Posts Tagged ‘Major Search Engines’

Website Marketing Tips

Marketing your online business takes skill, determination, creativity and strategy. There are many ways to market your website (for free or little cost) without the enormous cost of hiring marketing firms. I will list several solutions below that are geared to helping your business achieve its marketing goals and at the same time, save you hundreds of dollars in marketing cost.

Search Engines – Submit! Submit! Submit!

Submit your site to major search engines! Most have “Free Submissions”! Yahoo, Google, Web Crawler, Excite, All The Web, AltaVista, Ask Jeeves

Invest in a Submission Program – By investing in your own submission program (software), it will literally save you thousands of dollars, in advertisements for your site and search engine submission fees to marketing company’s. Most Marketing company’s will charge a fee of around 50.00 a month or more to submit your site to about 200 or less, search engine (using the same software that can be purchased at most computer stores).

To get high ranking in the “Top” search engines, they charge literally thousands of dollars! Just imagine, for a very small investment (of around $69.00), you have the control over which engines you would like to submit to, where you will rank and have the ability to submit your site to more then 750,000 engines world wide in less then ten minutes of your time!

Banner Exchanges – Banner exchanges are an excellent way of promoting your site and driving traffic to your website. You may pick and choose who you would like to exchange banners with, or join a banner exchange program. There are literally thousands of banner exchange programs on the net. You can find them by typing in “banner exchange” in your browser window. Banner exchange programs are great for increasing traffic to your site as well as earning pay per clicks.

Pay Per Clicks – Pay-Per-Click marketing is a form of advertising that allows you to purchase top placement on the search engines for specific keyword searches, at a “per click” price. They work similar to banner ad exchanges. With the difference of earning revenue. Should you decide to join a “pay per click”, make sure you completely check out their program and make sure they are legitimate. There are thousands upon thousands of “pay per clicks” sites on the web. You can find them in any search engine, by typing in keywords, “pay per clicks” or “Affiliate Programs.”

Yellow Pages – List your website in the Internet “Yellow and White Pages” Some yellow pages have, “free listing signups”. Go to keyword “yellow pages” or type “yellow pages” into your browser and choose your yellow pages accordingly.

Apply For Web Awards – Applying for web awards can definitely bring traffic to your site. However, don’t just apply for any awards, Example: Market-Me sites, which will give awards to anyone by a “right click and save graphic” linking back to them, without reading any criteria or promoting any ethics. This adds no credibility for your website. The best award programs can usually be found on Award Sites, UWSAG, or Web Awards , which go through a “strict” evaluation process to add credibility to their Award Programs/Sites.

Join A Web Ring – Joining a Web Ring is a pretty easy process. Just contact the RingMaster and ask to have your site included in the ring. Once you’ve been accepted, the RingMaster will send you a line of HTML code that links you to the Web Ring. Place that code on your Web page – usually at the bottom – and you’re a member. The key is finding one that works for you! The two largest Web Ring hosts that we know about, contain thousands of Rings: Yahoo Web Rings, RingSurf

Affiliate Programs – Joining affiliate programs, are not only beneficial to your site by brining traffic to your site, but can also make you a little bit of a income, depending on which affiliate programs you join. Be choosey and join ones that you feel will benefit yourself and your site. There are thousands of affiliate programs on the net you can join by promoting their products and services.

Using Meta Tags – Inserting “Meta Tags” in the head of your HTML will allow search engines to to recognize and pick up on your submission, by using “Key Words” in the Head of your HTML Code. Most likely, if your site does not have “keywords” in the head of your html code, the engines will not pick it up. Submit Your Site, “Free Meta Tag Generator” is a tool to help you create a meta tag for your html. It is important to remember that All meta tags will be geared towards the content of your site.

Content – Search engines will often pick up keywords in the content of your website. When writing your content, be sure to use specific topics and phrases that you think people will look for to find your site in the search engines. Include descriptions of your products and services in detail.

