How to Promote and Optimise Your Business Website

So you've launched a new business website or you have an existing one.

You could just wait for search engines such as Google to index your web pages and hope that they give your pages a high ranking.

Alternatively, you could actively help customers find your site without the search engines, as well as optimising your site for better search engine performance.

Read on to

• find out the 5 main factors influencing your site's ranking in search engines.
• use our action plan to promote your site and optimise it for a better search engine ranking.
  

What determines how my site performs in the search engines?

How long does it take for the search engines to find and evaluate a website?

What should I do once my site goes live?

What determines how my site performs in the search engines?

Before you can begin to improve your business site's performance, it helps to understand the main factors influencing where your web pages are positioned in the search results:

1. The age of your web address. The longer your site has been on the Internet, the better, as it takes time for the search engines to index and evaluate your web pages and credibility.
2. The number and quality of inbound links that point to your website
3. The text content of your website
4. The level of competition within your industry, including the willingness of your competitors to pay for online advertising, search engine optimisation and off-line advertising.
5. The changing methods used by search engines to rank web pages. The search engines regularly update the algorithms they use to rank web pages. Whenever they do this, business owners may find that their sites rise — or fall — in the search results. This is one reason why you can't afford to rely solely upon the search engines to bring customers to you.

See our action plan to find out how you can increase your inbound links, improve your site's content and promote it.

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How long does it take for the search engines to find and evaluate a website?

New websites

It can take 3 to 12 months for the search engines to index a new website. It also takes time for the search engines to assess the 'worth' of your web pages and decide where to position them in the search results.

During this time, you need to promote your website off-line, improve your inbound links, advertise online and make your site as appealing to the search engines as possible. Your SiteSuite website management tools allow you to refine and update the content of your web pages, which is important for improving their ranking in the search results.

Existing websites

It can take weeks or months for the search engines to index and evaluate improvements that you make to an existing site, so it's important to promote your website off-line, advertise online and improve your inbound links so that people can find your business.

You can resubmit your site for indexing when you've made major changes, but don't do this more than twice a year, because the search engines will treat repeat requests like spam e-mails.

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What should I do once my site goes live?

Action plan for promoting and optimising your business site:

1. Submit your site to Yahoo! Search and Live Search
2. Promote your site off-line
3. Get good quality inbound links
4. Fine-tune your website content
5. Improve your page titles
6. Advertise online
7. Update your website content
8. Add interactive features to your site
9. Examine your site's statistics
10. Consult a Search Engine Optimisation specialist

1. Submit your site to Yahoo! Search and Live Search

When SiteSuite completes your business website, we submit it to Google for indexing. You can also submit it to other search engines, such as Yahoo! Search and Live Search. This is only a request to have your site included in the search engine’s index; the search engine will determine if and when they add you to their index. This is no guarantee that your pages will rank well in the search results, which depends on other factors.

Submit your site to Yahoo! Search

http://au.search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html

Submit your site to Live Search (formerly known as ninemsn search)

http://search.ninemsn.com.au/docs/submit.aspx?FORM=WSDD2

Resubmitting your site to Google

Don't do this more than twice a year. The most appropriate time to do it is when you've made substantial changes.

1. Log into your SiteSuite website
2. Go to 'Statistics / Promotion'
3. Select 'Google' and follow Google's instructions

How do I know if my site has been indexed (found and put on record) by the search engines?

1. Go to Google Australia, or Yahoo! Australia Search, or Live Search Australia (formerly known as ninemsn search)
2. Type this into the search field and hit Enter:

site:yourdomainname.com (or .com.au, or .net, or .net.au, or .info, etc)

• Don't include in the 'www.'.
• Remember to include your full domain name.

Example:

site:yellowpages.com.au

When you do this, if the search engines have indexed your site, they will display a list of pages from your site. They may not have indexed all of your web pages. The search engines have billions of pages to analyse and do not keep a record of them all.

If your site is only a few months old, you may find that the search engines have only indexed a single page. Over time, the search engines may index more pages from your site, particularly if you increase the number and quality of your inbound links. The search engines take time to assess your site's credibility because many unreliable, spam and short-term promotion sites spring up every day.

Back to Action Plan

2. Promote your site off-line

Don't rely solely on the search engines to bring people to your website. This is not a sound business strategy, as the search engines are constantly changing the way they rank web pages and search engine marketing is highly competitive.

Promote your site off-line by including your web address in all advertising, on your stationery, signage and vehicles.

Tip: Using SiteSuite's e-mail services, you can create e-mail addresses on your domain name (e.g. info@mybusiness.com.au). Every time you give people your e-mail address, you draw their attention to your website address.

Back to Action Plan

3. Get good quality inbound links

Good quality inbound links are extremely important for improving your search engine ranking and also help customers find your business on the Web via other websites, blogs and directories.

