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2 Steps
to Success on the Web
Sites
of Boston Tip of the Month
Nov 2002
In
this issue
-- Two Steps to Success
-- The Two Steps
-- Step 1 Optimizing
for the Google Database
-- What does all this work get you?
-- Step
2 Pay-per-click
-- Cost to use pay-per-click
-- Combining both steps
for best results
-- More on pay-per-click
-- Getting to more leads and
sales
-- Share the knowledge
In the past three months the Tip of
the Month has covered Google, Yahoo! and "pay per click". These illustrate
the three methods for promoting your website to get more leads and customers.
I promised that the November Tip of the Month would summarize and compare
the benefits and costs of each of these three approaches and the power of combining
all three for great results. But things have changed.
Two Steps
to Success
On October 11th Yahoo! changed the way it determines which websites it lists
when someone does a search. Yahoo! now produces essentially the same list of Web
sites that you get on Google and AOL for the same search words (key phrases).
So now there are just two approaches to search engine promotion that need to be
used by small businesses. Life just got easier.
Some will say "Yah
well, what about AltaVista, LookSmart or Dogpile?" The approaches that I'm
presenting will reach over 3/4 of the searchers on the Web. And as small businesses,
we only have the resources to go after about 80% of the market and can let the
other 20% go. Not too bad!
The Two Steps
The two steps are:
1) Optimizing your website so that it will be ranked highly
in the Google database, which is used by Google (obviously), Yahoo! and AOL.
2) Write targeted "advertisements" and submit them to the two most popular
"pay-per-click" services, Overture and Google AdWords Select. Again,
I'm applying the 80/20 rule and disregarding other pay-per- click services for
now. As prices increase, which they are very rapidly, other services may become
more attractive.
Step 1 Optimizing for the Google Database
First let's talk about optimizing for the Google Database. This is a five-stage
process: 1.
Key phrase research (which we talked about in the September Tip of the Month)
- you can use www.wordtracker.com
or inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
2. Updating
content and code (tags) to include key phases - there are plenty of places to
read more about this. It's been the same for several years. http://www.searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/meta.
html 3.
Submit to the Open Directory (www.dmoz.com)
using your best key phrases in the description. Be patient, it's staffed by volunteers. 4.
Get links from related websites to your website. Ask them to use a good key
phrase in the text that links to you. 5.
Wait. The search engine spiders (software programs) will come to visit your Web
site about once a month and then it may take several weeks to appear in the database.
What does all this work get you?
All this
work will produce higher rankings in the major search engines when someone searches
on your key phrases.
If you pick the right key phrases and follow these
five stages you may even appear on the first page of the results of a search in
Google, Yahoo! and AOL.
Step 2 Pay-per-click
But I want to see my website listed on the first page right now!
Well, then
the second approach, pay-per-click, is for you. Do you have your wallet handy?
You'll be paying every month. We discussed pay-per-click
in detail in October's Tip of the Month.
Cost to use pay-per-click
The two most popular services are Overture (www.overture.com), which provides
listings to Yahoo! under "Sponsored Listings" and Google AdWords Select
(www.google.com), which provides listings in the little boxes down the right hand
side of the Google search results screen. Overture
requires an initial deposit of $50.00 to set up your account and a minimum monthly
spend of $20.00. You pay each time someone clicks on your listing. The cost of
each click ranges from $.05 to over $5.00 depending on the key phrase, and the
amount is debited from your account. There is no cap on spending so keep an eye
on the spending and the minimum balance in your account.
Google Adwords
Select requires a $5.00 start-up fee, no minimum monthly spend and you can place
a daily spending cap on each key phrase. As with Overture, you pay each time someone
clicks on your listing, and the cost of each click ranges from $.05 to over $5.00
depending on the key phrase. Your credit card is charged the end of the month. The
price-per-click is much higher in Google than Overture for many key phrases, which,
depending on the number of clicks, can add up to a lot of money by the end of
the month.
Combining both steps for best results
OK, pay-per-click
can be expensive, so maybe I don't want to use it for all my key phrases.
To combine the best of both approaches, optimize your website for Google
for the expensive key phrases to produce long term, lasting results, and submit
some pay-per-click listings for nearly immediate increases in traffic for specific
products or services.
Getting to more leads and sales
All
this work will increase the visibility of your website and attract more visitors.
What if all those visitors isn't calling you or buying your products or services?
What do you do then?
In 2003 we'll be discussing ways to increase
the number of leads and sales. And what to do when you get too many leads.
I want to increase leads
and sales NOW
Back
to Tip of the Month
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