* Preparing to market your site!
Before you get started on your internet marketing you'll need to get a few things ready to go.
- a list of keywords and keyword phrases in order of priority
- several titles for your site of varying lengths
- a few descriptions of your web site for directories and search engines
- two to five domain names and web sites to promote your first
We will go into detail for each requirement and provide you with examples and samples of each.
* When it comes to keywords, don't believe your own statistics
If you already have a web site, you probably have a statistics package running on your server. You should have access to a log file that displays what search engine and what keyword phrase people used to find your web site.
Now this may come as a surprise, but keyword stats from your own web site don't "tell you what to do", they only "tell you what you're doing". Think about that a second. They do not reflect what people are searching for on the net, only how users found you. They won't tell you the most popular search terms or that your pages may be focused on the wrong keywords.
For example, your own stats may tell you that 100 visitors found you by typing in the phrase "fresh fruit", but wouldn't you be surprised to learn the most popular phrases are "banana", "orange", "apple", "produce", the phrase "fresh fruit" is actually number 25 in search popularity.
If you created web pages focused on the words "banana" and "orange" your sales would easily triple. See the difference? Your own logs or stats will tell you what keywords people used to find your site, but not the most popular phrases used in actual search engine queries.
By the way, if your server does not provide statistics that you can access at any time day or night, run away screaming and transfer your web site immediately to a host that does. My friends at combustionhosting.com have an excellent stats package included with their web hosting.
You might want to phone your host provider and ask them, if you buy the stats software, can they install it for you. Other stats software examines the raw log files but uses your own desktop computer, not your service providers. All you need is access to your raw logs, to be able to download them to your own computer for analysis.
But enough about stats for now. It's enough to say that statistics are critically important to running and tracking an internet business. We will examine statistics in more detail throughout the book.
* Discover how people actually use the search engines
Do you know what keywords or phrases people are typing into search engines when trying to find you? In the early days of internet marketing all we could do is come up with a list keyword phrases that we thought would be important and start from there. At least there was a building block to start with.
This following keyword list was provided by my client and it turned out to be a pretty good list for the way people were searching the web using simple generic terms.
cellular, cell, phone, phones, digital, wireless, mobile, lithium, battery, batteries, chargers, hands free kits, nokia, motorola, nextel, ericsson, sony, qualcomm
What I can tell you folks that the majority of people using the search engines are lazy, so am I. Most searches are done using very simple words and phrases. Few people search using boolean logic (even the name scares people). Very few people go through the trouble of learning how to use words like, and, or, not, "quotation marks" or + and - signs in their web searches.
No, we just want to go to a search engine, type in the words "cell phone" and expect to find "a lithium battery for a Nokia 5160". Amazing, but believe it or not, it's true! The general public, everyday people, use the search engines in a very generic way. It's under these very generic search terms that you need to be found. (Thank goodness, in the year 2003, searchers are becoming more savvy in their searching.)
The first thing you need to know, is how people are searching for products or services like yours. Exactly what do they type into the search engine when trying to find you. We need to get inside the potential customer's mind. No, we don't have to be psychic, we just need a few tools that help us understand how people use the search engines.
* Determine your keywords by knowing what people are actually searching for
OK, so how do I know what the most popular keyword phrases are? Back in 1999, I subscribed to WordSpot's Custom Pick, Top 1000 Keyword and Keyphrase Report.
WordSpot was a service where you paid a small fee for a yearly subscription to keyword reports. They were actual search engine queries. Keywords and phrases that average people typed into the search engines while looking for things. (Please note WordSpot no longer exists, but I left it here as an example of what similar services provide.)
We discover exact spellings of the words and phrases people used while searching. Knowing this, we can design web pages, specifically for those top key word phrases. For example, I subscribe to the following keywords;
"cell, wireless, phone, mobile, batteries"
The WordSpot report is smart enough to expand a root word like "cell" into "cellular" or "miscellaneous" and "phone" into "phones". It also shows the keyword phrases such as "cellular phones". Every week we get emailed a detailed report like this one:
WordSpot Custom Pick Top 500 Keyword and Keyphrase Report
Search engine query and word usage statistics for the past week.
