Search Engine Optimization / Marketing

The most successful search engine marketing campaigns are those that blend both traditional search engine marketing (optimizing web pages to achieve better rankings for keywords in search engines) and targeted keyword marketing (includes both pay-per-click advertising and pay-for-inclusion directories).

Keyword research is a vital part of any online marketing campaign. As web site owner, you may be very surprised to find out, that is some cases, the most searched for keyword sets associated with your industry are less obvious ones. For example, there are many sites that market pages for tickets to the popular Broadway play Mamma Mia. However, the keyword set, 'mama mia tickets' is searched for 30 percent more than the correctly spelled, 'mamma mia tickets.'

Once a robust set of keywords has been determined, it is also important to check out a web site's competitors. For each keyword set that has a significant amount of searches, one to two competitor web sites will be visited. The structure, Meta Tags and content will be analyzed. This tactic gives an immediate impression of how many people are competing for those keywords and the Google Page Rank that must be attained to rank in the top five.

It is regarded as common knowledge in the search engine optimization community that the importance of Meta Tags (Description, Keywords, Alt Tags) have diminished significantly in the last year. Gone are the days when you could insert a page full of words into the Keyword Meta Tag and rank for all of those words.

Search engine submission to Google and many other search engines is not important anymore. The best method is to have them find the page through a link from another web site with good link popularity. Once the site has been indexed, search engines will refresh their database every 30 days or so and the changes made will be reflected. If the pages are already listed, it is a safe bet your web site will be penalized if the same pages are submitted to their queue over and over.

Links from directories are a big part in achieving good link popularity (the amount of relevant incoming links to a web site). It is also these links that will speed up the process of Google spidering a web site. Directories are unique in the fact that a link to a web site is always displayed, in contrast to a regular search engine that will only display a listing when related keyword queries are made to their databases. When a search robot like Google next visits a category within a directory, the Googlebot will easily follow the link to the listed web site. A link to a boat dealership inside the Business > Sales > Boats category tells any search engine spider that that web site truly is about boat sales. It is an immediate reference from a trusted source.

Search engines want to provide the most meaningful search results to their users querying them every day. As part of their relevancy requirement, a web site that has many industry related links must be a better resource than a web site in the same industry with no links.

Pay-Per-Click advertising is a great way to increase pre-qualified traffic exactly when needed. When used in conjunction with Search Engine Marketing, Pay-Per-Click advertising can complete a very successful Internet marketing campaign.

Please feel free to explore the links below and learn more about different website marketing strategies that Web Merchant Services uses to promote your website.

If you have questions at any time, please contact us.