Improving Your Search Engine Rankings

According to a June 2008 Netcraft survey (www.netcraft.com), there were 172,338,726 Internet websites, an increase of 3.9 million sites for that month alone. Of course, your website doesn’t compete with all of these, but how many sites offer the same products or services and how many of them are attracting visitors that comprise your best target markets? Here are some tricks of search engine optimization that should improve your rankings in major search engines such as Google and Yahoo.

It’s important to appear as close to the top of the listing for your products or services because few searchers look beyond the first few pages. So here are some relatively simple methods that should increase both the number of your website listings and their rankings.

Page Title
The page title appears in the top bar of your Internet browser and should inform search engines about the main topic of your website.

URL
The url is your unique website address and may contain keywords that search engines will categorize.

Keywords
The selection of keywords is one of the most important steps in optimizing your web pages for search engine listings. Keywords are the words that are input into search boxes to find websites that contain the information, products, and/or services of interest. It is generally most effective to use phrases as keywords rather than merely single words because of the tremendous competition for single words and the tendency of searchers to use phrases rather than only one word when seeking information.

After you prepare a list of potential key words and phrases, the next step is to determine the demand for each, its potential to obtain good search engine positioning, and suggested additional keywords which you might have omitted. Here are some sites which will assist you in selecting the most effective keywords for your purposes:

The keyword tool at SEO Book http://www.tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/

Wordtracker free keyword tool http://www.freekeywords.wordtracker.com/

Google http://www.google.com/provides the number of results for each term searched

Google traffic estimator https://adwords.google.com/select/TrafficEstimatorSandbox

Site Description
The site description is a summary of the content and purpose of your website written in html code that does not appear on your website. The description should be short (generally a maximum of 25 words) and factual and include your main keywords. However, it should be informative rather than a mere collection of keywords.

MetatagsMetatags are keywords in html code that are not visible to website visitors. While metatags are less important than in the past in obtaining good search engine positioning, well chosen metags reflect your content and assist the search engines in driving qualified traffic to your web pages.

Content
A content rich website using effective keywords is one of the most important factors in attaining good search engine rankings. For approximately 6 months, a web page that I wrote for a local CPA firm was the first result in a Google search for “cost segregation Florida” even though much larger national firms also offered the service in that state. I attribute this partially to the depth of information on that page which included an enlightening PowerPoint presentation.

In general, each webpage should use your keywords approximately four or five times, contain high-quality content, and be no longer than 250-300 words. Flashy graphics may add some sophistication to your website, but graphics are not indexed by search engine spiders.

Search Engine SubmissionThere are many websites, both fee-based and free that will submit your url to search engines for listings. Submit Express, http://www.submitexpress.com/submit.html, will submit your website url at no cost to approximately 20 search engines including Google, Yahoo and msn.

Site Map
A good site map will not only improve the navigation of your website, but will also use the keywords that you want to appear in search engine rankings.

Links
Search engines also decide on your website ranking by its link popularity. Links on other sites that direct traffic to your website improve your search engine listings. You can help to create these links by several methods. DMOZ is a large directory that is used by Google and other search engines. You can obtain a DMOZ listing by going to www.dmoz.org/add.html and following directions to submit your url.

I also find that online public relations can be a major factor in obtaining higher rankings. Press releases can be submitted for free to http://www.pr.com/ or for a fee starting at $80 to http://www.prweb.com/, both of which sites distribute the releases to many other online sites. Be sure to include your keywords in the summary last paragraph of the release and upload the release onto your own website.

You can exchange links with other sites, but be sure that the sites are reputable and not merely “link farms.” Joint ventures are one way to increase the number of exchanged links.

Finally, you can write articles for sites that are exclusively online or for publications that offer both print and online versions. Of course, the articles must be informative and well written and include a short biography.

Email Marketing: The Numbers Behind the Buzz

Despite the ascent of Web 2.0, IMs, and text messaging, email marketing is still growing in importance in the marketing mix. And according to Datran Media Research (“The 2007 Email Marketing Survey”), 83% of the marketers who responded thought that email ROI will increase over last year. Statistics collected from a variety of additional sources indicate that email marketing still has a bright future.

The Direct Marketing Association’s 2006 Response Rate Trends Report finds that the highest direct marketing response rates result from telemarketing (2.6%) and email (2.45%). Email’s ROI index is 70% higher than any other method of direct-response marketing. The organization also estimates that marketers in the United States alone will spend $500 million on email marketing which is expected to generate almost $22 billion in sales.

Following are some statistics cited by Internet Retailer (2007) as a result of its monthly surveys:

- 18.7% of internet retailers indicated that email generates 1% to 2.5% of sales
- 37.4% of online merchants find that email generates between 2.51% and 15%
of revenues
- For 11% of online merchants, email drives more than 25% of total sales
- Nearly three-quarters (73%) of chain retailers, catalogers, virtual merchants, and consumer brand manufacturers report spending only 5% or less of their total marketing budgets on email marketing

Compared to other forms of online marketing, email delivers sales at an average cost per order of less than $7, compared to $71.89 for banner ads, $26.75 for paid search and $17.47 for affiliate programs. - Shop.org, State of Retailing Online 2007 report (Sept. 2007);

For additional email marketing statistics, you can visit the following websites:

http://www.emailstatcenter.com/
http://www.internetretailer.com/
http://www.the-dma.org/
http://www.mediapost.com/

PURLs –The Newest Treasure of the Internet

What may be hotter than Web 2.0? Personalized URLs (PURLs). Although they have been around for several years, they are suddenly exploding and take one-to-one marketing to new heights. Consumers have seen their names on digitally printed newsletters, postcards, letters, and other similar materials. Now, they can have their names on their own Internet page populated with their information and containing items especially designed for them.

PURLs don’t come in gift wrapped boxes. They are generally sent via direct mail or email. In this age of digital printing or mail merge, each recipient can receive an individual PURL in a letter, newsletter, postcard or other printed material. It is also easy to generate dynamic emails with a link to each person’s PURL in the message.

PURLs are rapidly becoming the gems of the Internet because they provide:

1. Higher response rates with better quality leads
2. Lower cost per lead
3. Opportunities to provide customized offers
4. Real-time statistics about consumer behavior
5. Integration with CRM systems
6. Better insights into consumer behavior

The uses of PURLs are limited only by your imagination. They can be used to obtain email addresses, to update or verify consumer information, for surveys, for special offers, to provide customized coupons, as triggers for certain events such as a reminder to renew a subscription, and to provide relevant content. The uses are almost without limit, depending on a company’s creativity and knowledge of its markets.

Here are some examples of PURLs that you might find interesting:

Sample direct mail piece that delivers the PURL http://www.powerpurl.com/images/email_lg2.gif

A magazine subscription offer with audio https://www.expresslandingpage.com/TrackingSystem/AG_938/TMP_1016/VERIFYPAGE.aspx

A b-to-b marketing PURL with an incentive http://powerpurl.l2soft.com/images/webpub.gif

If you have a particularly interesting example of a PURL, you can email the link to me at nwolpin@hotmail.com.