TOP 500 "cell, wireless, phone, mobile, batteries" QUERY PHRASES
#Rank Percent Query Text
329 0.01328 phone numbers
332 0.01283 snowmobile
360 0.00865 internet phone
365 0.00791 telephone directory
371 0.00701 snowmobiles
372 0.00686 automobiles
378 0.00597 batteries
380 0.00567 telephone numbers
380 0.00567 phone directory
380 0.00567 cellular phones
381 0.00552 saxophone
387 0.00462 telephone
387 0.00462 phone
387 0.00462 automobile
391 0.00403 phone book
392 0.00388 mobile homes
393 0.00373 phone number
393 0.00373 oldsmobile
393 0.00373 cell phones
394 0.00358 mobile phones
396 0.00328 wireless
396 0.00328 telephone directories
397 0.00313 cordless phones
397 0.00313 cellular phone
398 0.00298 phone books
399 0.00283 cell phone
400 0.00269 phone cards
401 0.00254 mobile
401 0.00254 miscellaneous
Note: The actual WordSpot report is much larger and contains the top 500 ways these five words - cell, wireless, phone, mobile, batteries - were actually used in searches, including any misspelling.
The lower the rank, or the sooner a phrase appears on the list, the more popular it is. By examining the list above, we are able to determine how and what people are searching for. It's obvious that we need to focus on creating pages that are well positioned in the search engines for these keyword phrases.
380 0.00567 cellular phones
393 0.00373 cell phones
394 0.00358 mobile phones
397 0.00313 cellular phone
399 0.00283 cell phone
It is possible to purchase as many additional WordSpot reports as required. I also subscribe to manufacturer names such as "nokia, motorola, ericsson, sony, nextel" so we can determine what phone model numbers or products are searched most often and create specific web pages for them.
Another WordSpot report that I subscribe to is their Top 1000 words on the internet report. I use Top 1000 report with great success as one of my secret weapons. I'll reveal more about how to use the top 1000 word report to your advantage later on. I just mention it here because if you're going to WordSpot now to purchase reports, you definitely want to subscribe to the top 1000 report as well.
(Since the first writing of this book a new service called WordTracker has emerged and WordSpot has gone out of business. WordTracker offers a similar service and is considered to be an essential tool.)
Find out more about WordTracker here:
http://www.cdzn.com/wtr
Another tool is the Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool. Overture is a paid search engine where people bid on keywords to get top listings in several popular search engines. They have an area where you can see how many times a keyword phrase was actually typed in and searched on by their visitors.
At the time of this writing it was still available on their web site free of charge. I use this reporting feature of Overture as a second opinion or second source of keyword popularity and cross reference it to the results I get from WordTracker.
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
This url has changed often in the past. I suggest getting a small Overture account, if for nothing else, just to use their keyword tool.
I used Wordspot Reports and Overture to find the most popular cellular search phrases. I discovered the top searches to be phrases like cellular phones, cell phones, digital phones, digital pcs and so on. I thought, that can't be right, internet users are more sophisticated than that, right? People know how to use advanced searching techniques, right? They type in more than just two little words, right? Wrong!
Our web site was already up and running taking orders. I decided to have the order clerks poll the customers to find out what search engine they used, and what keywords they used to find us. After about three days and several hundred customers polled the results were amazing.
It PROVED what the WordSpot reports and the Overture search engine had tried to tell me. Simple little keyword phrases like "cellular phones" were used, even though the customer was really looking for a 'blinking cellular vibrator for a Nokia 5100 series phone". Another used "cell phone battery" even though looking for a "lithium battery for an Ericsson 788".
Conclusion: Most people do not do advanced searches, most people (at least from 1999 to 2001) type a few simple words vaguely related to what they really need, and expect exactly what they need, to pop up, organized, in neat little rows and boxes.
