Instant Gratification and Search Engine Rankings

The Big Final Step Prior to Submission

The most important thing about this final step is that you know and admit your own limitations. This is not an area to cut corners to save money. Rather, this last step, if done by a professional, will make all the other expenses of your web site pay dividends. If done poorly, you've wasted your money not only on this step but on all other steps as well.

Your products will still sell well if you have a good web design instead of a great web site design, but only if consumers can find your web site. So if money is an issue (which it is for most of us) and you have to choose where to minimize costs, get the good design and the great search engine optimization.

Search Engine Optimization is a Specialty

Many web site designers offer search engine submission. However, while many of their search engine optimization and submission services are useful, especially for certain types of businesses only looking for a web presence (as opposed to high volume selling and national or regional recognition), web site design is their specialty, not serious search engine optimization and submission services.

At KatsueyDesignWorks, we send all of our high volume e-commerce customers and those customers extremely interested in the best search engine optimization and submissions to the professionals. We recommend Consultwebs and PromoteWebs. There are other experienced Search Engine optimization specialists available. It's just hard to sort the good from the hype.

When looking for the cream of the crop in this area, look for professional companies like Consultwebs and PromoteWebs that have great rankings in the search engines. If the company doesn't rank in the top 10 of most of the major search engines under the appropriate category, the company probably can't achieve better results for your site in the appropriate category.

Once again, look for the professional. Ignore the SPAM mail advertisements that appear in your email box overnight. These are not from true marketers who know their business; otherwise they wouldn't need to SPAM people to get attention. Run from the ìused car salesmanshipî too. Claims that can't be backed up often are shouted in the loudest terms. Professionals need only tell you in a straightforward way what they do, since there is a demand for their services and they need only tell you what the services entail.

As with instant gratification products versus reliable products or services, the best search engine optimization and submission services are rarely the cheapest. They usually charge an honest fee for an honest service. Shopping around for reasonable prices never hurts. Going with a company that has prices too good to be true, usually does hurt.

What Are Doorway Pages?

Philosophies on doorway pages (sometimes referred to as gateways) are as varied as philosophies on design. Some entrepreneurs successfully use doorways to point additional domain names to their website. Domain names using keyword(s) for your product or service can help increase traffic. Domain names also help locate your business in a specific region (for example http://www.njvacuumns.com lets people know that you sell vacuums in New Jersey. Someone searching for a vacuum retailer in New Jersey might use the search terms: NJ and vacuum. Some search engines give higher preference to keywords in the domain name.

Summary

The desire for instant gratification leads to poor business decisions. Overnight success on the Internet happens, but chances of it happening to you are probably as good as winning the lottery. A site with easy navigation, straightforward discussion of product or service features and a pleasing design help provide credence to your business.

Without appropriate meta data, search engines cannot locate your site or properly categorize it. Search engine optimization is a continued effort. The best success in this area comes from specialists who understand the particularities of each of the major search engines and indices. Claims of success should be backed up with proof.

About the author:

Peggie Brown is president of Brown Holdings LLC Group. Brown Holdings LLC Group provides sites such as KatsueyDesignWorks, a custom site design and development company, Katsuey's Legal Gateway, a free legal research site and RgreatHosts, providing inexpensive domain name registration and web site hosting. Peggie can be reached at katsuey@katsuey.com.

This article originally appeared in the November 9, 2000 edition of the WebReference Update Newsletter.