php?Mode=site
RSS Feeds
This site categorizes submitted feeds in a directory that is based on Netscape's DMOZ Open directory.
To suggest a feed, click here http://www.rssfeeds.com/suggest_wizzard.php
FeedPlez
To suggest your feed, click here http://www.feedplex.com/add-url.php?email=
Participate in industry related forums.
There are many benefits derived from participating in a forum. By participating in a forum, you:
*Get free links to your website (if the particular forum allows);
*Start building your name as an expert in your industry; and
*Get up to date insight for your industry and learn the latest trends
It's easy to find forums related to your industry. Go to www.google.com and type in "your industry + forum"
Read about the other 4 driving forces behind a profitable website:
