|
Author: Tony Cooper Article source: http://www.goarticles.com/. Used with author's permission.
Over the past couple of months it has been quite noticeable that the amount of time and effort that is going into website promotion is rapidly rising and therefore so is the associated cost of keeping ahead of the competition.
More and more people are devoting more and more time to website promotion and it is becoming a feature of nearly all website promotion campaigns that they are embracing all known search engine promotion techniques instead of exclusively relying on one or two methods.
What we are seeing at the moment is a landshift change in promotion techniques. Only a year or so ago it was thought enough for a search engine optimisation company to optimise the pages (on page optimisation) and submit the website.
However now that the competition is becoming ever fiercer off page optimisation is becoming a necessary requirement of any respectable website promotion campaign.
Let's examine these two terms and see what we mean my "on page optimisation" and "off page optimisation".
On page optimisation is the process of tuning the page for a search engine or more usually trying to make it rank highly on a selection of search engines. It's no wonder that many search engine optimisation engineers focus on google exclusively as it certainly produces the most traffic of all engines, but will that always be the case? Things can change quickly in internet land.
Page optimisation strategies generally consist of using your keyword or keyword phrases in all of the pages known "hotspots". The page title, meta keyword, meta description, alt tags, first heading and the body text. Subsequent "tweaks" can include bolding the keyword phrase, using the keyword phrase in a hyperlink and more.
To a point there is only so much that you can do to search engineer a page before it starts to look spammy, repeating the keyword phrase over and over. Of course some "optimisers" still do this but it's quickly becoming a frowned upon practice as it detracts sharply from a website wanting to produce a professional image, not to mention your chances of being banned from the search engine altogether.
This is where "off page optimisation" takes over.
Both Google and Yahoo use a system of "ranking" websites dependent on several factors - one of which is how relevant the content appears to be to the keyphrase searched for (on page optimisation).
The second important criteria that your pages are judged on is how "popular" those pages are in comparison with your competition. Broken down into it's basest form it means that the more quality votes (links) that your page has then the more popular it must be and so is promoted higher up the search engine results.
In google parlance this feature is known as "pagerank" and pagerank is a vitally important part of your website promotion campaign. If you don't have any then you are standing naked in front of everybody and that's not a nice feeling!
Google pagerank is based on a scale of 1-10 where 10 has the most influence. The algorithm is configured on a sliding scale so that you only ever gain pagerank as a percentage of the full amount. As those with the highest pagerank are constantly adding more "votes" for their pages it makes sense that those at the bottom end of the scale are going to have to work ever harder to play "catch up" and that is where the extra cost is being factored in to website promotion campaigns.
However it becomes more complicated.
Not all links are equal.
Blindly rushing off and trying to get as many links as possible is not going to help you much. In fact it's one of the reasons why people are spending so much time and effort in their link exchange campaigns and finding they are getting nowhere.
Savvy online marketers have established that links from pages with a low pagerank are not as valuable as links from those with a higher pagerank. But also in paradox to this it is possible to get more value from linking to a page with lower pagerank than the higher one!
Confused! No wonder "off page optimisation" is becoming such a sought after area of expertise.
The paradox occurs because built into the pagerank algorithm is a method of transferring the amount of pagerank "boost" a page gets by dividing up the total pagerank of a page by the number of links present. So a high pagerank page with 100 links on it is not going to give as much "voting power" as a low pagerank page with only one or two links on it.
Trying to make sense of this is at the heart of any "off page optimisation" campaign. Sifting through links, setting up reciprocal link campaigns (the site you link to links back to you) getting links from directories and so on is a time consuming task, even when using some of the more advanced tools that take a lot of the manual drudgery out of the job.
Link exchanges are springing up all over the place offering to bring together people willing to exchange links and the humble text link is becoming one of the most valuable pieces of internet property. Costs for placing text links on higher ranked sites are escalating and it's becoming ever more important to network closely with other sites offering useful services to your visitors.
Throwing up a links page and asking all and sundry to link to it is not going to work - all that's going to do is give you an administrative headache and make your visitors wonder if they are making the right choice. Choosing quality link partners is a time consuming and therefore expensive business.
What this all means is that the cost of website promotion is constantly going up. And those companies with well networked sites and strategically placed links are in a much better position to help their customers than those who rely solely on pay per click campaigns and other expensive forms of advertising.
