Getting your site listed in Google is easier than ever now since Google offers sitemaps.
By using a sitemap, you can make it very easy to get all of your pages indexed by Google. This can help you raise your rankings in Google, as well as help searchers find you.
The beauty of sitemaps is that once you've set up your sitemap, you can basically forget about it until you make updates to your site. Then you will need to add the new entries to your sitemap. Google will take care of the rest.
However, if you're a non-techie, or the idea of setting up scripts, or learning new software doesn't appeal to you, there are other ways to get the job done without stressing yourself.
This is the first article in a six part series on how you can get indexed in the most important search engines on the internet. These search engines include Google, Yahoo, MSN, Exactseek, and Alexa. These sites cover over 80 percent of the searches done on the internet, so it's well worth the effort to prepare your site correctly, and submit it to these search engines.
Before you do any kind of promotion on the internet, you need to make sure that your site is properly prepared for the search engines. The reason is that the search engines will be the main way that others find you on the internet.
If you haven't optimized your site for the search engines, now is the time to do it.
Not only do you have just a few seconds to grab the attention of the web visitor, content developers must perform well within search engine searches so they are "found"when web surfers search on related keywords or phrases. In order to perform well, a website must have traffic. Decent traffic will result if a website ranks well in search engines, that is why strong placement in search engines for critical keywords and phrases is essential.
When struggling with search engine optimization just go back to the basics. What do search engines want? Search engines want to return search results, that are relevant and useful to the searcher. Webmasters can help search engines discern what keywords or phrases their site relates to.
Many webmasters are still obsessed with the green PageRank bar in Google's toolbar. Last month, marketing expert Mike Grehan interviewed Google's Matt Cutts.
Matt Cutts is a Google engineer who knows exactly how the Google ranking algorithm works. He confirmed that PageRank is not the only important factor for Google.
Any SEO fact finding mission will inevitably lead to reports from webmasters on how Google doomed or saved their website. True to human nature, those who feel hard done by are most often the loudest of the talkers. For every report of how Google has lavished a website with tens of thousands of visitors there are probably ten, a hundred or even more reports of how Google have doomed sites to failure.
By far the most effective and cost-effective way of advertising, especially for a new business is ezine advertising. It has 4 distinct advantages.
It's easy to reach targeted prospects
It gives results fast. Typically, you should see results within 72 hours after your ad is published.
It's easy to test your ad effectiveness
It's easy to calculate your Return on Investment (ROI)
Most direct mail companies charge several hundred dollars per thousand mailing, whereas ezine advertising costs anywhere from five ten dollars to fifty dollars per thousand. This is definitely much more cost-effective compare to advertising in magazines.
Every organization needs them, has them, and measures them. Or do they?
No matter what your industry, competitive marketplace, or target market, the only way to assure success is to make informed decisions from quantifiable data. The stronger the data, the more likely you will make the right decision. So what is the 'them' that I am referring to above? Key Performance Indicators.
Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are what separate the 'winners' from the 'try agains;' and knowing not only what to measure, but also how to measure it and what it all means, is what separates and defines levels of success.
Click-to-call is an emerging contextual advertising format that will help spark the growth of localized search. It links online users to offline advertisers by combining Internet telephone capabilities. Although it has yet to hit its stride as a platform or even pierce consumer consciousness, the biggest interactive names, like Google, Yahoo, and eBay, are positioning themselves for a future in click-to-call. Let's take a closer look.
Click-to-call ads (CTC) are delivered, like pay-per-click, through standard online search results. They mostly resemble standard paid search ads, too. The user sees the familiar text in a box, except there is an icon that can be clicked to connect the interested party with the designated advertiser via telephone. This process is fully online until the user activates the CTC functionality by clicking that icon delivered with the ad.
Attending Omniture's Web Analytics Summit last week has made me realize the extent of segmentation and analysis an analytics suite can provide for an organization. As stated in a previous article, about half of search marketers use analytics. This is a surprisingly low figure; however, of this 50%, how many online marketers are aware of the advanced features that can help focus and drive their overall search marketing strategies? Having analytics in place is just half of the solution, actually using them and tailoring them to provide solid information and reasoning is what separates those on the leading edge from those on the bleeding edge.
In this article I will provide some insight into some of the complex analytics features that are not readily apparent to many of the marketing professionals in the search industry. (Please note that the topics discussed are a little advanced, but continue reading because they can be applied to any search marketing strategy,large or small,and will undoubtedly lead to you making the right decisions more often than not.)
As search gets smarter, tricks get cheaper and we get nearer to coming full circle to an original goal of Internet search: that content is, indeed, king. It cuts across the grain of some notions we've held in the industry for some time, that there are shortcuts aplenty in the hunt for better search rankings. Search experts at ICMediaDirect.com dissuade clients from thinking that they can or should fool Google and Yahoo. Instead, we show them solid methodology that works. Above all else, your website needs superior content that anchors your search engine optimization strategy.
Algorithmic innovation, much of it by Google's engineers, has thankfully rendered search engine spamming a fruitless endeavor. This has made the search engine a far greater tool for us to use and, in turn, has sparked the online advertising industry.