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If you have a business related to tourism, you need to be on the web
by Justin Britt
Many people have complained to me that their expensive website was a bad
investment for their business. The first thing I ask them is, “did
you spend any money promoting your site?”
If you were a large company like Pepsi, would it make sense to pay millions
of dollars to create a commercial and not pay to have it aired on television?
If you build a website and don’t promote it, your throwing away money.
There are billions of website on the Internet and without a proper marketing
strategy, your website is like a needle in a haystack.
With that said, let’s dive right into web promotion
Promotion Guide
If you own business and you have a website, being at or near the top of
searches means everything. The people up front receive all the traffic and
make all the money. Unfortunately, you cannot achieve such high rankings
by yourself. Every website listed near the top of a competitive search term
is paying someone to get them there. If you want to compete on the web,
you must also develop an aggressive web marketing strategy. Before seeking
out the help of a professional, there are some things you should know about
web promotion:
Initial Keyword Analysis
When developing an online marketing plan, there are many criteria to consider.
First, who are your clients? More importantly, what keywords are those clients
using to find businesses like yours? Before you begin any type of website
promotion, it is vital that you determine what areas of the web to target.
Meta-Tags
Meta-tags are not as important as they once were; however, they are still
utilized by major search engines in some shape or form. Make sure that the
proper meta-tags are in place with a good description of your website and
your list of keywords. (note: each web page in your website should receive
proper meta-tags for optimum results)
Keyword Density
This is the most important part of search engine placement and also the
most difficult. Each web page must contain a specified amount of keywords
a proper amount of times for good placement. Don’t put a keyword in
enough, and no one will ever find you. Put a keyword in too much, and the
search engines will ban you from their websites forever. Due to the sensitivity
of keyword placement I highly recommend using a professional. A web promotion
specialist uses expensive software and analyzing equipment to make sure
Keyword density is exactly where it needs to be.
Link Popularity
When competing in a cutthroat arena, such as “Kauai vacation rentals”
link popularity becomes important. This means, search engines look to see
how many websites are linking to your site when determining how highly they
will rank you. (note: one link from a highly ranked website, such as the
Yahoo directory, is better than 20 links from no-name sites.)
Building link popularity seems simple, email other websites and ask them
to link to your web page. Unfortunately many people will not want to trade
links unless:
1. Your website is really awesome with great content.
2. Your website is already generating lots of traffic (which you probably
don’t have or you wouldn’t be reading this).
3. You pay money (Yahoo charges $299 each year).
Submitting to Search Engines
The biggest fault I see with so many websites on the island is that nobody
submits their site to the search engines! If you don’t submit your
website to the search engines, they have know chance of being listed when
a potential client does a search on the Internet.
Submitting to some search engines can be expensive, but others are affordable.
Google is the most important search engine and also free, but should not
be your only choice. (note: submit at least once a year to ensure your website
remains listed.)
I suggest seeking out a professional who will know all the best search engines
on the Internet. My company offers this service for as little as a $111.25
onetime fee and $50/yr. We submit you to over 15 search engines and directories,
resubmitting you every year.
Maintenance
Submitting your website to the search engines is only the beginning. Your
web pages will need minor updates and manipulation to get you to the top
of the engines. Furthermore, once you are at the top, someone will always
want to take your place, so you will need continued maintenance to ensure
your position.
Patience
A search engine like google.com can take up to 8 weeks to review your sight.
This first review may not get you to the top, so you must make additional
changes (see maintenance) to try and improve your listing. After the changes
are made, you must be patient and wait for google.com to re-index your web
pages (their robots are indexing through billions of websites). It is important
to remember that high search engine placement does not happen overnight.
For this reason, it is imperative that you plan your web marketing strategy
ahead of time.
Instantaneous Gratification
So you didn’t plan ahead, and now you need instantaneous traffic to
your website? You can get traffic to your website quickly, but it’s
going to cost you. For best results, we recommend Overture. They are a pay
per click service that appears on search engines such as google.com (those
little ads on the right side of the web page after you do a search).
Here’s how it works:
1. You find a keyword to your liking
2. Then you bid with other people on for that search term (a keyword such
as “Kauai vacation rental” is often over $2.00)
3. The top three bidders are listed with google.com and the top five with
Yahoo.
4. Now, every time someone clicks on your web site, you pay your bid amount.
To get into the game, it will cost you a minimum of $400 per month, but
to be really competitive, think in terms of $1,000’s.
It is critical that this is not your only web marketing strategy. It is
much less expensive to pay a company to improve your search rankings then
to constantly compete on Overture.
I know all of this sounds like a lot of work and money, but the investment
is well worth it. The companies that make the choice to compete on the web
will be Kauai's successful businesses in the future. Remember, If you're
not doing it, your competition will.
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Extending your business beyond the barriers of the island can spell
success for you and your company. A 3 part series to get you up and running,
or to take your website to the next level.
Kauai's Reliance on the Web
Build a Great Website on a Budget
Website Promotion
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