web site marketing

A web site isn't much good if people aren't finding it and one of the main ways that people find web sites are through search engines and directories.

What's the difference?

A search engine employs software known as "robots" or "spiders" to "crawl" links and store all manner of information as it does. Different search engines use different algorithms to determine how results for a search will be displayed. Examples are Google, MSN, etc.

A directory employs human beings to actually look at and evaluate a site before including it in the directory. Examples are Yahoo and the Open Directory.

Some discussion....

In the not so distant past, all you had to do was post a site to get included in some search engines. In all likelihood, if you were there, they would find you. When we first started doing this, people were employing all kinds of strange methods in an attempt to get higher rankings. The most popular search phrase on the net back then was "Pamela Anderson" and people would actually put this in their keyword meta tags in hopes of getting a piece of some of that pie.

Today, you can't just throw a keyword in a meta tag and come to the top of the heap, in fact, if you use keywords that don't exist in your copy, it's going to work against you and search engines are increasingly giving less weight to keyword and description meta tags.

More than ever, it's all about content, and who thinks enough of your content to link to you. But that content thing is the #1 criteria. Without it, you might as well forget about coming up in the search engines. Show a spider a Flash page or a plain html page with a lot of content and it's a no brainer as to which one the spider will favor. We all but refuse to do a "splash page" though if a client just won't budge, we've been known to relent for the almighty dollar. Indeed, there are numerous conventions that one should stay away from when it comes to making a site that is search engine friendly.

Design at a price

A representative from a company that will remain nameless called me recently saying "you've got to help me out". I'd worked with this person when they were at another firm and had the success we were aiming for with that project.

In his new position, he had a gorgeous site. I mean, just beautiful to look at. Unfortunately, like in real life, beauty is only skin deep. There was limited real content, it was difficult to navigate, and no basic search engine optimization techniques were employed. Essentially, this firm had spent tens of thousands of dollars to develop a web site that was lovely to look at and hard to find. Worse yet, once found, it was hard to find what you were looking for.

The point? The web is still largely a text event, and content is more important than ever. Yes, you want your site to look nice, but at what expense? Sometimes less is more, and content, and the logical organization of it are the two most crucial things you can address when it comes to optimizing your site for search engines.

This isn't to say that conventions like Flash animation, Quicktime video, and frames have no place - you just don't want to build and entire site out of them.