| | | Promoting Your New Website
A few weeks ago I wrote about building your website from the ground up. This article did not dive into great detail on any specific topics, but rather touched on the key points you will want to address. In this article I will place most of the focus on the promotion aspect of this previous article.
While at times new websites can experience organic search rankings in a matter of months, for the most part, it can take well over a year before you start to see any progress, and that is if you start promoting right away!
SEO
If your new website has not been properly optimized for the search engines, then this is a necessary first step you must take. Ensure that your new site has integrated the appropriate keywords into all the fundamental areas of the site. Without this critical step of optimizing your site, in many cases no level of promotion will help you get those search rankings.
Note: Extreme numbers of inbound links can sometimes cause an un-optimized site to rank, but an optimized website will drastically reduce the number of links needed, and its associated cost. This varies from industry to industry, but is true as a general rule.
Ideally the optimization of your site occurred during the planning and building stages, but if it did not be sure to get this completed as soon as possible.
Press Releases
The first thing you should do when your site goes live is issue a press release. Be sure to include a link back to your website, preferably with your target phrase hyperlinked as well. Submit this press release to an aggregator such as PRWeb. This will help get the word out that your site is live, draw some attention from the public, and also get you that first valuable link to your website.
Search Engine Submission
These days search engines will find your site on their own, and submitting to them is not necessary. If you feel you must submit your site to the engines, submit it only once and shortly after the site goes live.
In order to help the search engines fully spider your new site, the best thing you can do in terms of submissions, is to create and submit an XML sitemap. Submit this sitemap to your Google Webmaster Tools account, and also be sure to include a call to it within your robots.txt file by adding the following line including a complete path to your sitemap:
Sitemap: http://www.domain.com/sitemap.xml
There are many tools out there to help you build your xml sitemap. Google has placed a list of some of these tools on their "Third Party Programs" page.
Directory Submission
Back in August I wrote about using Directory Submission to help build links. The general gist of it is to be sure that there is a high level of relevance in the directories you submit your site to, especially if it is a paid directory. Currently DMOZ still has a high level of value as it is seen as a strong authority at Google. Make the attempt to have your site listed here in the most relevant category possible.
Link Building
There are a number of ways you can work to increase your back links. In July I wrote about 13 ways to help build links. Links are one of those strategic tools that will never be a bad investment. Today they play a significant role in search rankings for most industries, especially in Google. While the future will almost undoubtedly still see search value in links, even if that value declines, or disappears entirely, quality links can still help drive traffic as well, and a strong base of inbound links can deliver you customers well into the future.
Explore the different ways to build links to your site. A steady progressive increase in inbound links will help Google look positively in your direction. Do not be afraid of reciprocal links either. If you are trading with highly relevant websites to your industry, then you should have nothing to be afraid of.
Social Media
Promotion largely consists of building links and becoming recognized by the search engines, but in order to help you build those links, getting your name and brand out there can really do wonders. By increasing awareness of your site and product, the public will often help create the buzz you need, and often, this can result in fresh links to your website.
To help get your site in the eyes of as many people as possible, take a look into Social Media and consider creating profiles on some of the popular platforms. This can include creating a YouTube account and uploading instructional, informational, or interesting product videos. You can set up a Facebook page, and work to build a community around your product. Create a profile page on Squidoo, MySpace, and Flickr, amongst many others.
These pages often act as backlinks to your site, and also help spread awareness. Be sure to keep your social endeavors updated regularly or any viewership you have will dwindle as people lose interest. If you are able to build a strong following, this can result in many individuals linking to your site and spreading the word, resulting in long term benefits for you and your site.
Your use of social media does not have to be exactly about your company. For instance, let's say you sell cars. Your use of the social platform, while it may note your business, can focus on other car info including trivia, news, photos, etc. The key is to keep it relevant, not identical - you are not looking to create a mirror of your site.
Article Writing
Write articles about the subject of your website and submit them to various services such as EzineArticles. Consider also writing for your own blog to help grow your site content. By writing and distributing relevant articles you can create a nice cushion of relevant incoming links. By writing articles that closely match the topic of your site, and including a link back to relevant content within your site, you can help out not only with search engine rankings, but by creating an extra traffic stream for your site
Pay Per Click
While Pay Per Click (PPC) will not give you many long standing benefits, it can help you to start making sales immediately which in turn can give you the funds needed to promote your site via other means. If you need that immediate traffic, this is one way to get it, but at a cost, and as soon as you stop paying, your traffic stops, so it is far from a reliable long term means. In some industries however, it can pay off, so it is definitely worth considering.
Summary
In general, reference your website everywhere possible. Get links from every relevant source you can think of, issue a press release, and get your site listed the key directories for your industry. The more eyes you can put your URL in front of and the more relevant sites you can get to link back to yours, the sooner you will start to see progress in the search engines.
