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 Issue #3 - August 5th, 2002 Internet Marketing Newsletter for Small Businesses
Brought to you from idesignbusiness.com http://www.idesignbusiness.com Issue #3 Monday, August 5th, 2002 In this Issue: ARTICLES: FREE RESOURCES: As always, we welcome reader input and want to know what is on your mind. Let us know about topics that you would like to read about in this newsletter and we will do our best to accommodate everyone. Send topic ideas to newsletters@idesignbusiness.com Neal St. Clair idesignbusiness ARTICLE SEARCH ENGINE NEWS A recent Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ruling will mean fairer search results for all! As more and more search engines are going the way of pay-for-performance, it is getting harder to distinguish what is a paid advertisement and what is a legitimate search result. The FTC ruled that all search engines must have "clear and conspicuous" distinctions between free and fee-based search results. This is good news for small business owners with limited budgets that rely on Search Engines to generate traffic and helps to keep search engines a viable and free means of marketing your business online. In June of 2002, more than 190 million unique visitors visited AOL, Yahoo!, and MSN to search for websites! Is you website listed in any of these three Internet powerhouses? If not, submit your site to DMOZ (http://www.dmoz.com). DMOZ provides search results for many major search engines including MSN, AOL, and Yahoo! Search and a listing in DMOZ is free. ARTICLE IS YOUR WEBSITE READY FOR SEARCH ENGINES? (Part 2) In the last issue of the newsletter, we covered the basics of "Search Engine Optimization." In part 2 this week, I will cover a more advanced topic that will help you achieve higher rankings in Search Engines. Link Popularity Link popularity has become increasingly significant in most Search Engines. Search Engines like Google and AltaVista will keep track of how many websites link to your website and partially base search results on this number. The more relevant links that point to your website will increase your rankings significantly. Although having many websites link to you (hundreds or thousands) is great for generating traffic and improving your ranking in search engines, having relevant sites link to you is even more important. What is considered a relevant link? That depends on your website. For example, if you have a Bed & Breakfast website, having a link from your state's travel and tourism website will greatly help your link popularity. The key is to share links with websites that cater to your target market and receive significant traffic. So how do I get these websites to link to me? So you're probably thinking this sounds like a good idea, but how do I get these sites to add a link to my website? One quick way to increase your link popularity is to submit directory pages where your website is listed to search engines. For example, if your website is listed in DMOZ (http://www.dmoz.com) in a certain category, you can submit that category page to search engines. This is true for Yahoo!, Google, or any website that categorizes websites. These are considered relevant links as well because they are in specific categories that match your website. In the early days of the Internet, link swapping was very popular between website owners to increase their traffic. The idea is simple, I will place a link to your website in exchange for a link on your website to my website. Although link exchanges have decreased in popularity over the years, they are now more important than ever. Set-up a page on your website dedicated to reciprocal links and make sure you submit it to Search Engines often. Be pro-active and contact websites that share similar traffic to yours. I think you'll be surprised how receptive other website owners will be to share links. It is a win-win situation for everyone involved and you will see your search engine traffic increase. How can I find out how many websites are linking to my website? Want to know who is linking to your website? Visit AltaVista (http://www.altavista.com) and type the following search term into the search box: "+link:yourwebsite.com -host:yourwebsite.com" For example, to find out the link popularity of idesignbusiness.com, I would type enter "+link:idesignbusiness.com -host:idesignbusiness.com" This will tell you all the pages that are currently linking to your site that have been submitted to AltaVista. AltaVista is a pretty good judge of your overall link popularity because they have one of the largest databases on the web. More information on Search Engine Optimization Would you like specific tips on ways to optimize your website for Search Engines? idesignbusiness provides free website consultations to determine ways you can better optimize your website for Search Engines. It’s free, objective, and will provide real tips on ways to generate more traffic. Submit your site for a free review by clicking below: Free Website Consultation FREE RESOURCES: Each issue of the Internet Marketing Newsletter for Small Businesses will include helpful free resources to promote your website. idesignbusiness provides free and objective website consultations. We will analyze your website and provide ideas on ways to make your website more Search Engine friendly and better improve your traffic. It's free, informative, and risk-free. Submit your website for review today. Free Website Consultation As discussed in the article above, Link Popularity is an increasing significant way that Search Engines display websites in search results. You can easily determine how many websites are linking to you by visiting AltaVista (http:///www.Altavista.com). Where you would normally enter a search term, enter the following: "+link:yourwebsite.com -host:yourwebsite.com" This will quickly tell you how many websites are linking to you and their URLs. Keep track of this number and do your best to increase it to improve your search engine rankings. ABOUT idesignbusiness idesignbusiness provides Web marketing and technology solutions for small businesses. We utilize a combination of consulting and technology expertise to create customized and flexible solutions. Please visit http://www.idesignbusiness.com for more information. SUBSCRIPTION NOTICE This newsletter is only sent to opt-in subscribers. If at anytime you would like to be removed from this list, please send an email to newsletters@idesignbusiness.com with REMOVE in the subject line. Spread the word - Please forward to friends and colleagues. Copyright 2002 - idesignbusiness.com http://www.idesignbusiness.com |
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