Effective Web Site Promotion Without the High Cost
By Richard Chudy

The pace at which the Web is growing is astounding. Everyday, millions of new pages come online and estimates are that as many as 50,000 new Web sites are launched daily. With this exponential growth, how do Internet users find what they are looking for? Answer: Search engines. Google, Yahoo, MSN as well as hundreds of other search engines exist for the express purpose of making it possible to retrieve useful and relevant information on an unlimited number of topics and interests. So how can you compete for site visitors in this global information environment? Promote yourself as an expert in your field.

If you have any experience in setting up a Web presence and have your own site online, you’ve no doubt been bombarded with emails from companies that profess to know all there is to know about what is called “Search Engine Optimization.” The business of “optimizing” Web pages has become a huge industry and while many of these companies can and do make a difference in search results for their clientele, they can and do charge high fees with most requiring long-term service contracts. Others claim that they can “guarantee” top-ten results in the major search engines for your site. Claims like that are a dime a dozen and the bad news is that there is no way for any SEO (search engine optimization provider) to back it up. Simply put, there is no guaranteed top-ten system out there. If you receive solicitations that boast those types of results, stay away! The bottom line is the one thing that will get you good search results is content, and lots of it.

Creating quality content takes time. Let’s say you’re a Financial Planner and you already have a site up and running. You’ve created a site that tells visitors all about your company, the people involved, what you do and how prospective clients can get in touch with you. Great. All you’ve really done is create an online advertisement. Take that same site and load it up with informative articles about how to make sound investments, leverage risk, plan for future expenses such as tuition and retirement and now you provide much more than an online commercial, you provide EXPERT INFORMATION!! People love to deal with experts and while you provide some information free of charge, most know that they are only getting a small sampling of your professional wisdom. If they are serious about financial planning, or whatever your field of expertise may be, they will most likely contact the company that provided useful information right from the start

Loading your site with information is a step in the right direction. Proper preparation of the pages on your site takes more work. Search engines utilize programs known as “spiders” to “crawl” the Web and analyze sites. The information they gather is then catalogued and indexed by the search engine where it awaits inquiries. If your site is properly coded, you could very well realize page one results in many search engines when a potential client types in the right search term or phrase. A great deal depends on how well your site is designed to be search engine friendly and there is much involved in doing so. Let’s assume that your site is well designed, has loads of content – beyond just telling someone what it is you do – and that the content is relevant to what you do. Having content about flower arranging on your financial planning site is of no value. Remember that relevance is a key component of search engine success.

Everything is in place and now search engines should start sending all kinds of clients your way, right? Maybe, but probably not. You get a few here and there but not what you wanted or expected. Why? Billions and billions of sites and pages, that’s why. A search for FINANCIAL PLANNER in Google returns about 10,700,000 pages. Narrowing it down to FINANCIAL PLANNER IN CALABASAS returns 121,000 pages. Quite a reduction in the number of results but 121,000 is still a huge number and many of them have little to do with financial planning. Results include job openings, books, forums and such. So how can you position your site to return good results in such a populated environment? BECOME A RECOGNIZED EXPERT!! Doing so is surprisingly easy and costs nothing but time. How? Write content for your site in article format and distribute it across the Web.

I have many clients in Cabo San Lucas as well as a site called CabosBest.com. The site has lots of content and many of my clients are featured in articles, reviews, photos and videos. Although that does a fairly good job of promoting the site through search queries, there are nearly 6,000.000 pages that show up when Google is searched for CABO SAN LUCAS. If someone types “best site on cabo” into Google, CabosBest.com is the number one result. Many of the most popular search phrases for Cabo return page one results for the site also. The problem is that there are unlimited search terms that could be used and there is no way to have page one results for all of the possibilities. One of the key factors that can boost search results is the number of “in-bound” links that point to any given site. You can purchase links on other relevant sites thereby increasing the number of in-bound links but that costs money and adds up quickly. You can participate in “link-exchange” programs but most will link you with sites that are completely irrelevant to what you do or promote. A plethora of irrelevant links does not help it actually hurts.

The most effective site promotion method to date is writing articles and submitting them to free content providers. Remember that I suggested you load your site with article format content to give your site more clout by providing relevant information. Well, you have the articles now use them to their fullest extent. Take those articles and submit them to sites that provide content for other sites. There are dozens of these sites but I tend to deal with a select few based upon their traffic volume and reputation. The benefits are many but the most important is a marked increase in your exposure on the Web as well as the “in-bound” links that are created.

Content is king in search engine optimization. Webmasters are always looking for content and sites like www.ezinearticles.com and www.constant-content.com provide content either for free of for a fee specified by the author. If you’re looking for site exposure, offer your articles free of charge. Those that opt to use your articles on their site must keep bio and source information at the end of the article and that contains a link back to your site, info about you and your company and even an email addresses and phone numbers. The beauty is that the sites that use your content tend to be related to what you do thereby establishing link relevance. Get enough of these articles out there and you quickly become a recognized expert in the field.

As an example, I penned an article about a client’s French restaurant in Cabo San Lucas. Searching Google for FRENCH RIVIERA RESTAURANT CABO SAN LUCAS shows that 6 of the top ten results are my site, CabosBest.com, my client’s site, FrenchRivieraLosCabos.com or a link back to CabosBest.com by way of one of the many sites that have published my article on their sites. Take it a step further and search Google for “Richard Chudy Cabo” and you’ll find page after page of articles or references to content that originated on my site but have now found there way to dozens of sites, most travel related. The end result is that even if a potential site visitor didn’t find us directly, they may very well find us through any of the sites that have used our content. In addition, search engine spiders find those links and that boosts our importance as it relates to Cabo San Lucas. The same will happen for you and your company if you take the time and effort to effectively promote yourself online, all without incurring any out of pocket expense. Granted, there is work involved but as the saying goes, anything worthwhile takes time and effort.

Richard Chudy is the owner of RC DIGITAL DESIGN, a full service graphic design company in Canoga Park, California. His company specializes in assisting small business develop Web sites and printed media for marketing purposes. In addition to print and Web design services, he also offers complete digital video filming and production services for both online and broadcast use. For more information, contact him via email – rc@rcdesigners.com or by phone at (818) 702-0879.