Firstsearch Home Page Article: How to have a search engine friendly website

Purpose of Advertising A rhetorical question, to attract people, quite simple really, everyone advertises, from how we speak, dress, mow our lawns, to how we present our homes or shop premises, we are advertising, attracting people, who form an opinion whether it is positive, negative or passive. Since this discussion is about business and advertising we will pose the question, why do businesses advertise: the simple answer to attract people to that business. From the time the first person in business put out a sign saying open, to today with the myriad of channels, people in business have realized you have to advertise if you wish to attract the custom. Again quite simple, so why in this Internet Age, do the majority of people in business in New Zealand ignore this quite basic premise when they put up a website. Note: Advertising in the newspapers, on the radio or on TV are all valid ways to advertise. Place an ad and trust that the person reading, listening or watching is interested in what you are advertising. This is advertising via the mass media, a shotgun approach, blast it everywhere and hope something sticks. It it the age we are moving on from. Advertising in the Internet age allows the business person to target the advertising of their products to the person who is interested Although advertising via the mass media is a valid way of advertising, how many people buy a newspaper, listen to the radio or watch TV with the express purpose of hoping to find what is being advertised. But they do go on the Web to find what is being advertised Shotgun or Targetted Enter "Search". Search is not a destination it is a process to get people from the Web into the business that has for sale what they want. It is targeted, not shotgun, people know what they want; they just want to find it. But how many people in business are interested. Sure these people in business have a website but what use is it if it does not met the needs of the customer. The first need / requirement is that the website is able to be found by the search engines for the products the business is selling and what the customer requires. People do not generally know a websites URL / domain name so they use a search engine. At this stage if you own a website or even if you don't, think of a firm, company or business and what they sell, type into the search box the words you think a customer would type in when they were looking buy. Success or not and if it is your business are you happy with the result. A customer went looking and what did they find. And if you looked for your own business and could not find it, it is not an excuse to say the web does not work for your business, the web work fine, just maybe your website is at fault. To attract the custom a website must be more than pages than can be read electronically. SEO and SEM must enter into the picture. Read the Rules Anyone in business who puts up a website without building or having it built to incorporate the best practices, the guidelines and policies is telling the customers we are not interested in you. And you all know what will happen next. So it is a case of getting with the program and presenting yourself in the best possible manner. Is your website a first class citizen, it is representing your business seven days a week twenty four hours a day. Does it do you proud? Contact Us