Read our detailed article on inbound links to find out what they are, which ones give the best results and how you can increase the number and quality of your inbound links.

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4. Fine-tune your website content

The search engines use inbound links and the text information within your pages to categorise them and give them a ranking.

For detailed tips on providing better information for your customers in a format the search engines can understand, see our article, How to Create Search Engine-Friendly Content.

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5. Improve your page titles

Getting your page titles right is important for search engine optimisation. You can edit them by using your SiteSuite website management tools. Learn how to select and edit your page titles.

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6. Advertise online

You can advertise your business via websites, blogs and online directories (e.g., the Yellow Pages) and through the search engines. Advertising through the search engines is called Pay-Per-Click advertising (PPC advertising). You may also have heard PPC ads being referred to as Sponsored Links. You set a daily advertising budget and pay each time someone clicks on one of your ads. You can run a PPC campaign yourself, or hire a search engine marketing company to do this for you.

Advertising through Yahoo! and ninemsn Sponsored Search

Advertising through Google AdWords

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7. Update your website content

It's tempting to take a 'set and forget' attitude towards your business website once it goes live, but it pays to update the text often and to add more informative text because the search engines reward this.

Why? Firstly, the search engines are trying to deliver the best, most up-to-date information to people searching the Web. Secondly, the search engines can't 'read' images and graphics, so they can only evaluate the text on your site.

Back to Action Plan

8. Add interactive features to your site

Encourage customers to return to your site and tell others about it by giving them the opportunity to contribute comments, ask questions, submit product reviews, vote in a poll, or forward links and images to friends.

Interactive features such as forums and blogs encourage your visitors to generate something that the search engines love: more text information (in the form of comments on your blog and posts on your forum).

Tip: If you are going to use a blog to drive traffic to your website, update it at least once a week and link your blog posts back to relevant pages of your site, so that search engines and people who find your blog can follow the links to your site.

Back to Action Plan

9. Examine your site's statistics

Your SiteSuite website statistics reveal which sites and search engines are driving traffic to yours. The statistics also show which pages within your website are the most popular.

• If you have paid to have your site listed in a particular directory (e.g., the Yellow Pages online), check your website statistics to confirm if that directory is driving traffic to your site.
• If you are paying to advertise through the search engines (Pay-Per-Click advertising), check your site statistics to see which search engines are driving the most traffic to your site.

Back to Action Plan

10. Consult a Search Engine Optimisation specialist

Search Engine Optimisation or SEO (the ongoing process of increasing your inbound links and refining your web pages in order to improve their search engine ranking) is a specialist industry and we recommend that you consult an expert.

SiteSuite has formed a partnership with Melbourne IT, a major web services company, to provide specialist SEO services. Melbourne IT can also run your pay-per-click advertising campaigns, if you don't have the time to do this. SiteSuite clients are eligible for discounted pricing for Melbourne IT's SEO services. Please call 1300 130 875 to be referred to Melbourne IT for a quote.

Using Google AdWords to Drive Traffic to Your Website

Visit Their Web Site

Google AdWords is an excellent way to drive traffic to your website and attract potential clients. With so many graphic design portfolios online, targeting customers in your area with keywords specific to your design focus can help grow your design business.

How Google AdWords Works
With Google AdWords, you pay only when your ads are clicked on, not when they are just displayed in search results. You set a monthly limit on your account, so you can easily limit your Google advertising budget. Creating an AdWords account is easy… simply create the headline and description for the ad itself, choose keywords and phrases related to your business, limit your ads by geographical location (if desired), and set the budget. More advanced users can bid on keywords for better ad placement.

How and Where Ads Appear
Google ads appear in the right column of search results, within search results that contain your selected keywords. Your ad contains a title, short description, and link to your website. If you choose, you can have your ads show in results only for people searching from specific geographic locations. This can be done by country, region, or even within a customized radius you define. This feature is extremely useful in targeting customers in your state, city, or even your town.

Improving Advertising with Statistics
To track your advertising, Google offers a “placement performance report” that shows impressions (views), clicks, costs, and other data related to your AdWords account. Google offers tips on how to use this report to improve your ad campaign. Google also offers a free keyword tool, which shows how often words are searched for. This tool is helpful for identifying keywords that are common on Google, or even for identifying words that are less common which can result in more frequent or targeted results for your keywords. Finally, adding Google Analytics to your site shows what keywords people are searching that lead them there, and ties in with your AdWords account.

Visit Their Web Site

Search Engine Submission

Search engine submission is not necessary any more for major search engines like Google, MSN, Yahoo! Search. However, it is still worth adding your site to major directories (see below).As for auto-submit services? Don't bother!

Search Engine Submission
based on article Submit Your Site To The World by Steve M Nash

SUBMIT YOUR SITE TO 10,000 SEARCH ENGINES!!!

