Posted by on: 2006-04-21 16:08:17
Having spent endless hours researching the
net and reading what feels like every computer
geek’s perspective on Google page ranking,
search engine optimization and site promotion
I have come to the following conclusions:
1. Don’t develop your website to make Google
spiders happy, develop your site to make your
visitors happy. Why? Because “people” are
what will make you successful, not Google
spiders that crawl your site. Sure, it’s important
to do what you can to improve your site rankings
and promotion. But once you have applied the
basics of setting up your site, fined tuned
your meta and page tags and submitted your
site to various search engines and directories,
STOP and ask yourself what is the ROI on your
time? What are you REALLY getting out of pouring
your life away over another promo trick or
one more article written by some geek who
has little or no ability to relate to the
“human side” of the Internet equation? What
ever happened to plain old customer service?
2. There are only three (3) possible actions
a person can take when they arrive at your
site. They can click the back button and go
back to Google or some other search engine.
They can visit the site and review your offerings
or they can click a link and go on to the
next site. Out of these three options, the
best are “they visit and check out your offering”
and they “click and go on to the next site”
so that the next business might have an opportunity
to make a presentation of their offering.
The worst thing a visitor can do is click
the back button and go back to Google or some
other search engine. Why? Well ask yourself,
what has Google or any other search engine
done for you lately? Will Google or any other
search engine let you advertise for free?
Well, when you have done a lot of hard work
whether it is writing articles or online and
offline advertising to get your visitor to
your site, why in the world would you want
that person to go to Google for free? I don’t
know about you but I would much rather have
my visitor come to your site so you have a
chance to make a buck in this dog eat dog
market.
3. Back to people for a moment—I got news
for you, people are SICK of hyper advertising
get rich quick crap that promises to show
them how to be successful by giving up their
email address and other confidential information
for another false promise. People don’t buy
into that hype. It repels them. It repels
me. If you have a viable product or service,
put up the best site you can, tone down the
hype, get honest and make your site a place
people want to visit and bookmark (.) A place
that people will visit again and again because
of the content of the information on the site
that benefits them. If your site has quality
information on it people will bookmark it
and spread the word to their friends and family.
And word of mouth is the most powerful advertising
tool you will ever find to promote your site.
I have a comprehensive business background—and
at 48 years old I have seen and done it all,
management, marketing, direct sales, real
estate and mortgage banking. I have authored
and published books, been a media spokesperson,
appeared on local, regional and national TV,
I have signed autographs and personally filled
orders and all of it revolved around customer
service to people. People make you successful.
And I have a new found skill set developing
a website to help promote my products. But
I don’t hype it. It’s a simple site that has
a really BIG bang for the buck—the BANG is
for the people who visit the site. I think
it’s a cool place for information people need.
And that brings me around to the meat of this
article.
THINK LINKS—people get to your website because
of links. Traffic is what you want—lots of
traffic. I have had people tell me that they
only wanted to exchange links with very qualified,
targeted “vertical markets”. One case was
a guy trying to sell a computer book, I offered
to exchange a link with him because my website
is called Smart Books and we sell real estate
and business kits and books but not technology
products. I thought it would be a nice link
to offer my visitors. He declined. Which makes
about as much sense as having a computer store
in the mall and rejecting all visitors who
don’t read computer books. Another technical
geek idiot who doesn’t understand that eyeballs
on product is what sells products. He lives
in that stupid “geek universe” where offline
buzzwords like “target market” and “vertical
market” are more important—he read to many
articles written by other geeks. Sure, it’s
important to have link relevancy on your site
but the key is to diversify—give your visitors
alternatives.
So here’s the deal: I am on your side in
the quest to serve customers and develop a
site following. The quest to drive the market
to your website. But if you are on a limited
budget like I am, THINK LINKS. Relevant link
exchange is one of the most powerful tools
you have to promote your site and improve
your site page rankings. Visit our website
at the link below, check it out—there is a
link button on the home page that will explain
the linking process with us and provide everything
you need. If you think your site is relevant
to ours, submit your site. We will check out
your site and if your site is relevant, we’ll
link you! It’s just that simple! We are all
in this together and when you consider all
the help you are getting from Google and given
the fact that Yahoo directory wants $300-$600
to submit your site for "review" link exchange
has tremendous value.
Copyright © 2006
James W. Hart, IV
All Rights reserved
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