Sure there is the occasional person that will search for "black leather case for Motorola Startac 8500" and of course your page will pop up on such a detailed search, but far more people use simple, generic terms.
If you want to be found on the internet, increase your hits and sales, your web pages must be found in the top twenty results - the front pages of the search engines - for simple generic search phrases. So let's put together our keyword lists.
* Prioritize your list of keywords for maximum search engine coverage
By now you should have subscribed to WordTracker http://www.cdzn.com/wtr and used Overture to compile lists of keywords and phrases. I have arranged the keywords into five groups. If you're in the cellular accessory business your keywords might look something like this.
1) This group is the most often searched "generic" terms: cellular, phones, mobile, phone, cell, digital, pcs, wireless, telephones
2) This group is made up of various makes and models of the most popular products: nokia, motorola, ericsson, sony, nextel, phillips, startac, star tac, 6110, 6160, 6190, 5190, 5160, 5110, 2160, v3620, i1000, qualcomm, lucky goldstar, samsung, panasonic, at&t, siemens, audiovox, mitsubishi, nec, oki, uniden
3) This group lists the actual products: accessories, lithium, batteries, battery, nimh, chargers, car, desktop, hands free kits, vibrators, antennas, passive repeaters, power supplies, ac wall adapters, holders, mounts, leather cases, phone parts, face plates, waterproof cases, plastic holsters
4) This is my favorite group. According to WordSpot top 1000 keyword report these are some of the most popular search words: shop, find, where, shopping, for, buy, buying, sale, to, free, for, and, can, I, the, of, in, is, on, information, compare, prices, who, new, what, about, how, search, me, get, online, do, news, are, stores, retailers, suppliers, or, why, info, by, from
5) Most people on the internet search using simple two and three word combos and it's important that our web page design focuses on these phrases. This groups lists the most popular keyword phrases according to WordSpot, Overture and our own log files: cellular phones, cellular phone, nokia 6110, mobile phones, cell phones, cell phone, motorola startac, nokia 8810, nokia 5110, nokia accessories, nokia 2160, nokia 2110, ericsson phone accessories, lithium ion batteries, digital phones, digital pcs phones, cell phone accessories, cell phone batteries, cell phone battery, wireless phones, cellular accessories, digital phone, digital cell phones, PCS phones, wireless phone, phone batteries, sony cell phones, nokia cell phones, find cellular phones, shop for cellular phones
Now that we have all of our most important keywords and keyword phrases, we will put them to use later on. First we need to write a few titles and descriptions for our web site.
* Creating web site titles human editors will actually use in their directories
Now that you know what your keywords are, focus on writing several titles and descriptions of varying lengths. Start by asking yourself a few questions. What business are you really in? What is the end result people will get? Do you provide a time saving tool or a relaxing vacation? Your web site should be focused on one end result. Don't be afraid of turning people away because you'll end up attracting the right type of person, the person that will say, "hey this web site is all about me."
The title and description should not be "about the company" or "our corporate history". If people are interested in learning about your company they will dig through your web site to find the information. The title of your site and the first headline people see on the home page should state your unique selling proposition or USP. The USP is an old advertising phrase that means "what's in it for you", "what specific results are being offered", "what is so special here that I can't get it anywhere else".
Every directory and search engine has its own maximum for how many words can be used to describe a product or service. Directories range from as short as 5 words to as long as 25 words. Search engines generally range from 25 to 75 word maximum. It's harder to put together short descriptions, so it's important to focus on them first. Longer descriptions are easier to write after the short ones have been practiced.
Here are samples of titles I use for the directories. (Unlike search engines that usually get your title from the html code.) The directories want you to type in a title for your site. Most directories prefer short titles, especially the directories that rely on a human to add your site to their portal channels or directory listings.
