SMM Strategic Marketing Montreal
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[Newsletter 8a] |
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Extraordinary
Issue - Why your web site doesn't deliver customers the way you thought
it would -
Some little known facts
This extraordinary issue is a follow-up to Newsletter 8. From some readers' reactions, it is clear that there is a fundamental lack of knowledge about the way the Internet works. This can make your website much less effective than it should be.
1. People searching on the Internet use Search Engines
Most people are familiar with search engines for exploring the World Wide Web. Some have been around since the beginning such as Yahoo, Altavista and Excite and are still going strong. Each one develops its own databases. Since they use different methods, each includes a minor fraction of all the web sites and each has some that the others don't. Some people use what are called meta-search engines, which use a combination of several search engines to compensate. Metacrawler is a good example of such a program.
2. Search Engines may share information
Several search engines have spiders that continuously explore the web looking for new websites. You can also register your site with some search engines, which may speed up how quickly you get into their database. There is a considerable amount of data transfer among the various search engines. In some cases, you can register with one search engine and you will automatically be transferred into another search engine's database. For example, registering with HotBot automatically registers you in Inktomi (which you cannot register with directly). Once in Inktomi then you are automatically registered with Canada.com. These linkages are quite complex.
3. Key words are used to define what the searcher is looking for
Any search engine will allow a searcher to enter key words or they can sometimes enter a whole phrase to define what they are looking for. The search engine will then look through its own database and see which websites include the words or phrase. It then shows a list of the websites arranged by its own logic. Sometimes this logic is not what you might wish. For example, Google which is a very popular search engine ranks websites by the number of other links from other sites and the importance of these other sites.
4. Your web page can have special Key Words attached to it in a META tag
One feature, which some people use to increase the visibility of their websites, is to attach specific key words to their sites. This is done in HTML programming by adding a META tag to the source code for the website. It is often very instructive to examine the source code for a competitor's site and see what key words they are using. This may suggest why they seem to be more visible to search engines.
5. Unfortunately some Search Engines disregard these META tags
Different search engines use different logics for evaluating sites. In general they are all trying to get the most "natural" weighting of the site. They wish to mimic how a human would compare and rank any two sites. They may deliberately ignore sites, which are seeking too much attention by an excessive use of a particular key word. Indeed some search engines such as Google and Excite completely disregard the keywords in the META tag. Others such as Lycos may give them a lower rating than words in the body of the page.
6. So what is the trick to get a high ranking on all the Search Engines?
There is no trick to getting a high ranking. The key is exactly the same that you would use if you were talking directly to your potential client. You must very simply state how you stand out from the competition and how you give some unique value that is not provided by the competitive offers. How you express this in your web page will determine how the search engines rank your page versus other pages. The precise logic mechanism of each search engine may marginally change the order it ranks the key contenders for a given set of key words. However if you're good, you should normally be in the first 10 in several of the listings.
Once your page has the right content, then you will find that those search engines that have spiders will eventually find you probably after 3 to 6 weeks. You can cut down this delay by a half by registering with certain sites, but there are no guarantees.
If you wish to use this approach, SMM will be happy to work with you. Our help can be configured to meet exactly the needs you have. Our strengths, experience, creativity and practical common sense can complement those of your company. So write us a Fast Message today, , on what you're looking for.
Barry
Welford
Feedback
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