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Getting serious with search engines:
The difference between the internet circa 2002 and its previous incarnations is that now we see the internet normalised. It is now simply an everyday business tool and to cement this new place on business spreadsheets the internet needs to deliver on savings and profits and it needs to do it now.
One of the better ways to use the internet to make or save money is to make sure you are easy to find in the search engines and to optimise your chances of being top of the search engine rankings.
Once you have established what part e-- commerce is to play in your business strategy, and you are confident your web-site has the potential to assist in the sales process then the real work begins. Now it is time to build traffic.
Here, the basics include:
* The site must have a value proposition. Cheaper prices, faster delivery or a better service are some of the key drivers for value.
* The content needs to be updated and refreshed regularly.
* Stay in touch by providing updated information and a newsletter.
* Use your website address on all company collateral.
How important are search engines?
One N4B.COM merchant sells around $150,000 Per week into the international Market through several online Stores. This level of sales has been accomplished through an excellent value proposition and page One rankings on Google and Yahoo!. One day, mainly due to the skullduggery of a competitor, all the Stores dropped to page three and beyond. Sales dropped by 30 percent overnight. Over a year this rating change, (if left unchanged) could have Cost around $3.7million. There are therefore two messages here:
* Search engine rankings can be very important to Your business.
* Once you are 'there' don't Test On Your laurels, the competition is fast and furious.
Internet users find sites through the search engines. This has been documented many times. According to Jupiter Media Metrix 'searching' is second only to email in internet usage. Jupiter found that:
* 28 percent of users type a product name into a search engine.
* 23 percent go straight to the URL.
* 9 percent type a brand name into a search engine.
* 5 percent type a company name into a search engine.
* 5 percent go to a search engine shopping channel.
Search engines versus directories
The first thing to understand is that what we call search engines are not all search engines; many are directories. The biggest name of them all is primarily a directory not a search engine.
Directories like Yahoo! have editors, human reviewers who evaluate sites submitted based on relevance and uniqueness. Directories have a structure of categories and subcategories. For example if you were looking for content management software suppliers you would find them under B2B > Web Software > Content Management. Once a listing is accepted the relevancy algorithm determines the ranking.
In the good old days once a site was submitted it was easy to play around with the rating methodology but now things have changed. We have had luck increasing the ranking on one directory by simply asking for banner advertising rates. No longer is it as simple as copying meta tags and page content of a competitor who rates highly to gain a similar ranking although sometimes it helps. Now it is a job for the professionals if your ranking really matters.
The first thing you need to do when listing for the first time is to ensure you are in the correct category, Yahoo! especially is extremely reluctant to move you once you're listed and it now costs US$299 for a priority review of your site to ascertain its acceptability to the directory.
The names you need to know on the directory scene are Yahoo!, Open Directory, Looksmart, and Ask Jeeves. Open Directory is a key choice as it feeds results to AOL, Netscape, Lycos, Google, HotBot and many others.
Search engines trawl the web using "spiders". These software programs index the data* on your pages and then categorise them to suit their search result structure. It is important which of these search engines you list in first. As with directories there is an algorithm to calculate rankings and these change from time to time to keep people honest.
The names you need to know here are; Google, Inktomi, Alltheweb (Fast), AltaVista and Excite. As with the directories, data is shared around and so Google feeds results to Yahoo! and Netscape, and Inktomi shares its results with AOL, HotBot, Look Smart, and MSN (xtra's search provider). Fast provides data to Lycos and AltaVista and Excite get help from LookSmart. Follow all that?
Webmasters have been caught out recently for having pages on the web that are not linked to their website. These pages too have been indexed and categorised on search engines for all to see. Obviously credit card numbers and login and password information has caused the most concern but so too have holiday snaps and prototype content and designs. A wide range of embarrassing material has been sighted. If you are concerned don't panic, there is some simple code available to add to pages you don't want indexed.
Do I need to spend money on SEO?
So convinced am 1 about the benefits of high rankings that I would go so far as to say that if you are spending money on banner ads and email marketing without having your SEO under control, you are not getting the ROI you should be.
Research seems to show conclusively that More online Purchases Originate from search listings than any Other Source (NPD Group). The Jupiter data shows that custOMers find websites primarily through search engines. Email marketing, banners, and all other Promotional Strategies make up less than 30 percent of the total. Search engine listings also out perform banners ads for brand recall, favorable opinion rating, and purchase Origination (NPD Group). A recent Nielsen/NetRatings internet statistics survey suggested that search engine and online communities attract 92 percent of the web population. This represents over 95 million users.
All in all having a commitment to search engine optimisation is key to your e-- commerce strategy. And this strategy is not just about direct sales on the internet. It is as much about being there when a prospect types in key words that mean they need you product.
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