Cell-West
Cell-West Wireless
Cell-West Online Superstore Cell-West Cellular Phones Accessories and Cellular Phones
Cell-West Cellular Phones and Accessories
Cell-West Everything Wireless Online Superstore Cellular Phones and Accessories from Cell-West Accessories and Cellular Phones from Cell-West
Its a good idea to go to each directory and do a couple of searches on your top keyword phrase. Pay close attention to the web sites that get returned as search results. Are the results purely alphabetical or do certain categories appear to be favored. You'll probably want to submit to the first category that appears if your product or service qualifies to be listed there.
Also if the listings are alphabetical, you'll want to write a title that works to your advantage. Notice above how I've used the word "Accessories" as the first word in a couple of descriptions. Using a word with the letter "a" means my web site will be listed before a site whose description begins with the letter "c", like cellular. You're in real luck if your company name begins with a number like 1, because numbers usually appear ahead of letters in alphabetical order.
Try to sneak a top keyword phrase in as well. When it comes to directories, it's often the title of the web site that is given extra "weight" or "favoritism" in search results. Sites that have the keyword in the title are more likely to be positioned first, followed by the rest, in alphabetical order.
* Creating USP filled descriptions of your web site
Now lets examine some web site descriptions that focus on your unique selling proposition or USP. Remember that the customer is going to be asking "what's in it for me", "what specific result does this web site offer me", "what is so special or exclusive about this web site."
We also need to create one type of description for human editors, and another type for search engines. The editors want descriptions that are short and to the point. They do not want to see any tricks like keyword repetition, hype, self promotion or the use of brand names unless you own them. The search engines are more forgiving because the descriptions are written and controlled by you through the use of html code, and not subject to human editors.
Let's examine some descriptions for directories:
Cell-West - Online retailer of cellular, digital, wireless, phones and cell phone accessories.
This description was rejected by a famous directory, I assume it was rejected because I used the words "phone" and "phones", "cell" and "cellular". Too close to spamming or keyword stuffing for their taste I suppose. They didn't tell me it was rejected, they just didn't add me to their directory. They left it up to me to find out and resubmit my web site a month later.
Cell-West - Online retailer of accessories for mobile, cellular and digital pcs phones.
This "trimmed down" description was accepted by the same directory. It's short, sweet and to the point. I dropped the word "cell" and the word "phone" but I was able to keep important phrases like "cellular phones" and "mobile phones". It contains most of the top keywords, and also lets people know Cell-West is an online retailer, so they can expect better prices due to low overhead.
Cell-West - A wireless superstore specializing in cellular phones, lithium batteries, hands free kits and phone battery chargers for Motorola, Nokia, Ericsson, Nextel and more.
This is another rejected description. At least this directory's human editor had the common sense to change the description to something that would be suitable for their directory. They changed it to:
Cell-West - A wireless superstore specializing in cellular phones, lithium batteries, hands free kits and phone battery chargers for all leading brands.
They simply dropped all the brand names and replaced them with the phrase "for all leading brands". This was acceptable to me and at least I got Cell-West added to their internet portal. The editor even gave Cell-West two out of three stars for being one of the best sites on the web.
Now that I've "learned my lesson" I'm able to come up with descriptions that fly right through the human editors. Here's a couple I've written for Gumball Imports Ltd.:
gumballimports.com - Importing and exporting consumer electronics since 1994.
gumballimports.com - Online retail stores selling home electronics and popular consumer goods since 1994.
If the directory has a human editor, keep your descriptions free from self promotion, plain descriptive wording, free from keyword repetition and brand names. Doing so will prevent delays and give you the best chance of getting your web sites reviewed and listed.
Now let's take a look at a few descriptions written for the search engines. We can control what gets said and focus more on our USP. In the descriptions for search engines we can put a sales message that attempts to persuade people to click on our links.
Cell-West Save on 3000+ cellular phones, batteries, chargers, hands free kits, leather cases, accessories for all popular brands. Toll free ordering 1 (888) 462-2599. Free shipping. Money back guarantee. Three year warranty!
This description contains several keywords, keyword phrases, as well as several benefits to the online shopper. The 3000+ items suggests what you seek is stocked and that it is a large store. The toll free number and the rest build excitement and create consumer confidence.
