| Top Web Hosting Provider of The Month: |
 |
| Visit Bluehost.com | Read Bluehost Review |
|
|
| >> Web Hosting Geeks // Web Hosting Articles // SEO - Search Engine Optimization |
|
|
 |
Search Engine Marketing Hype Killing Small Businesses
Think about the first thing you ever heard about "marketing a website" on the web. 99% of the time the first words anyone ever hears are "search engine marketing." Or some semblance of the phrase. And from that point on, the hammering of misinformation never lets up. You are led to believe that your business will die a terrible death without the search engines. You are led to believe that only people who can guide you through the mine field of search engine optimization are the SEO "experts." Also you are told time and again that the only way to market online PERIOD is through the search engines. You are conditioned over time to focus most, if not all, of your efforts on tricking the search engines into liking your site above all your competitors for search terms where "there can be only one." Well, here's a wake up call: The vast majority of small business startups will never have the resources, time, or know-how to turn an idea into a profitable online business focusing only on search engines. Just look at the deluge of information there is out there on Google and how to rank well with them. People are picking apart their ranking patent application right now to try an glean a website promotion strategy based upon what Google reveals in their application about their ranking system. Is this information valuable to a small business wanting to sell its wares to a whole market rather than just the part of that market which uses one of the big search engines? It is in extreme moderation, yes. In a well balanced marketing campaign that focuses on many ways to bring in targeted traffic, search engine marketing has its place. You do what you can, and you move on to all the other ways there are to promote your business. Yet, so many people are falling victim to the gleam and glitter of search engine riches being pushed on them by SEO firms and people selling search engine how-to manuals. It is not long before a new business finds itself wrapped up in a game where the only winners are the geeks and deep pockets. If you do not fall into either of those categories, your business is doomed from the start if you hop right off the porch to play with those big dogs. "But I hired a 'big dog' SEO firm to make my business stand out and compete with the geeks in my market niche." More power to you. In actuality, unfortunately, you probably just hired a teenager from India with an internet connection in his parents' house. Most small business start ups cannot come close to affording a major SEO firm. They charge corporate-level premiums to be able to access their services. Everyone else in the SEO world is practically working out of their garage in comparison. Scared yet? You don't have to be as long as you are spreading your marketing around to the non-search engine traffic you should be getting. Writing articles and syndicating them in your market is a direct traffic strategy that has nothing to do with search engines. Except that search engines find your site through those links as well. But you should be doing it solely for DIRECT TRAFFIC from readers on other sites and taking the search engine traffic boost as mere icing on the cake. You see, as people spam the search engines, they must adjust how they rank sites in order to compensate. This means a lot of good sites take a hit when Google changes the way it ranks sites. You could have done everything completely on the up and up and gotten dropped in the engines because they made a new rule that everyone who registers their domains only for one year is a possible spammer. There goes your legit site. Hope you weren't planning on search engine traffic for your SOLE source of traffic. Can you see how dangerous it is to get bitten by the search engine bug? YES you can propel your business overnight from a profitless dead zone to a glamorous profit machine with one top ranking. Of course that is possible. It is not likely. People who are turning their small online businesses into success stories are doing one thing across the board: Conducting a multi-faceted marketing campaign that includes search engines along with a good mix of other non-search engine marketing such as reciprocal and non-reciprocal linking tactics too numerous to mention here. If you want long-term success online, you must be willing to look past all the sleeze merchants selling you dreams of riches through search engine marketing. Search engines care about one thing: Their own hides. You should care more about your hide than anything else and use a well-planned, disciplined marketing strategy that puts search engines in their place. Not in the epicenter of your marketing campaign, but just another tool in your toolbox for bringing in targeted traffic. Do this, and you will escape the fate of thousands of startups this year who will realize too late that they hung their hopes on the wrong marketing strategy as their engine for profits. Copyright 2005 Jack Humphrey Jack Humphrey explains his proven marketing strategies in the all new Power Linking 2005 at http://power-linking-profits.com Jack is proudly NOT a "search engine expert."
