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Newsletter - Summer 2008
Building Traffic Online
Chris Pelosi,
Online Marketing Manager
Rachlin Design Services |
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When it comes to Internet marketing, even the best designed website is only as good as the traffic it generates. That's where search engine optimization comes in-improving the volume and quality of traffic to your website. In today's electronic marketplace, positioning your website on search engines is the most important element of Internet marketing strategy.
Search engine optimization (SEO) brings visitors to your site who are interested in the products you sell or the services you provide. SEO drives visitors who have indicated an interest in your products or services by searching using keywords and phrases. Typically, these are the most qualified and motivated buyers. After all, they have taken the initiative to search for specific online resources.
Search engines favor websites that contain substantive information about a certain topic. SEO determines the position of the website in comparison with its competitors. In addition to generating traffic from the targeted audience, it is a cost-effective way of optimizing your site.
The two primary methods for generating traffic from search engines are organic search engine optimization and paid search engine advertising (PPC).
Organic SEO is used to achieve a better search engine ranking via high quality and relevant content. The key to organic SEO is to incorporate relevant keywords and phrases in the website's coding, including meta tags and alt tags for images.
A meta tag is an HTML tag which provides information such as the author, date of creation, latest update and keywords which signal the subject matter. An alt tag describes an image for people who view pages in text-only mode, or who cannot display images. Search engine evaluation and ranking is the primary area of search engine optimization. Search engines evaluate and rank websites using "spiders." These spiders (programs) scan web pages and collect information to create entries for search engines. Through various methods, spiders work to determine proper rankings for individual websites on search engines.
Paid search engine advertising relies on purchased keywords or search phrases to send visitors to a website. PPC search results display within sponsored advertising regions at the top and right-side column of the search engine results page (SERP). If you are just launching a new website, or have struggled to drive traffic to your existing website, PPC advertising offers a steady stream of visitors while you are waiting for your website to rank well in the natural search engine result region. Keep in mind however, PPC advertising can be very costly and requires constant monitoring and testing of keywords and corresponding advertising text.
Whether you are developing a new small business website, trying to increase your qualified traffic and conversions or looking to improve the results of your paid search campaigns, it pays to call upon the expertise of professionals. A team that understands and can deliver the latest Internet marketing techniques will keep you ahead of your competition for the long-term.
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