For many industries it can literally take years to get those coveted first page results - in some industries it may be near impossible, but if you want a chance, you need to start promoting that new site of yours immediately.
by Scott Van Achte, Senior SEO
| | Pause Button Pressed on Yahoogle
As the time for implementation of the Google/Yahoo agreement drew near, there was little doubt that some sort of action by the US Dept. of Justice would surface. It remai ns to be seen what direction the DOJ will go, but there is obviously something happening behind the scenes.
On Friday, both search engine giants announced a delay in moving this initiative forward. This move seems contrary to the previous position of Google's CEO Eric Schmidt, which indicated that the deal would proceed as planned.
What this delay portends is still anyone's guess. For now, the waiting game that kicked off in June will continue.
by Tim Rule, PPC Specialist
| | Will Yahoo Acquire AOL?
This has certainly been a busy and yet, unproductive year for Yahoo. Beginning with the failed takeover bid by Microsoft, followed by the looming uncertainty over the Google deal, one can only wonder what's next.
While talk of a partial acquisition by Yahoo of AOL services has been ongoing for some time, nothing concrete has come about. The consensus seemed to be that this was a move designed to increase Microsoft's offer for Yahoo, if not to thwart the takeover altogether. If that was the case, then it stopped making sense months ago.
Likely, Yahoo looks upon this potential acquisition as a way to expand both their content services and advertising revenue.
Despite indications of progress, details of these discussions seem as vague and uncertain as anything else involving Yahoo of late.
So far this year, we've seen Microhoo, Yahoogle and YAhOoL. I wonder if we'll see Yaskhoo next.
Perhaps we should start a betting pool, winner take all if guessing the correct date when (if) Yahoo will actually successfully conclude one of their negotiations this year.
by Tim Rule, PPC Specialist
| | Microsoft Search Incentives
While Google innovates and Yahoo spins around in circles, Microsoft adds an unusual approach to gaining additional search market share. Beginning last spring with the launch of the Cash Back program, Microsoft introduced the notion of search advertising rebate incentives. This allows advertisers a means of paying for advertising on a Cost per Acquisition (CPA) basis and buyers some savings on purchases. If you are unfamiliar with this, Techcrunch did a great analysis of this feature. While many had doubts about this approach, it appears to be working. Last week, Microsoft added to this type of service by releasing SearchPerks!, another means of attracting traffic through a  points-based reward system. While this is not a new concept, it certainly is in the search engine world. Participating users can expect to receive rewards for redeeming saved up "tickets". There are many types of rewards, such as air miles, music downloads and more. This is a limited time offer and sign up for participation expires on Dec 31, 2008. While it's too early to tell, some believe this idea does have potential. No surprise to anyone, this feature is only available to Internet Explorer users. That leaves me out of this program. Like many people, not only do I find that browser (regardless which version) extremely annoying and frustrating to use, I resent Microsoft's constant efforts to restrict compatibility for so many services and 3rd party applications to their browser alone. by Tim Rule, PPC Specialist
| | The Net Reality
Wi-Fi technology is changing how US college students learn, or so, that's what the survey says. More students demand schools with Wi-Fi access than not; primarily, due to the immediacy and flexibility of information access which the technology allows.
Microsoft wants poor children to have laptops with their software. Philanthropy? or getting an early foot in the door to new emerging markets of the 21st century? Or, perhaps both?
Last week, the 2008 lg Nobel Prize winners were awarded. Learn what tricks scientists have done to make potato chips taste better, and how Coke is both good and bad for ....
Also earlier this week, TED Talks featured Kevin Kelly of Wired magazine. His talk is a fascinating one; he discusses his predictions for the next 5,000 days of the web.
More and more people are getting rid of their land lines. According to this study, "one-quarter of mobile-phone users in the U.S. have effectively stopped using their fixed-line phones for voice calls".
CERN, the Geneva-based research organization which gave us the World Wide Web, has created a new rapid fast IT network to assist them with the massive number crunching that their particle physics experiments require.
The US government is cracking down on scammers who made fraudulent charity websites to cash in on disasters; such as, Hurricane Katrina. Wow, talk about kicking people when their down; pretty low.
A new trend in Black Hat SEO has Google rather alarmed. These malware tacticians are using the search engine "to tip them on what keyword terms the world been searching for during the past hour", and then exploiting this knowledge by creating automated fake blogs which use those keywords.
And finally, to our US readers: Did you know the FBI must offer public access to the files it keeps on you? Would you like to know how to read your file? Check out Robert Harris's tips on how to do just that.
By Brayden Reger, SEO Apprentice
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