Cell-West is an online retailer of cellular phones and accessories. We offer a 30 day money back satisfaction guarantee, 3 year warranty, a choice of toll free or secure online ordering, plus your choice of free airmail or low cost trackable shipping on over 3000 items in stock. Government, military, school, corporate and private orders are welcome.
This is one of my current favorites, it just about says it all. I like the bit about the government orders. It shows that Cell-West knows how to deal with purchase orders and various protocols.
Now just a quick word on keeping all these keywords, descriptions and titles organized. I keep them all in one plain old ascii text file that I keep on my desktop. Then while creating web pages or announcing web sites to directories I can just copy and paste the text as required.
And if you do this stuff as often as I do you'll want to keep that text file handy, not buried away where you have to search for it each time you want to use it.
* Getting a second or five web sites to market your first
In the dirt world, stores open up more than one location as they expand. Each store might have its own unique displays and point of sale material. There's no reason why we shouldn't replicate this multi location model in the virtual world.
The way to replicate multiple locations on the internet is with multiple domain names and multiple web sites. There is a slight extra cost involved, but with hosting being as cheap as a buck a month, it's very affordable. There's also a little more maintenance involved having to update, change and modify several sites but the benefits and added revenue generating capability far out weigh the labor and hosting costs involved.
Imagine having half a dozen web sites all selling the same product, but with a different manufacturer represented on each site. Each of the sites has the same store name, same logo and is similar in layout, including ad copy, photos and price. They have different domain names, the web pages have slightly different headlines and slightly different html code.
The result is more pages working for you against the millions of others out there and better search engine coverage in keywords that matter. There's a greater chance of having just the right keyword density and headline copy to nail exactly what a search engine is "looking for" this month.
If you currently have one site consisting of 30 pages, having six "virtual locations" will give you 180 pages working for you in the search engines. If you don't have more than one web site, you MUST get at least one more to store your "doorway" or "entry" or "hook pages" off your main site.
A hook page stored on the main site will not score as well as the same hook page stored on a different site. Its almost like a referral, one domain promoting another rather than a domain promoting itself from within its own URL. Cross linking from one domain to another, will increase the main site's rankings on search engines that use "link popularity", or the "whomever has the most links must be the best" theory.
If you can afford more than two web sites, five or six domains will give a good presence without going overboard. Its up to you, how much value you place on opening up more than one store? I've registered around 10 domain names for Cell-West and six of them are set up as virtual domains or in other words, set up as web sites that are selling product. At least one of the sites is always "flavor of the month" and top in the search engines
* What should really be in your domain name?
Since we know how people use the search engines and how they use keywords to find web sites, it makes sense to put keywords in the actual domain name.
I know most people want their company name as their domain name. But unless you are a nationally recognized brand name and people are searching for that brand name, having your company name as the domain name, is not going to help people find you. You are better off getting a domain name with keywords in it and then just putting your company name on the site where people can see it when they arrive.
The reason that we want keywords in the domain name is that search engines often get "tuned" to find, and give better positioning to, domains with keywords in them. If you really must have your company name as a domain name, a good strategy would be to have your company name in one or two domains and top keywords in your other domains. For example Cell-West has registered the following domain names:
cellwest.com
cell-west.com
cellphoneaccessory.com
mobile-cellular.com
phone-phones.com
phones-cellular.com
After some experimentation the hyphenated domains did slightly better in search results than the non hyphenated ones. The hyphen seems to act as a delimiter separating the two words. You may ask why we didn't take the more obvious names like cell-phones.com, that's because they were so obvious that other people had already registered them.
Do domain name searches, look up who owns them or find good names here: http://www.godaddy.com
As soon as you find a domain that you like, register it right away before someone else does.
OK that's it. You've got your list of keywords, keyword phrases, more than one domain to promote your first, killer web site titles and USP filled descriptions. Now you're ready to learn how to take these tools and design web pages that explode to the top of the search engines.
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