Here’s the lowdown on search engine submission. You can do it manually for free. The only problem there is going to be time—you may have to wait for your site to show up, or you may have to submit more than once to ensure that your site shows up. So, you might wish to use a company that does the site submissions.
Getting listed at a major search engine, such as Google, will get you listed in other search engines faster and vice versa. Once again you’re faced with having to choose a vendor to help. Paid submission will get your site ranked faster, and many search engines now offer fast additions and improved ranking for pay.
One well-known, affordable vendor for search engine submissions is Microsoft. Their OfficeLive service, at www.officelive.com, provides all kinds of helpful promotion and marketing tools for Web sites.
Don’t Forget Offline Promotions!
I’ll never forget the first time I saw a URL in a TV commercial. It was 1995 and the commercial was for Subway Subs. I was tidying my bedroom and had the TV on, and when I overheard the URL being read I had to sit down as the impact of what was happening hit me. I knew instinctively that this was only the beginning. Now, we see URLs in all kinds of unusual places. I remember standing on an upper floor in San Francisco’s Argent Hotel and looking out of my window as a bus passed below. A local radio station had its URL painted on top of the bus! Crazy—but certainly fun and memorable.
You want to get your URL on everything you use within your organization, such as the following:
- Letterhead and envelopes
- Business cards
- Company t-shirts, caps, bags, and so on
- Pens
- Checks
- Any promotional collateral
You also want to consider other forms of media cross-promotions, including the following:
- Television commercials
- Radio ads
- Magazine ads
- Billboards
- Direct mail marketing.
Promotions specialists point out that you want to be coordinated in your efforts—build your offline promotion plans in an integrated way with your online promotions and other marketing goals for ensured success.
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Summary
How you make decisions for your needs will be guided by each unique situation with which you’re confronted—the marketing needs of one site may be very different from that of another. Being well informed will save you a lot of frustration. And no matter the difficulties, if your site is well-designed, well-structured, and if you follow the guidelines for meta tagging and text enhancement, you are well on your way to better visibility. Add to that some well thought-out strategies, and you’re sure to improve your site’s visibility and potential revenue. Next up is a look at dealing with two common Web design issues: growth and redesigns.
