HALIFAX, NS - If you’re taking the time to read this then I need not remind you of the power of the web. But just in case you’ve recently come back down from the mountain or emerged from a getaway in a cave here are some of the latest numbers, for the record:

 

·         Almost 80% of North Americans have Internet access

·         More than 50% have made online purchases (Ipsos-Reid)

·         A majority use the Internet as a decision-making tool

·         The Internet cited as the most influence on luxury purchasing (cited by 44% of affluent purchasers) (IAB)

·         39% of North Americans use online banking (Ipsos-Reid)

·         73.5% of e-commerce sites estimate sales growth of 15-35% this year (35.5% estimate growth of 35% or more) (Internet Retailer)

·         60% of chain retailers estimate web sales growth of 25-200% (21.7% expect growth of at least 100-200%) (Internet Retailer)

·         Time spent online by adult Canadians has increased 50% since 2002 and Internet use is ready to overtake watching television (Ipsos-Reid)

 

The power is present, significant and growing. For those that seek to further harness their this power there are a number of marketing practices worth noting. In the first of a three part series, I will examine one of the most important Internet marketing disciplines, search engine optimization (SEO) – a requisite for maximizing the value of your website.

 

SEO

 

In short, SEO is the optimization of your content pages and classification and labelling of content to increase your rank in search engine results. In laymen’s terms, to get the best ranking possible when someone uses Google to search you out.

 

Some perspective:

 

·         56% of users make use of a search engine on any given day – 4 billion searches in August (comScore)

·         54% of searchers only view the first page of results (comScore)

·         In unaided recall, the top three search listings outperformed banners and tiles by three to one (ND Group)

·         55% of participants' online purchases originated on sites found through search listings, compared to 9% from sites originating from banner ads (ND Group)

 

So why is Google so important? Well, Google accounts for nearly 50% (47.3%) of all search engine queries by Internet users – almost 2 billion searches per month (as of August 2005). The others lag behind:

 

·         Yahoo! (20.9%)

·         MSN (13.6%)

·         Others (18%)

 

RANKING DETERMINANTS

 

Improving your website’s ranking requires some education and reconnaissance. It’s important to understand the algorithms and determinants that factor into Google and other engine’s ranking process, including the big three:

 

·         Click popularity (number, relevance, text) – how often your site is clicked on from links on other sites

·         Format, placement and content of the page title tag – the relevancy of the title that appears in the top of your browser (e.g. HealthyOntario.com – Consumer health information & health services for Ontario, Canada)

·         Link popularity – how many other websites of relevance link to your website

 

Other ranking determinants include:

 

·         Use of keywords in URL names (e.g. www.dresses.com)

·         Keyword frequency, weight, prominence and proximity

·         Meta tags

·         ALT tags

·         Comment tags

·         Themes and overall site design

 

IMPROVING YOUR RANKING

 

It is not necessarily easy to improve your ranking. Especially if your competition has a head start of several years or is also working hard to improve their SEO. If you’re selling dresses online and have just set-up a website, then it’s more than just a matter of tinkering to unseed Dresses.com as the first search result listing when searching out “dresses.”

 

However, there is room for improvement and with time and some hard work you will improve. Firstly, your website needs to be solid; rich in relevant and fresh content that is well designed, categorized, laid-out and tagged.

 

Secondly, ensure that people are visiting your website by way of links on other sites. Build up the links to your website by trading links. “I’ll link to yours if you link to mine.”

 

Other recommendations:

 

·         Build content partnerships with other sites so that you can trade and share content (and links)

·         Register your website with all of the big engines and portals including AOL and DMOG (Open Directory Project)

·         Establish your credentials as “thought leaders” and place articles or ‘leadership’ columns on relevant webzines

 

AVOID AT ALL COSTS

 

There are dos and don’ts to SEO. Our recommended dos highlighted above can boost your traffic and (if applicable) your revenue. The don’ts could get you banned from Google and others. Avoid...

 

·         Cloaking your website – don’t establish mirror websites of your primary website in an attempt to fool the engines (they will figure it out and won’t be happy)

·         Joining link exchanges that aren’t relevant to your content for the sole purpose of increasing ranking – it’s not just enough to have links, the links have to be from relevant content

·         Write text or create links that can be seen by search engines but not by users – all links should be viewable by the user

·         Send automated queries to Google to monitor your site's ranking – automated programs make Google angry L

·         Use programs that generate automatic pages of links or ‘doorway pages’ – see the above about making Google angry L

 

SEO is one of the most important marketing undertakings you can invest in, but not the only marketing consideration. In the next installment I’ll discuss email and permission marketing.