In the current competitive climate, tourism-dependant businesses in Coastal Maine are looking for every possible edge to set themselves above their competition. The internet has quickly become the ubiquitous marketing venue for tourism and travel, and our local businesses have jumped into this venue with both feet forward.
For several years, search engine marketing firms have sold pay-per-click, link farms, and meta-tags as the must-do's for increasing web visibility. Tactics such as tag-stuffing, hiding keyword instances, or creating unintelligible site content in order to trigger higher pageranking have served to increase traffic for some, but have severely decreased the quality of search results for the consumer. Over time, vanguards in the industry have come to understand that it is the searcher whose needs should be the focus, not the business that wants desperately to be found.
The increasingly jaded public, through such daily delights as spam and pop-up ads, has learned quickly to dismiss businesses that force themselves on them. I know from my own search experience that I tend to ignore both sponsored ads and even the highest ranked search results if the description looks or smells anything like either a paid placement or a keyword-jammed "information portal". Now don't get me wrong, all of these sights get tons of traffic, but that's not my point. My point is that consumers are becoming more hip to the game, and the trust that is necessary to produce a financial transaction with them can be severely inhibited through seemingly disingenuous marketing techniques.
Companies like Google have pivoted left and right to shake the rigging of search results. Their mission has re-focused lately , and they are developing brilliant techniques to make sure their users are delivered PERTINENT search results. They still generate revenue from paid advertisers, thats true, but look where they put the ads. They are clearly seperated from the search results, and are clearly labeled 'sponsored links'. As a matter of fact, the majority of these links are placed in the right column of the page, a veritable no-man's land for browsers, according to eye-tracking studies.
Anyhow the important thing to keep in mind is that, rather than trying to 'beat the system", businesses would be better served if they moved toward creating the pertinent site search engines are trying to return to their users. Instead of jamming tags and buying links, businesses should be making sure their sites are chock full of good, pertinent content. If you own a gas station, your website should strive to be the end-all, be-all location for gas related information in your area. Not only will the mass of content help the search engines find you and rank you higher, but visitors will be happier, more satisfied, and consider you the expert in your field. Others will link to you as an expert, and this is probably the most effective single way to increase traffic to your site.
Lance Dutson runs Maine Coast Design, an internet design and marketing firm catering to tourist-oriented businesses on the coast of Maine. http://www.mainecoastdesign.com
express cleaning service Arlington Heights ..Do what I did. Learn these 10 insiders' ad writing... Read More
Are you happy with your website? (Does your business even... Read More
There was a time when reciprocal linking was a number... Read More
The Internet can be a confusing place to do business.... Read More
How to improve conversion rate for your website? How to... Read More
When it comes to website marketing and promotions, you need... Read More
Google Sitemaps is a simple and fast way for your... Read More
Do you want to achieve extra-ordinary success in your online... Read More
Reading the postings in different Newsgroups it becomes clear that... Read More
"One in a million". What do I mean by that?... Read More
The most successful advertising is obviously expensive. There are ways... Read More
The internet has the capacity, sometimes, to divorce not just... Read More
There's such a thing as taking search engine optimization too... Read More
I think you all know that buying pop ups in... Read More
When I first began attempting to make money on the... Read More
In many cases when you start a new website you... Read More
As a small business owner are you looking at promotional... Read More
So what is all the talk about having a lot... Read More
You have invested your time and money into putting up... Read More
Each week I receive dozens of article submissions to my... Read More
One of the great advantages of advertising and marketing on... Read More
Imagine that you have a $25,000 marketing budget for your... Read More
It is estimated that it can take the average consumer... Read More
I was writing the final chapter of my book on... Read More
What is link popularity?The quantity of links in different websites... Read More
tidy up service Arlington Heights ..Website advertising, the unending quest of every website owner. And... Read More
When you build your website you need to have a... Read More
If you've gone through all the hard work of a... Read More
The most successful advertising is obviously expensive. There are ways... Read More
Let's face it. Getting webmasters to link to your site... Read More
It's a fact. While most link partners are scrupulously honest... Read More
Everyone likes to read or get a referral about something... Read More
Directories are the best means for getting related links and... Read More
Measuring and understanding your Website's success is a critical process... Read More
In this article I discuss some ineffective and/or unethical website... Read More
When we ran the contest back in 1998 we had... Read More
DMOZ is known all over the internet as being the... Read More
Quickly making money with a website is the dream of... Read More
Successful websites extend their reach far and wide! They build... Read More
No matter what you're marketing or promoting, if your Ad... Read More
Managing your online business from home is a great way... Read More
1. Using Hidden Links to increase subscribers or for a... Read More
Virtually all website owners concentrate their efforts and energy into... Read More
Keeping in touch with other sites like Amazon.com, Buy.com and... Read More
Yes indeed, that's all you've got, 30 seconds to make... Read More
If you are a small business owner with a website,... Read More
You might have heard that banner advertising is dead. Nothing... Read More
Once your site is launched, half your battle is won.... Read More
So you have completed that new site and want to... Read More
1. Use reward programs to keep people revisiting your web... Read More
Web Site Promotion |