In Internet jargon, "the visitors to your web site" are called "traffic." The phrase "drive traffic to your Web site," is synonymous with "bring visitors to your web site." It also means to market your web site much as you would market your business from a physical location.
For example, if you own a store on Main Street that sells antiques, how would you market your store? What steps would you take to tell the community what you offer and where you're located and to 'drive' them into your store? You would start by putting together a comprehensive marketing plan including concepts like advertising, direct mail, public relations, and community outreach.
The same is true for marketing your online business. You need to start with a plan and this plan needs to take into account the many different online advertising vehicles.
Fortunately, on the Web, you can take advantage of many "free" marketing avenues before paying for online advertising - although paid ads can also be a way to rapidly drive targeted visitors to your Web site.
You primarily market an online business through:
The first step in driving traffic to your Web site is to make sure your Web site address appears on search engines where visitors are searching the Internet for your products and services. To do that, you need a basic understanding of how search engines work and how to best "optimize" your Web site to be search-engine friendly.
The science behind making your Web site appear on the search engine results pages is called "search engine optimization" (SEO). The purpose of optimizing your Web site is to help the search engines find and index your Web site and rank it high on the search results listings for the keywords that describe your site's content.
SEO is something you can attempt yourself, but for optimal results, you may want to enlist the services of a search engine optimizer.
================ Search Engine Optimizations is More than Meta Tags! When it comes to Meta Tags, there are many opinions floating around the web. Let me tell you, if you are looking at gaining a distinct advantage with Meta Tags in the search engines, I have news for you: It isn't 1999 anymore. Meta tags were first created in the mid-'90s to make sense of the growing number of web pages, but in the late '90s something happened. Unethical webmasters, most notably those who ran adult websites, began abusing the Keyword Meta Tag. They would place keywords unrelated to their site in their meta tag, which caused their pornographic websites to appear in unrelated search results for topics like "Smithsonian."
One by one, the major engines discontinued the use of meta tags as part of their main criteria. Google ignored meta tags altogether, and now only indexes Google Meta Tags. There are, however, several search engines that still read meta tags in some way.
So, what Meta Tags are worth injecting in your site for the basis of search engine optimization?
Note: If you are looking for a comprehensive list of Meta Tags and how to use them in your pages properly, please see this comprehensive article: Meta Tags Explained.
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Search Engine Visibility - Search engine optimization specialists will review your site and provide recommendations you can easily implement. Your Web address is then automatically submitted to national and local search engines and directories.
Top 10 Search Results - SEO experts will develop your keywords and analyze your Web site's design, text and links-and then guarantee your Web site will appear in the top 10 search results on the major search engines!
Press Release Service - Helps to generate buzz for your Web site in online news sources and improve the link popularity of your Web site!
Web Site Link Visibility - Increases the number of relevant links to your Web site from other Web sites, which may help raise your search engine rankings. Link popularity
Linking to other Web sites and having other Web sites link to you is another smart choice for marketing your Web site online. These links serve two purposes: they offer your visitors more information, and they offer a way for the search engines to travel in and out of your Web site.
Link popularity is a measurement used by search engines to account for the number of Web sites linking to yours, along with the relevancy of those Web sites. Bottom line: the number of links and the quality of the links are both important factors to be considered when trying to increase search engine rankings. Advertising on search engines
After you've optimized your Web site, you can take your marketing plan to the next step. You can purchase online advertising in the form of pay-per-click ads on search engines. These ads appear as links in the "sponsored" section of search engines like Google® or Yahoo®. They are called "pay-per-click" because you only pay for the advertising space when a visitor clicks on your ad. Of course, a visitor clicking on your ad is automatically taken to your Web site-meaning you get qualified, rapid traffic to your Web site with each click!
Pay-per-click ads are purchased by keywords and are something you may need help managing. Network Solutions® has a pay-per-click product called PerformanceClicks™. Through this service, Network Solutions® will create and manage your online advertising from developing keywords to building and buying the ads. Other resources
For more information on how to market your Web site online, specifically using search engines as a vehicle, read further on some of these Web sites: