|
What makes an effective Web site? Should it be attractive? Easy-to-navigate? Informative? Well, probably a little of all of those things, but it darn sure better be easy to find. You might call this the Holy Grail of Internet marketing: being relevant to searchers. The solution might be simpler than you think. You have heard the big "buzz words" SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Placment, Pay Per Click. However, if your site is completely Search Engine Optimized, you're only 30% done.
Search engines are the most popular ways to find Web sites, so it’s no surprise that you’ve probably heard of search engine optimization (SEO) and rankings. But what a lot of people don’t know is that there are two main types of searches: the name search and the product search.
The name search usually occurs when a repeat visitor (customer) or less tech savvy consumer is looking for you. This is when someone goes to a search engine and enters your business name or even your URL directly. This visitor is looking for information about just YOUR company. This customer is a repeat customer or at least has brand recognition because of OTHER marketing efforts, or has visited YOUR SITE before.
The product search occurs because the visitor is looking for the type of product or service. Specifically, they’re looking for the best one. Let’s take a look at how to find out where you show up to potential visitors and what to do about it.
-
- Search the name of your business - use multiple search engines (Google, yahoo, MSN)
- Search your product category (hot dogs wichita ks OR widgets kansas OR advanced semi-conductors midwest)
- Search any prominent people in your company (CEO, founder, really, really good janitor)
What did you find? Did you show up in anywhere you didn’t expect? Were there any old news articles out there that mentioned you? Did you uncover some happy or irate customers? Did you learn something about your competitors?
The difficult part is managing and maintaining your content. We recommend you take a look at the following:
- Gain control of what is out there already
-
-
-
- Take down or re-tool old Web sites
-
-
- Update or remove old "business listing" profiles (manta.com, etc.)
- Maintain social media
-
-
-
- Online Maps- Make sure your restaurant is listed with sites such as MapQuest and Google Maps Local Business Center.
-
-
- Google Alerts - get updates when ever your business is mentioned and then tell people about it
- Boost search engine rankings - this is a whole blog series, not to mention an entire industry
And in case you didn’t know...Thrive does fully-managed Digital Media Management, which can bring it all together to make your site fully effective for you. |