Note: This article was originally published in The Greeley Tribune, Sunday Business Section, March 21, 2004

Web Wise

Open a path to your new Web doorway

By Lori Gama-White
You’ve just opened a store filled with wonderful products that are sure to appeal to a global audience. You’ve been open for several weeks on a busy street corner but no one has stopped in. You haven’t sold a thing.

What’s wrong? Why aren’t these people coming in? Don’t they know you’re here?

This scenario happens to a lot of business owners on the Web all the time — even the big guys who have millions of dollars to spend on a site. They launch their sites onto the virtual busy street corner, where millions of people all over the world are connecting — then scratch their heads in bewilderment when no one buys their products. No one seems to know they’re here.

Why do some businesses manage to get traffic to their virtual door, while others fail?

Web sites with high traffic usually have a combination of ingredients that bring those high numbers of people to their sites.

Those ingredients are numerous and include optimizing your Web site to be search-engine friendly, marketing your site with the search engines and exchanging links with other relevant sites.

For indexing Web sites, each search engine has its own set of rules called an “algorithm.” Basically, this means each search engine has “likes” and “dislikes.”

Knowing what these are can make the difference from being in the top 10 listings or not. Do you search beyond the first one or two pages of listings? You might be like most of us who typically don’t search beyond page two.

Many factors are going on in this complex game called search engine algorithms. Here are just a couple:

• Google places high priority on the number of outside Web sites that link to yours. The outside Web sites have to be relevant to your product/topic/service or they don’t count. Google thinks that if so many relevant sites are linking to yours, it must be worth listing high up so that everyone will know about your valuable information.
• Search engines try to return results that are relevant. Your choice and use of keywords in your content makes search engines list you higher. That makes it easier for people to find you. Keep in mind that you want targeted traffic — people specifically looking for your type of product or service. What keywords would they type in?

Be careful of Search Engine marketing companies that submit to “thousands” of search engines. Manual submitting to just the major ones is much more effective because you’re told of errors and can fix them and re-submit. Other ways to get your site listed high up in the search engines exist. Be sure you don’t follow any of the “bad” ways, such as including “invisible” keywords in your pages to try to fool the search engines. Your Web site could end up getting banned.

If you decide to hire a search engine marketing firm to bring traffic to your Web site, be sure to ask for references, case studies and other factual data before investing. Search engine marketing is complex — and changes all the time. Good SEM experts keep up with the changes. Your customers are already searching for your product or service on the Web. They’re ready to buy. You need to be at the top of the listings when they come looking for you.

Lori Gama-White owns DaGama Web Studio in Greeley, Colorado. Developing strategic, results-oriented Web sites since 1997, Lori Gama-White and her team of Web professionals are passionate about helping people get their businesses on to the Internet. For more information, questions or comments, call 970-378-7822 or e-mail .

© 2005 Lori Gama-White - All Rights Reserved - http://www.dagamawebstudio.com
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