A website promotion campaign is still the best value for money form of advertising that there is in my opinion, it's just that the costs are rising and will continue to rise. But the rewards for those that get it right are greater in comparison.
To sum up, search engine optimisation is becoming a more and more labour intensive exercise. There are more pages to be made search engine friendly and to gain top spots each page has to be tuned for a particular search engine. Gone are the days of "one size fits all".
In addition there is a large amount of work involved in linking strategies and building the "popularity" of a website so that it has a chance of making it into the top 10 results.
It's this combination of work required that is forcing up the costs of a search engine optimisation campaign. Tony Cooper is internet marketing manager for:
http://www.keywordmarketing.com
Building results driven websites.
Diversify!
The best way to avoid being hit hard by a stock market crash or another Enron/Worldcom fiasco is to make sure you don't put all your eggs in one basket. Diversi...
How Selling Vitamins can Bring you Financial Freedom
Most people are becoming more health conscious. Many of the baby boomers are looking for ways to look and feel younger. This is where selling vitamins comes i...
Find the Purpose of Your New / Proposed Website
Absolutely everything stems from the purpose of your website - selection of hosting, programming, graphic design, copywriting, internet marketing, autoresponder...
Top 5 Things to Look for when Buying Quality Poker Table
When one is ready to buy a quality poker table that will last for years, there are some things to consider; like what size, what style, quality vs. price, purch...
When Youre In sales Always Aim Higher
The top salespeople in all industries have one common characteristic. They always aim high and they always have written goals that they pursue passionately.
We Teach Others How to Treat Us
Treat yourself with respect and others will follow suit. It is never okay to treat yourself disrespectfully or to allow others to get away with it.
Creating Your First Website? Your Options
Building a website is easy. Anyone can do it and there are a huge variety of ways to go about it. But which method is best for you. We take a look at the pros a...
Let Your Children Name the New Baby
This article explains lots of fun ways to get your children
involved in naming the new baby and discusses points to
consider when choosing a baby name.
Yahoo Listing Still Worth It?
In October 2002, the Yahoo! portal changed the way it delivers search results. In the past, the most prominent results were exclusively culled from websites lis...
The Matrix Help For Keyphrase Analysis
The 'Matrix' Help For Keyphrase Analysis.
Three Ways To Get A Prospect To Say Yes To Your Offer
These three elements are not the only strategies you need to grow your business exponentially, but implementing them will certainly increase your sales. Apply ...
Put Down That Brownie! Just One Bite Can Knock You Off Plan
Think "just one bite" won't affect your low carb diet plan? Think again!
Power Kiting the First Steps
Don't just buy a power kite and break a leg trying it out! Learn how to take that first step of a safe flight.
Editing and Polishing - How Much is Enough?
We all want to make our writing as bullet-proof as possible - but how much editing is enough? And how do you know when your writing is ready to send away?
Generate Traffic And Make Money
Websites with rotating ads offer their members to surf for cash and advertisement credits. The article provides background information about this quite new phen...
Automatic Brain Works Overtime For You
Use all of your brain to be your most effective. "Running on Automatic" is what I call the ability to visualize what you need to have happen. Automatic because ...
Course Management Strategies for Junior Golfers
When going onto the golf course it is critical that the young golfer have a specific purpose in mind as to what she or he is attempting to accomplish. These "p...
How Public Schools Lie to Parents and Betray Our Children
Parents should think twice about trusting their local public schools. To protect their jobs, teachers and principals are now under intense pressure to cheat — t...
7 Tips for Testing Your Sales and Marketing
One marketing technique may work wonders for someone, but that doesn't guarantee that it'll do the same for you. The only way to really know what works for YOUR...
If NASA Can Launch The Space Shuttle, Then You Can Become A Successnaut
The recent mission of the space shuttle Discovery is NASA's first return to space since the Columbia shuttle accident in Feb/03. Why is this important to you?
Mortgage Loans After Bankruptcy
Here are some things you can expect when going to apply for a mortgage loan with bad credit.
The First Rule of CRM for Financial Services
Things have to change. Cross selling is not going to happen simply by installing new CRM technology. A corresponding movement from a transaction mentality to th...
10 Tips For Running A Profitable Web Site
10 tips for running a more profitable profitable web site...
Flash Doesnt Always Add Shine to Web Efforts
There seems to be a trend today toward overusing animation in a website's opening pages. Using programs that add some spice to your site is a smart use of curr...
|
Print this page