-By: Donna Snyder

Written By Donna Snyder, CEO Of American Association Of Webmasters -

Top 10 Tips to Guaranteed Targeted Traffic

Increasing targeted traffic to your website is one of the easiest ways to boost your online productivity. Here are the top 10 effective strategies that will help you accomplish that:

1. Optimize Your Website

While SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a full-time career option, you can either hire an expert to do this or follow the suggestions below and get the ball rolling yourself -

a) Select Your Keywords Wisely – Keywords are the phrases people use to search and come to your website, thereafter, hire your services or buy your products. The trick is to find keywords that are highly relevant to what you offer and popular enough that your target audience will use in search engines, but not so competitive that you can’t rank well using them. (Tip: GoodKeywords.com provides a free keyword tool to help you get started. Find your ‘magic’ keywords and use them to build your website content!)

b) Create Your Meta Tags – One of the methods search engines use to evaluate and read your website is known as ‘Meta tags.’ Make sure you include your keywords, website title and description in meta tags in the source code of each of your web pages.

c) Create an SEO Friendly Website – Avoid bandwidth-hogging flash animations, fancy graphics or “alt” tags in HTML for pictures. Not only will this slow down your website’s loading speed, search engines bots will also find it difficult to read, index, and rank your web pages.

d) Get Links to Your Sites – Create a ‘Links’ or ‘Resources’ page and add links to good, relevant websites. This makes search engines think that your site provides valuable information and it should, therefore, appear high in search engine results.

2. Submit Your Website to Search Engines

Don’t wait for search engine robots or spiders to find you. Instead, go ahead and submit your website to major search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, Dmoz etc. and remember to do this regularly!

3. Use PPC Advertising

The best PPC (Pay-Per-Click) programs are offered by Google and Yahoo respectively, called AdWords and Overture. It’s usually pretty tough getting top rankings in the search engines in a short period of time, but it can be very easy to get on the first page of results quickly enough, with a PPC campaign. A PPC campaign can be started with a very small investment and you retain full control over your budget. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad that takes them to your website.

4. Swap Ads with other Ezines

It’s a good idea to swap ads or links with other ezine publishers in your niche. These can be real ads, testimonials about your niche, or recommendations within the content of an ezine itself. Also, consider buying some ad space in ezine publications in your niche that have a large circulation. Always run an ad for at least 3 consecutive issues in order to get the best results.

5. Give Away Freebies

Everyone loves freebies and people will even come to your site just to check what you are giving away. So keep in mind to include a free eBook, a time bound discount coupon, a prize for every X-th visitor, etc. on your website. You can also partner with other JV (Joint Venture) sites where you can offer free products and get people to your own website. Make sure you capture your visitor’s name and email address using opt-in form so that you could easily follow up with them later. Remember, ‘the money is in the size of your list.’

6. Become a Guru

Other than freebies, people love free advice! So find sites where you’re allowed to answer questions, and then take some time off to provide detailed answers to each one of them. Become an expert in your niche, and with every answer you give or every solution you provide, don’t forget to add your website URL at the end.

7. Participate in Discussion Forums

Participating in forums, blogs, and discussion groups is yet another fantastic idea to drive targeted traffic to your site. Check to see if you can offer any advice or make valuable suggestions in forum threads. Always remember to provide your website URL at the bottom of each post you make. Each forum may have its own set of rules about promoting your website, so make sure you carefully read and follow their terms and conditions to avoid being accused of spamming.

8. Submit Articles

This is actually the most genuine and effective technique to getting targeted traffic to your website. Write articles that come under your niche, embed your website link within, and submit the articles to online article directories. Articles with quality content and information tempt readers to click-thru to your site, in the hope of getting more advice or tips. Once prospects reach your website, they’re also exposed to the products and services you offer – which can sometimes result in many sales for you!

9. Write A Press Release

Write a press release about your business and circulate it in the local media, online news sites and RSS. Be careful not to make it sound like an advertisement, though. For more information about press releases promotion, check out [http://www.prweb.com/pressreleasetips.php]

10. Online Networks

There are many sites today where you can network online. These networks usually have groups which you can belong to and post articles and comments. Some good examples would be Adlandpro.com, Ryze.com, Ecademy.com, Directmatches.com and LinkedIn.com to name a few. They work pretty much the same as discussion forums where you can post your articles, and comments, or discuss general issues with others. Many online networking sites offer you an individual page on the network where you can advertise what you have to offer and include a link to your website.

To conclude, these 10 tips of driving targeted traffic are tried-and-tested, meaning they do work. So put in some hard work and give it time… then watch your traffic grow by leaps and bounds!

-By: Lewis Low

Lewis Low is the founding editor of OnlineBizPromo.com. For more practical online business ideas and work-at-home opportunities, visit his home business directory at http://www.onlinebizpromo.com/business_ideas.htm