MORE RESOURCES: Seopath.com offers SEO Packages for Quality Search Engine Optimization - BigNews.biz (press release)
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Even More Tips For Getting A Top 10 Search Engine Ranking! I have spent some time discussing the 5 different options you have for getting your web site listed in the search engines. Just to make sure that we're all on the same page, let's quickly review?1. 5 Things to Keep an Eye on in the SEO World in 2005... After the latest PR update at Google and MSN's beta search going live, there is one thing for certain in 2005: the world of search is in for some major changes. There has been growing speculation around the SEO world that reciprocal linking is a thing of the past. Meta Tags Help Optimize Your Web Site Rankings Are you working on getting your web site up onto the internet?There are a few different elements you need to think about when first putting up your new web site. Starting with the basics and building from there is the best way to go. What Is Search Engine Marketing? It's in our genes, we're driven to seek. We 'hunt' for food, homes, partners, jobs and lately - with the advent of the Internet - information. The Search Engine Optimization Secret that Everybody Ignores Search engine optimization is a very critical task in the success of any website.In recent times search engines seem to have complicated this task further by their frequent changes in rules. Search Engines: Different Types, Different Strategies There are four basic types of Search Engines: Free Search EnginesPay-For-Inclusion Search EnginesPay-Per-Click (PPC) Search EnginesDirectories Because each type does things a little differently, you need to adapt your strategy to take advantage of their differences.Free Search EnginesYou can submit your pages to these engines free, but be careful. What is Search Engine Optimization? It is no secret that search engines are the number one traffic generating method for driving visitors to the different web sites. Search engines are very useful in helping people find the relevant information they seek on the Internet. Non-Reciprocal Link Building For Higher Search Engine Positioning Non-Reciprocal Link Building For Higher Search Engine Positioning By Dave Davies, Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning, Inc.There are two main advantages to non-reciprocal links as opposed to reciprocal links. Getting Listed in the ODP, Google Directory First of all, the Google directory is really just the open directory project (ODP: url here) with a few adjustments. While listings on DMOZ. Alert Marketing - Get Google Search Results By E-mail Sometimes our jobs as marketers means we need to look beyond the obvious. Google, for example, offers their Google Alerts service. Search Engine Rankings for Beginners Search engine optimization is best left in the mystical land of the Intenet Marketing Guru right? Good Search engine rankings are tough to achieve. Understanding search engine marketing takes years of studying and only people with true insider knowledge and secret tools rank well in Google right? WRONG. Sitemaps 101 - Back to SEO School Sitemaps are without doubt one of the most often ignored and undervalued aspects of search engine optimization. You've probably spent a huge amount of time working on pages of original content, keyword density and getting incoming links but never once spared a thought for a sitemap for your new creation. META Tags Explained and How To Use Them For Ranking The META tags are used to provide extra information about a web page. There was once a time where a good search engine ranking could be achieved by simply changing the value of the META tags. Submitting Your Site To The Open Web Directory: Some Dos And Don'ts One of the most important steps in any site's publicity campaign is the submission to the Open Web Directory (http://www.dmoz. SEO Deadly Sins - Mistakes That Hurt Web Page Ranking The following are a list of mistakes can ensure that your site maintains a low ranking with the search engines. Avoid at all costs. Increase Your Page Rank Through SEO Search Engine Optimization (SEO) must be considered a process and over time you can build your ranking and traffic.Remember, "Rome wasn't built in a day. Branding Versus SEO Branding versus search engine optimization is a marketing dilemma that larger companies will need to come to grips with on the Internet. Often companies will need to decide whether to promote their own brand name as their main keyword phrase or optimize for a more generic keyword phrase. Great Site Ranking in Google The Secrets Out How many years did you register your domain name for? If it was only one then Google could hold that against you.Why?Because the majority of Spam websites only register a domain name for one year. Search Engine Marketing: 20 Nitty-Gritty Strategies To Compel People To Link To Your Website You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that having quality inbound links from websites with high page ranks can help you attain high rankings in all the Search Engines.But achieving this can be more difficult to do than can be imagined. KEI Concerns and CID Alternative Like many folks, I have been using KEI for some time now to determine what keywords I should target with my web site. And this has led me to becoming concerned with the results KEI provides and the keywords it suggests.
|
|
|
|
|
| © 2004 - 2008 "Web Hosting Geeks" | Web Hosting Reviews | Customer Reviews | RealMetrics Reviews | Hosting Articles | Directory | Partners | Contacts Over 7000 articles: web hosting, web development, domain names, ecommerce, web design, site promotion, ppc advertising, seo, site promotion and many others. Web hosting reviews, ratings and awards are not based on any incentives or commissions. Names and trademarks are the properties of their respective owners. A direct link to Web Hosting Geeks (http://webhostinggeeks.com) must be provided in order to use any of the above information. Contact us for more info. Partners: Hosts by speed, Cheap Website Hosting, Free Website Hosting, Cheap Web Hosting, Top 10 Web Hosts, Top 10 Web Hosting Deals, Best Website Hosting, Free Web Hosting, Free Web Hosting, Dedicated Server Hosting, Adult Web Hosting, Web Hosting Discussions, Dedicated Server Reviews, Best Web Hosting, Web Hosting Discounts, HostProfessor.com, rsuog, halyava, PHP Website Hosting Services, Web Hosting Reviews, Hosting Uptime, Best Web Hosting Reviews, Cheap Webhosting, Web Hosting, Flash Templates, CMS Templates, Web Hosting Reviews, Website Hosting Reviews, Web Hosting Providers, Best Web Hosting, Top Web Hosting, RSUOG Web Hosting |