NO, don't bother! It's a waste of time, and you'll probably just receive lots of unwanted email.

You don't even have to submit your site to major search engines like Google, Yahoo! or MSN these days. Just make sure your site gets links from sites already listed on these search engines.

Instead, hand-submit your site to important directories (i.e. DMOZ and a few others), monitor your results, and resubmit only if your site isn't listed yet.

Repeat this process for any new content you create. (Make sure all new content is listed on your site's sitemap, and that a link to the sitemap can be found on the homepage.)

DON'T Submit Your Site To Google, Yahoo!, MSN

Nowadays, your site must be listed on Google, Yahoo! and MSN, agreed! These three search engines are now *the* dominant search engines on the web, and account for the majority of search engine traffic that your site is likely to receive.

Submission to these search engines is easy and you need only submit your home page. Other pages, linked to from the home page, will then get added to the search engine's database over time.

Actually, you don't have to submit your site to Google, MSN, and Yahoo! (The search engines prefer that you don't). It may well find your site anyway, especially if another site (already on Google, MSN, or Yahoo!) has links to your site.

It is worth reading what these search engines says about getting your site listed, though:

- Google Search for Webmasters

- MSN Search for Site Owners

- Yahoo! Submit Your Site

Do Add Your Site Here!

Once your site is listed on the major search engines, you should hand-submit your site to these other major search directories, also:

• Open Directory Project (DMOZ)
  
• Yahoo! directory
  
• Strongest Links Directories - Listed by Alexa traffic ranking.
  

Note: regional (and maybe more appropriate) versions of the above search engines exist too.

Don't Use A Search Engines Submission Tool!

AddMe.com has a free search engine submission tool.

The free tool - the first auto-submit tool I ever used!! - submits your site to 13 major search engines. Whilst the paid-for professional tool submits your site each month to 2000 search engines and classifieds
- http://www.addme.com/submission.htm

However, I recommend you don't use it! But it's your choice!

Search Engine Submission Basics

I suggest to you that search engine submission is as simple as 1 - 2 - 3:

1. Create quality web pages that your site visitors like AND that the search engines (and directories) like - visit this search engine optimisation page
   
   
2. Find at least one site listed on the major search engines, and get an inbound link from that site to your site (find out how here - about reciprocal linking.)
   
   
3. Slowly, over time, add your site to the important directories too

As long as your site is indexed on search engines like Google, then there's no need to keep on submitting new pages. Just make sure you maintain a site map, that is accessible from the home page, and add your new pages to the site map as and when you create them. (Read this article to find out how to promote new site content.)

Monitor Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS)

After a month or so, check to see if your site exists on the major search engines. (Do a search for your website URL; e.g. do a search for www.yourwebsitename.com .)

If it isn't then put more effort into getting a site to link to you that does exist on the search engine. (If your site is not yet on a directory, and it should be according to their terms and conditions, then contact the directory owner with a polite email asking them when your site is likely to get added.)

Get People To Link To Your Site

Link building is more important than ever, and this article details several effective ways to get people to link to your website. Use these ideas to think of your own. Be creative! Create an online resource that other site owners can use and that includes a link back to your site (think Google Maps).

Top 10 Ways To Get People To Link To Your Web Site!
Article by Larry Dotson

1. Offer other web sites free content to post on their web site. Include your link on all of your content. The content should relate to your web site because it will be in front of your target audience.

2. When you visit a web site you've enjoyed a lot, write a review for the site. Write about the benefits you gain from the web site. Tell them they can publish it on their web site if they link to your web site.

3. Allow other people to publish your e-zine on their web site. Include your web site's ad and link in each issue you publish. This may also help you increase the number of people that subscribe to your e-zine.

4. Market your web site as a free web book. Design your web site with a title page, table of contents, chapters, etc. Just allow other people to give away the web book by linking to your web site.

5. Give your visitors an instant article directory. Tell your visitors they can instantly add a free article directory to their web site by linking to yours. Just place your ad or banner ad on top of the article directory for your main web site.

6. Allow other web sites to use your discussion board for their web site visitors. Just have them link directly to the discussion board. Include your web site's ad or banner ad at the top of the discussion board.

7. Start a members only web site. Tell visitors what's in your members only site and what it costs to gain access. Offer them a free membership if, in exchange, they link to your web site.

8. Offer your visitors a free sign up to your affiliate program. Pay them commission to sell your products or services. Just give them an affiliate link to track their sales. People will link to your web site to make extra money.

9. Create your own award site for other web sites. Give the winners a graphic or text link to place on their web site when they win. This will link your web site to theirs and draw more traffic to your web site.

10. Are you an expert on a particular subject? Offer people free consulting via e-mail if, in exchange, they link to your site. People will consider this a huge value because consulting fees can be very expensive.