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Setting Up Your Own Website |
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Setting Up Your Own Website |
[I. Before You Start — don't skip this step!]
[II. Getting into Search Engines 101]
[III. Getting into Search Engines Advanced]
They'll find your site if you do everything else right. In fact, you can be deleted from a search engine by using some of the "we'll submit you every minute to 9000 search engines" companies out there. Search engines don't like to be bombarded any more than you do. Several such submissions will get you classified as a spammer.
So how do you get listed in Google and Bing?
There are several directories that are human-administered. You DO have to submit to these.
For example, Hot Vs Not has hundreds of thousands of sites linking to it. The more of these "backlinks" a directory has, the more valuable a listing in it is. Directories like Hot Vs Not or Skaffe are set up by category. They're used by search engines because they weed out spam websites that are submitted to them. Traffic can come from the directory itself, or from the search engines that crawl and collect data from directories.
Some of the most important directories are the Open Directory Project (known as DMOZ), which is used by many other search engines, Skaffe, Arakne, and Pegasus Directory. Other biggies are MasterMoz, Anoox, Illumirate, ABC Web Directory and JoeAnt. They're all free, but since they're run by humans, it will take a while to get your site approved. If your business is in the UK, you should definitely list on the UK Business Directory, which has good web visibility. If you're really ambitious, Free Web Directories has a list of 100s of directories to which you can submit your site.
Commercial sites should submit
to Jayde and Thomas
Regional. A rising comer is a social-type site caled Yelp which will give you free promotion for your Business. Yelp is a listing of local businesses that people can write reviews about. A real no-brainer, since it's a free link with no strings attached.
It costs money, but you may find it worthwhile to submit your site to
Business.com. You can get $50 off your listing by clicking on this link.
It's a business to business website with articles on online promotion and a directory of businesses.
Yahoo has a directory that charges $299 a year for a listing. Surprisingly, this
is one of the few paid links that Google actually values, so you may wish to invest in a link there.
There are hundreds of directories that will list you in return for a reciprocal link, such as The Poddys Directory and Scrub the Web. Some directories, like Ezilon charge you to be listed. Google does not look kindly on paid only directories. They may actually hurt your standing.
Once you have submitted your website, you can check how your site measures up in the 3 biggest search engines with this free tool.
If you have a brick and mortar location, the best thing you can do to publicize your business and your website is to put your business onto Google maps. For example, if you have a pet shop and people search for pet shops in your town, your listing will appear at the top of the Google page. And it's free! (Well, they also have an extra service that costs $25 a month, which is actually a good deal.) For more information on getting into Google places, see Randy Kirk's website.
Up and coming Bing (which is rumored to stand for "Because it's not Google") has a similar service. To get in, go to Bing's listing center.
Social sites are sites where people communicate with one another. Facebook is a good example. Most of these social sites allow you to create a profile page from which you can link to your website.
In the last few years, all kinds of social sites have become very popular.
People are sharing their favorite websites in lists on the web. There's no
charge to join these social sites. They provide a free link, and you may
enjoy browsing through other people's choices.
My favorite is Stumble.
You install their toolbar
on your browser, indicate your interests, and then you can spend hours
looking at neat websites. Just make sure to add your own to the list.
Other social sites you can join are: Furl, Reddit
and Del.icio. If you're short on time or expertise, there's even a Social Media Management Tool called Sprout Social that will simplify the job of handling your social media connections.
If you are a local brick and mortar business, you can get a free Business Owner's Account on Yelp and
get your own page pointing to your websites. Local.com offers local online marketing for small business. Encourage your customers to write reviews of your business. Angieslist.com is another of those sites that offers reviews of local businesses. They are targeted more to the consumer, so you'll have to get your friends, relatives and good customers to write reviews for you.
For as little as $1 a day, Google will put your ad in the right hand column of their search results. It takes a bit of effort to learn how to set up an ad campaign, but they provide online help and you can refine as you go along. You set your daily budget and the amount you are willing to pay for each "click" (PPC), that is, each time a visitor to Google actually clicks on your ad. The hardest part is writing the ad -- they allow you only 95 characters for the whole ad (not counting your URL.)
Google isn't the only search engine that sells ads. Because they have less of the search engine market share, Bing/Yahoo! can actually place your ad higher up in their sponsored search results for the same money as Google. Another less expensive pay-per-click alternative is BidVertiser..
A different form of advertising is to sign up affiliates. You join a site like shareasale.com. On it, you offer a commission to people who will put your ads on their websites. That way, you only pay when someone actually buys something from your website.
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There are techniques called viral marketing that enable you to use the web-like features of the internet to get friends to refer friends or webmasters to refer visitors. For example, you can join forums. Most permit you to put a link to another website into the body of messages you post. (Just click on the little link symbol. It should walk you through it.) Not only is it a free link, but if the forum is related to your site, people may follow the link to visit your site. You can also write articles related to the subject of your website. Article sites allow links in the article, and if it's a good piece, other webmasters will put it on their websites. For example, take a look at this excellent article on viral marketing which was copied from a site that offers articles for inclusion in websites. |
Forums and blogs that allow comments are a great way of getting free links. For example, TheFreeAdForum.com! is specifically built to help you promote your business or service.
There are forums on just about every subject under the sun. Find one and become active in it. Just google "forum mysubject". For example, if your site is about books, google "book forum" or "reading forum".
Most forums let you embed links in your messages, and also let you create your own signature, with links embedded in it.
Ask your friends and favorite cusomers to find blogs that are relevant to your website and write favorable comments about you. If you include the address of your website, including the http:// part, many blogs will transform that into a link. Because it's embedded in a meaningful context, this kind of link is highly valued by Google.
Press releases are good for building and promoting a business, increasing inbound links, and boosting website rankings and traffic. Think of something newsworthy to say about your website, then write it up and send it to your local papers and radio stations. Be sure to include your website address.
If you're not much of a writer, or don't know much about distribution, you can hire someone like e-Releases. For a few hundred dollars they'll write and distribute a press release, or, for less, just distribute what you write.
