Where on the internet

Web marketing is about promoting your business on the internet. Your internet presence includes your website, your social community and your business community. Your website can be found by:

• Using a search engine
• With a link form a directory
• Using the web address from printed material
• Via social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter
• By recommendation both on and off the internet.

Search Engines

Search engines are still the primary method to find information on the internet, and this is generally how your website will be found. They do this by:

• indexing website pages in a large database
• matching indexed web pages with the search phrase
• presenting the most relevant and popular pages within the natural result listings
• presenting sponsored listings (pay per click results) according to search words used.

Search engine technology is sophisticated, presenting results that are relevant to your search phrase. Where a website page matches the search phrase, the website will be placed higher in a result listing if it has a higher page rank assigned by the search engine. Many factors determine the page rank of a website including number of hits through the search engine and the number of relevant websites linking to it.

The starting point is to present an information rich website with words and phrases that are a true representation of the subject - which the search engines are able to analyse and digest!

Google is by far the most used search engine - because it delivers relevant results, followed by Bing, Yahoo then others. Over 80% of websites are initially accessed using search engines. If the actual web address is known, this may be entered directly into the browser, bypassing the search engines.

It is possible to be at the top of a search listing immediately using pay per click advertising. Pay per click may help to begin with, but the natural result listing are important for the long term and will greatly enhance your business profile - and will cost a lot less!

Some facts about search engines:

• If your website is listed prominently with search words relevant to your business, more people will see your website
• The website text needs to reflect your business, this is optimisation or SEO
• Websites are not just "found" by search engines, search engines need telling about your website either via a link or by submission
• Once indexed, a website needs to be further optimised for relevant keywords and phrases
• Web pages are ranked, based on a popularity voting process. Although the exact mechanism is not published, votes are related to relevant links to the page, page hits, and the page rank of the linking page.
• Your site may be pages down the result list with the relevant search words
• Your brand will be more prominent on the web if higher up the search result list
• Getting your site recognised high on a result list IS a complex process, the search engine algorithms change regularly and are not published
• There is no guarantee of a search result placing, we can only assist the process
• Websites can take many months to be indexed by Google, and can vanish from Google then re-appear, especially if new
• Google and the other search engines publish guidelines for successful indexing, which must be adhered to
• Don't be fooled by claims of a page 1 result listing within days or weeks, this may happen but with a search phrase that few will use in practice, such as your business name.

Integration of your website with social media is now an important aspect to marketing your business and your website, this does depend on your business and how you run it. We are able to help you with this.

The Prospatek search engine optimisation services will promote your website by within the natural result listings.

Don't forget other online ways to promote your business, we can help you with that.

You may have a great looking website ....
...... but the benefit will be more if it can be found easily!