Inside Entrepreneurship: Tricks of the Web search trade

Q:We do a lot of advertising on the Internet through paid search advertising. We'd like to optimize our Web site to improve our paid and non-paid search rankings. There seems to be a million vendors claiming to do work in this area. What really works?

Cindy C.

Seattle

A: Doesn't the world of search engine optimization remind you of what it feels like to run up a fast-moving down escalator? If not taking hurried leaps to keep moving up, you end up just moving down.

Less-than-scrupulous Web marketers have learned just how to tap into our frustrations as Web site owners. Just last week I received yet another hyperbole-rich e-mail solicitation promising "unlimited traffic and a permanent position guaranteed never to move."

Although this vendor's "too good to be true" proposition should be avoided, there are many low-cost strategies and credible search engine optimization advisory services that can help you improve your search engine status.

As a starting point, it's helpful to understand how leading search engines score or rank competing sites. Google, for example, generally scores individual Web sites not in terms of visits to a particular site, but by the number of links and hyperlinks. The greater the number of links leading to your site, the higher your Google score. Alta Vista generally works the opposite way by measuring the number of links from your Web site to others.

Without paying any fees you can increase your Internet visibility by registering your site at search engines or at the Open Directory Project. Also explore placing links to your site at relevant trade organization sites and marketing or vendor partner Web sites. To the extent someone in your organization contributes white papers or other editorial submissions to other Web sites, provide links for additional information back to your site.

On a paid basis, consider any high-traffic "indexing sites" that appear within the top 15 search positions of your key-word category or classified advertising sites that are often well-organized and make it easy for search engine spiders (programs that crawl the Web looking for data) to collect your site's information. Updating your site's navigational map also can help search engine spiders pick up more key-word information and pages from your site.

But it's important to remember that higher site traffic and search engine rankings alone don't pay the bills. Only profitable customers do.

To this end, Caroline Colon of GoTech Inc. recommends that business owners look for Web marketing firms that include site productivity evaluations as part of their advisory services.

Colon says, "Companies spend a lot of money at search engines but frequently overlook their Web site's functionality." Colon says one common mistake is to drive all linked traffic to a home page rather than link site visitors to specified content pages without delay.

GoTech, with offices in Seattle and Tacoma, offers site owners several programs to improve both search engine results and customer conversion metrics. Service areas include optimizing content to include more targeted search key words, evaluating competitor Web site advertising tactics, identifying needed changes to site architecture and developing performance measures to determine the cost-effectiveness of paid and non-paid Web advertising.

What we do know is certain. The Internet is all about change. What works today may not work tomorrow.

Business owners who rely on company Web sites to generate sales leads or book new sales should frequently review and update their Internet advertising strategies.

As Mark Twain once said, "Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising."

Susan Schreter writes about startup planning and small business financing for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. She has an investment banking and buyout background and serves as a coach to entrepreneurs and consultant to corporations. Find more Inside Entrepreneurship columns at seattlepi.com/venture. Send questions about small business management or raising money for your business to susan@insideentrepreneurship.com or by mail to Inside Entrepreneurship, c/o Seattle Post-Intelligencer Business Section, 101 Elliott Ave. W., Seattle, WA 98119.

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