It’s possible to find just about anything by searching on Google (and the other Search Engines). Whether your products or services can be found by those people though will depend on a number of factors.
If your product or service is unique then simply doing the basics for SEO (search engine optimisation) on your web site and elsewhere will probably be enough. If you’re one of several, or even many, business providing the same thing then the task is a little harder.
There are very many factors that go into the ranking Google gives to a website, but one very important factor is having good, quality content that will attract users to your site. This is over and above the usual information about what a company does, sells and where it is located. Having additional material in the form of reports, videos, technical guides, webinars etc. that is unique to you and your business will help build your brand equity and attract more traffic to your site.
If you want to read more about social media, here are a few links to recent posts on the web:
2) 30 Ways to Use Social Media for Business People
3) Embracing Social Media for Business
4) Using Social Media to Find the Right Customers
5) 10 Social Media Trends for 2011
6) What’s the Next Big Trend in Social Media Marketing
1 ) Content is still king! (Google REALLY does want to present the best/most relevant info to searcher)
2 ) Links from other, relevant, web sites make a big difference (crappy-looking sites can rank highly. Link strategy)
3 ) The phrase/term you think you should be found for may not be what other people are searching for – or the best phrase/term to use (Develop a ‘best’ list of the terms or phrases to use in the pages of your web site (from research in 3) and avoiding competition)
4 ) Pick suitable pages in your site and incorporate as many of those ‘best’ terms/phrases as possible (pages with text, relevant topic) - but only ONE per page.
5 ) Keep the web site fresh (add new content often, think about a blog)
6 ) Don’t cheat! (hidden text, lots of uses of the term/phrase on a page)
7 ) Optimising a web site (and pages) for Google is an ongoing process (make changes, see how they go, make more etc)
8 ) Measure and monitor your web site – or get someone to do it for you (use web statistics to see how people are arriving at your web site, what they view and what terms they are using)
9 ) Use Google Places for local searches (register a business location with Google)
10 ) 20% of all searches are done on YouTube. (Get movies on there)
Apart from trying to visit your web site yourself, how do you know that it’s up and available?
All web site hosting companies, no matter how good they are, suffer some ‘down time’ at some time or other. Their link to the Internet might be broken or one or more of their web servers (holding your web site) might have a technical issue.
If your web site is simply an on-line brochure and you know you don’t get many visitors, it probably isn’t a problem.
If your web site is a shop, and the main source of your business income, it’s a big problem!
So how can you be told when your web site is ‘down’ or otherwise unavailable to the outside world?
Fortunately there are many companies offering free or cheap ways to do this.
Essentially they will set up tracking and monitoring tools that check certain aspects of your web site. At it’s most basic this might be a simple attempt to do what you do with your browser when you try to load your web site’s Home page. It could be much more complex and test the working of your e-mail system or a number of other aspects of your web site.
When there’s a problem, you’ll get sent and e-mail and/or an SMS alert to your phone telling you of the problem. You can then check with your web site people or the hosting company to check that they are aware of the problem, what’s causing it and the likely resolution time.
The basic service is usually free and enhanced services are available from as little as a couple of pounds per month.
A sample of companies offering web site monitoring is below:
http://www.watchmouse.co.uk/en/
So if the availability of your web site is important to your business, you can now be alerted to any problems and take the necessary action.
