2003 ~ Commercial Law Bulletin ~ Technology ~ p.24-25 ~ Gordon Hotchkiss ~ Attract more Visitors Via search Engines

1. Define Your Success Goals
-set benchmarks to determine if your search engine marketing campaign was a success
-good rankings achieved for well-chosen keywords, compelling descriptions, and a good site that prompts users to contact you
-highest number of converted customers, these are the customers that found you through a search engine and contacted you

2. Pick Your Keywords
-they will make or break a keyword marketing campaign
-start with 2,3, or 4 word phrases and broaden from there
-use keyword suggestion tools such as Overture or Wordtracker.com
-for example, if a person from San Antonio is looking for a personal injury lawyer, they will probably type in, "San Antonio Personal Injury Lawyer

3. Review Your Site
-to see what a search engine sees, look at your source code
-a search engine has to wade through all of the code to find the content
-some things that stop search engines: Flash sites, frame sites, dynamic database driven content, text embedded in images, lack of text-based navigation links, redirects and excessive java or VB scripting



4. Review Your Competitors Sites
-after determining your keywords visit the top ranking sites, see what the content looks like and where the keywords appear
-take a look at their page titles and meta tags

5. Review Your Content
-content is the most important factor in achieving good rankings
-make sure your keywords appear 2 or 3 times in the content as well as in the headings and links

6. Write Compelling Descriptions and Page Titles
-write compelling titles that promise to deliver what the search engine displays
-when preparing directory submission, avoid marketing hyperhole and slogans
-keep descriptions short relevant and make sure your primary keywords are discretely used

7. Use Every Page as an Entry Point
-each and every page is a front door onto your site
-navigation has to be consistent throughout the site so it is easy to get home

8. Optimize Each Page Individually
-go through each page and make sure it is search engine friendly
-don't use same tags on all pages
-look at the theme of each page and tie it into the keywords

9. Don't Spam!
-don't overstuff your pages wit keywords…you could get banned

10. Submit to the Major Search Engines
-over 95% of all traffic will come from a handful of portals
-concentrate on the majors…Google, Yahoo!, Inktomi, AOL, Fast, AltaVista, LookSmart and Teoma
-most will have a fee
-stay away from auto submission services, it is far better to do it by hand

11. Budget for Paid Inclusion
-most search engines charge a fee, from $300 for Yahoo ot $39 per URL for Inktomi
-Paid Inclusion is much faster and reliable

12. Determine your Maximum Cost Per Customer
-Cost per Visitor = Avg Sale Amount * Profit Margin * Conversion Ratio
-For example, if your average fee charged from an online client lead is $800, you have a 25% profit margin and you sell to one of every 100 visitors, your cost per visitor ceiling would be $2.00

13. Budget for Paid Placement
-Overture is a search engine where you can bid for paid placement for relevant keywords
-They are the most important, bc top three rankings will ensure good spots in Yahoo, AltaVista, MSN, Excite and more
-A top 3 ranking ensures you will reach 85% people on the web



14. Build Links to Your Own Site
-a solid network of links coming back to your site ensures top rankings in engines such as Google, Inktomi and Teoma
-Try to exchange links with top rated sites

15. Track Your Rankings
-check your rankings once a month
-they will go up and down and are much like the stock market
-tracking tools include: TopDog and WebPosition Gold

16. Track Your Visitors
-check visitor logs and determine where your visitors came from
-check peak traffic periods
-pinpoint entry and exit pages of all of your visitors
-try WebTrends