At
the Top of Search Engines -
Now What?
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Last month we discussed how to build
your targeted email subscriber base
with a double opt-in system (Email
Your Customers - Without Spamming!).
Another key component to successful
Internet marketing is search engine
placement.
There a hundreds of articles
about getting to the top of search
engine pages. But, few tell you what
to do AFTER you are there.
So, let's find out how you can
maximize that hard earned spot atop
the heap.
Target Your
Market
Direct marketing is all about
targeting your market. You cannot
control a search engine completely,
but you can do a few things to
better focus your prospects when
they arrive at your site.
The first step seems obvious, but
it's worth a sentence or two. Make
sure your site is up and running!
You can't sell if your customers
can't buy.
Second, choose your keywords
carefully. Nothing will turn away a
potential customer faster than
typing Spam and getting lunch meat
(when they were hungry for email
vengeance). This seems like a simple
task until you start submitting
multiple keywords for the same site.
You can manage this in part by
selecting appropriate keyword meta
tags for each page. But, you still
have to deal with the ominous
Attack of the Robot Spiders.
Shoo Spider! - Search
engine robots browse your site and
create links to pages. Sounds great
doesn't it? And, it is is, except
when they link pages you would not
choose to make your first
impression.
Fortunately, you can prevent
search engine spiders from indexing
certain pages on your site. There
are 2 ways to do this.
- Place a text file named
robots.txt in the main directory
of your site. In it place a
command to select all robots
(User-Agent: *) followed by a
list of pages to ignore. For
example, you can cut and paste
the following into notepad. Then
replace page.htm and
directoryname with the html
pages and folders you want
excluded.
User-Agent: *
Disallow:page.htm
Disallow: /directoryname/
You can find a handy tutorial
for writing robot.txt files at
search engine world.
- You can also type
meta tags directly into your
page to prevent robots from
indexing your page and/or
following links inside it.
Insert the following meta tag
between the <head> and </head>
tags to prevent a robot from
indexing the page:
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">
If you want robots to index the
page, but not to follow links on
the page, use the following:
<meta name="robots" content="nofollow">
And, if you do not want the
robot to index the page or
follow links use this
all-inclusive tag:
<meta name="robots" content="noindex,
no follow">
These techniques will make your
site more friendly to new visitors
and help you target your message.
Track the Source
Mail order marketers have used
advertising source keys for years.
On the web this is a bit more
difficult. Web surfers are unlikely
to fill in a source code field on a
form unless you are offering a
discount (and that may not work
either - they often use false
information).
So, how do you track where your
hits came from?
The easiest way is to use a
service.
HitBox Central provides
statistics on numbers of unique
hits, and more importantly, the
referrer URLs, Search Engines and
Keywords. Using this data you can
track which keywords and search
engines are generating traffic.
Plus, you get statistics on
subsequent pages visited, time spent
on your site and more. Sure beats
the old hit counters. HitBox Central
offers both a free and a paid
service.
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Pay for Hits?
Should you pay to have visitors
click your site? Many advertisers
think so and pay significant sums
per click to rank in the top 3
sponsored links. The most notable
provider is
Overture. On their site you bid
for keywords. If your bid is in the
top 3 so is your link (on Yahoo,
Alta Vista, MSN and Lycos). Of
course, your competitors are bidding
too so the price can get pretty
steep.
The question of whether these
services are worth your advertising
dollars is dependent on how well you
record your traffic. Use a service
like HitBox Central and run the ROI
calculator on Overture. If your
costs exceed your income then paying
for clicks might not be the right
idea.
Tip: To track Overture
hits properly you must submit your
URL with the suffix ?source=overture
(e.g., http://www.mailware.com/?source=overture).
Otherwise, the source will be
recorded from the affiliate (i.e.,
if the link appears on Yahoo the
source will report as Yahoo).
Staying on top of the search
engines is half the battle. Make
sure your keywords and pages are
relevant to your visitors' needs and
use a service to track the source of
your clicks. Compare your costs to
your income and kill the ads that
are not making you money. It's basic
direct marketing - for the Web.
Mailware Tip: You can use
the Advertising Source Keys feature
in Mailware to track where your
customers found you. It's great for
search engines and keywords too.
Track sales and every customer
contact, then run reports to see
which ads are making money and which
ones are losing!
Don't have Mailware? Try the Free
Demo.
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