Using the Internet to Boost Your Business

In this article I am going to look at some of the key factors involve in getting your website ranked on search engines such as Google. In fact, the examples and information I give below specifically relate to Google, however, since most search engines work in a similar way, the information is largely applicable across the board. So here goes.

Keywords

Your customers find your website by typing keywords (e.g. plumbers) or keyword phrases (e.g. plumbers in Hereford) into Google. If your site has been optimized for those keywords then the likelihood is that the site will be found. If it’s been optimized for some other keywords then it’s unlikely to be found.

"I've written books on advertising - checkbooks!"

That is a well known quote from Alan Sugar on the Apprentice TV programme and I, for one, can testify to the truth of it. Over the years I have tried many ways to advertise my business; Yellow Pages, telemarketing, mailshots, email campaigns, ads in directories and journals, editorials and even radio. For my business, they've all proved to be a waste of money.

The only responses I've had to ads in directories and journals are from people asking me to put an ad in their directory or journal.

It's the 1890's in Paris. A woman is walking down the street. Suddenly she spots a short man walking towards her and realizes that it's Toulouse Lautrec, the famous painter.

 "Monsieur Lautrec" she says, as she reaches him. "Today is my husband's birthday. I wonder if you would be kind enough to draw a sketch of me so that I can present it to my husband as a birthday present". 

"Of course madame" says Lautrec. And with that he produces a sketch pad and pencil and begins to draw the lady.

When people arrive at your home page what’s the first thing they see? A splash page with a flash movie and a button saying “Click to skip into”? Or a page full of waffle giving the history of your company starting with how your great-great grandfather started it in 1895?

I'm often asked, by people who have websites, if I can do anything to improve their search engine rankings because the site isn't bringing them any business. It's fairly typical for them to say that they've never even had an enquiry from the site.

More often than not, when I look at the site, the problem is obvious. The site is so badly designed that anyone who arrives at it, whether it's from a search engine or anywhere else, is just going to click straight away to somewhere else.