BRCbuilders e-zine

Dear Reader,

Last week I received an email from a gentleman trying to decipher how he can best use his website to his advantage. I'll share it with you.

Dear Scott,
I'm finishing up my website and I hope to get lots of customers from it. I really like the site and think it'll be beneficial for my customers. I have a few questions, though.

First, how can prospects find my site? There are a lot of search engines out there. Do I need to register with each one? I've thought about hiring a company to take care of this for me. Is that a good idea?

Second, I know it'll be awhile before I get a lot customers and prospects visiting my site, but is there a way to speed that up?

Third, I've been told to cram my website full of text and even use "hidden text" to fool search engines into finding me quicker. I've also heard the exact opposite is true - that if I use too much text or I use hidden text, search engines are smart enough to recognize it and that can even negatively affect my ranking. So which is it?

Thanks for your time - Tim

My response to Tim's message is the subject of this popular topic. More people than ever are using the Internet to find companies to do business with; and every year the number grows exponentially. The simple fact is today's customer is more Internet savvy and more willing to find service providers via the Internet than print media. Those companies that are thriving in today's market climate without a website are betting on luck to continue their growth.

I prefer "luck" to be on my side in my business.

Before I continue, I just wanted to shout out "LAST CALL" for our "60 Days to Becoming Wildly Successful" course in Sturbridge, MA this coming Thursday, March 30th. If you want information that will add thousands of dollars into your company coffers this year, (if you implement what we talk about) do NOT miss this class! I hope to see you there. Now, on to the article about your website.

As I noted in the introduction, prospects are using the Internet to find companies to spend money with now more than ever. A 2004 survey from bizrate.com showed that more than 25% of online shoppers use the Internet to find businesses close to their home or work. That statistic shocked analysts, who had predicted less than half that rate.

And that was in 2004; just imagine what it is today.

So forgive my frankness but if you don't have a website, you're doing yourself and your company a disservice by missing out on an extremely inexpensive and effective lead generation and retention tool.

All right, enough beating you up if you don't have a website yet. Let's cover Tim's questions.

Question 1: How can prospects find my site? There are a lot of search engines out there. Do I need to register with each one? I've thought about hiring a company to take care of this for me. Is that a good idea?

Answer: This question could (and actually does) span hundreds or even thousands of websites, so I'll make it as brief as possible. Yes, you should register with all of the major search engines including Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, All The Web, AOL, Hot Bot, Teoma, Alta Vista, Gigablast, Look Smart, Lycos, MSN, and Open Directory.

Registering through search engines is a necessity if you want prospects to find you via search. Google.com is presently the US' most popular search engine by a wide margin (March 2006), so registering there is a good first stop. Google scours the net frequently to find new sites and update rankings of older sites, but a faster way to register a site is by doing it manually by clicking here and filling in the data.

Google is but one of dozens of popular search engines as I mentioned above. Since I don't have room in this e-zine to list the instructions for submission to each search engine, I've included this link from Search Engine Watch website that shows how to register with the various popular sites. It's not difficult, but does take a little time to enter and get established.

Don't overlook local search engines and directories such as your local Chamber of Commerce, Networking groups such as BNI and LeTip, Community and City directories, Online Phone Directories, etc. In my cleaning company's service range, we're registered with 7 community search engines and directories.

The last part of Tim's question covers "Search Engine Optimization" (SEO) strategies, companies and software. This, too, is an entire topic within itself. There are companies and software products on the market whose sole purpose is to get their clients and users top listings in the search engines.

Caveat Emptor! If a salesman or software promises to get you a top ranking, get it in writing before spending money with them. There are so many variables within each search engine that it's nearly impossible to guarantee top placement.

Worse, some software and services can actually harm your ranking if optimized or submitted incorrectly. After I register my websites with the big search engines, I let my web guy take care of the rest. The various search engines look for different areas of relevancy to rank sites and guess what? It's not uncommon for them to change their ranking techniques from time to time without notice. You may have heard recently that google.com is being sued by an SEO company, SearchKing, that had dropped in ranking overnight by a large margin when Google caught on to their ranking placement schemes. The SEO company wasn't doing anything illegal, but they were breaking Google's rules, so Google dropped them.

Claiming Google is using unfair business practices, the plaintiff is seeking recourse. Google argues it's their First Amendment right to institute "evaluative opinion". Let's just say there is nothing fair in the love, war, and search engine optimization. What's allowed today may not be allowed tomorrow and paying big $$ to an SEO company or software is probably not a great idea for a cleaning and/or restoration firm. But hey, it's your money and I'm just exercising my "evaluative opinion".

Question 2: I know it'll be awhile before I get a lot customers and prospects visiting my site, but is there a way to speed that up?

Answer: This one is easy. Register with search engines, tell everyone you know, place it on all of your print media, and give people a reason to visit (and return to) your site. The last point is something many overlook. They put together a website, market it, and then wait for the masses to arrive. When prospects and customers visit the site, many times the web maker gives no reason for the prospect or customer to add it to their favorites so they don't. Including interesting and updated information not only makes people want to come back, but it also helps your ranking with several search engines.

Question 3: I've been told to cram my website full of text and even use "hidden text" to fool search engines into finding me quicker. I've also heard the exact opposite is true - that if I use too much text or I use hidden text, search engines are smart enough to recognize it and that can even negatively affect my ranking. So which is it?

Answer: I base most of my content decisions on 3 questions I ask myself:
1. What is my customer looking for?
2. What will keep them interested and coming back?
3. What will get me in the top ranking with search engines?

Answering these questions will help you determine your content. Having a clean and easy to navigate layout, a healthy mix of before/after pics, interesting articles and content, and a spotting chart constitutes a good basic cleaning site. Adding testimonials helps lend to your credibility so add some of those in too.

Now about that hidden text and other search engine tomfoolery - one word: DON'T! Many search engine relevancy detectors (sometimes software and sometimes human enterers) see right through the old tricks. There used to be a time when search engine submission was so easy. The webmaster would just stick the words "carpet cleaning" and the cleaner's county in the meta tags 30 times and the site would usually make the top 10.

According to Search Engine Inktomi, there are over 2 billion websites on the Internet today. Relevancy detection had to become smarter because of this very reason - and boy did it ever.

I've always looked at the Internet as the next Wild West and we're the pioneers. It's very interesting to see how new trails are blazed, and it's also frustrating with so few "paved roads"...yet.

Become Wildly Successful!

Class 1
When: March 30th, 2006
Hosted by: NEIRC
Where: Publick House in Sturbridge, MA
Cost: $50 for members and $125 for non- members
Signup contact: Robin Deschane - 603-886-9461

Class 2
When: April 13-14, 2006
Hosted by: Steam Way International
Where: Steam Way Superstore; Denver, CO
Cost: $39 each student
Signup contact: Eloise - 800-447-8326

Click Here For More Upcoming Course Details...