Reader Question: I am in the typical quandary of the Internet small business owner. I am trying to find a submission/optimization company that will do a good job for us at a reasonable price. We have found that the sales go up for about a three-month period when we take on a new service, then the sales level, then they fall. We are not opposed to paying a reasonable monthly fee, but we need a company who will actually be concerned about long-term results without us having to think about it and remind them.
Answer: This is not only a concern for small business owners. All types of businesses including B2B (business-to-business), B2C (business-to-consumer), large and small businesses want to know how to obtain long-term search engine visibility.
There is no such thing as “permanent” top positions. Fluctuations in positioning and traffic are perfectly normal. Search engines don’t want pages to always stay in the same position. New pages are added to the Web all of the time. Old pages are deleted or updated.
Having realistic expectations is a big hurdle for many people to comprehend. Knowing that a site cannot achieve permanent top positions is a realistic expectation.
“Consistent sales” is another Internet marketing myth. The construction industry has different sales peaks and valleys than the apparel industry. Even Web design has peaks and valleys.
I understand that it must be frustrating to go through a process where sales drop, and I imagine that this Reader Question was sent in the middle of the sales slump. However, all businesses experience sales slump. Top search engine positions aren’t going to be the “magic bullet” that fix that slump.
What the reader are experiencing is a normal part of the search engine marketing and Web design cycle, which I have divided into 4 stages: Analysis, Optimization, Submission, and Monitoring.
Stage 1: Analysis
I have always considered Web design and marketing to be “works in progress” because the Web is constantly evolving. Browsers are constantly being updated and removed. (Microsoft won’t be making Explorer for Macs anymore.) And people do not want to see the same information on a Web site over and over again, just like Coca Cola does not show the same TV commercial year after year after year. Therefore, knowing that your Web site is going to constantly evolve is a major step.
In the Analysis stage, I analyze the words and phrases that people are typing into search queries. I use a variety of resources including the search engines “Related searches” attribute, WordTracker, site statistics analysis, pay-per-click campaigns, paid inclusion campaigns, and site search engines. Then I review the entire site to determine if the Web site owner is actually using these phrases throughout the Web site. If not, I know that we have to rewrite portions of the site.
Next, I analyze whether or not the search engines have easy access to this content. A site’s navigation scheme, URL structure, and cross-linking will tell me this information.
Last, I look at a site’s link development. As much as people criticize directories such as Yahoo and Open Directory, they still have value because they are the quickest, legitimate way for a site to get initial, high-quality link popularity.
Has a site been designed to be a giant brochure or catalog? Or is the site link-worthy? “Why should people come to your site without having to spend any money? ” is a question I ask all Web site owners to determine if a site is link-worthy.
I compare a site to other popular sites in the same industry. Is the design as user-friendly as your competitors’ sites? Does the site download as quickly as competitors’ sites? Honestly evaluate your site design and content. People will not link to a site that isn’t user-friendly.
Once I gather all of this data, I am ready to move on to Stage 2.
Stage 2: Optimization
Search engine optimization is designing, writing, scripting, and coding (in HTML) your entire Web site so that there is a good chance that your pages will appear at the top of search engine queries for your selected keywords and keyword phrases.
What I find interesting is that most people do not understand the meaning of the word “optimize,” which is to make as perfect or as effective as possible. When copywriters create content or designers create a site, they usually do not optimize the site for end users or search engines. Copywriters need to learn how to write using keyword phrases, and designers need to create a site navigation scheme and URL structure that the search engines (and end users) can easily follow.
Employing workarounds is not optimizing. A workaround implies that there is a problem. Instead of putting a “band-aid” on the problem and covering it up, it’s much better to just fix the problem.
Below is my quick-and-dirty checklist for optimizing sites for the search engines:
- Unique titles, meta tags, headlines, alternative text, introductory and conclusion paragraphs on every page of the site.
- Highly focused keyword phrases instead of phrases that are too general or competitive. Which usually means targeting three to five phrases per page.
- At least one navigation scheme that the search engines can follow, most likely a high-quality set of text links.
- A site map.
- A call-to-action on every optimized page.
Next week, I will go over the second half of the Search Engine Marketing Cycle.
Shari Thurow is Marketing Director at Grantastic Designs, Inc., a full-service search engine marketing, web and graphic design firm. This article is excerpted from her book, Search Engine Visibility (http://www.searchenginesbook.com) published in January 2003 by New Riders Publishing Co. Shari can be reached at shari@grantasticdesigns.com.
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