Search engine visibility is so important to eBusiness success that building a Web site without optimizing for search engines is a wasted opportunity. Search engine traffic is highly targeted, providing an excellent ROI. Yet many eBusinesses don't make search engine optimization (SEO) a priority.

Quality Traffic: Potential prospects are actively looking for your offerings on search portals so they're predisposed to your marketing message. Companies can market through their Web site without making house calls.

• Software company Welocalize.com drives 90% of its site traffic through search engines, landing customers like Cisco, Xerox and MCI WorldCom. CEO Smith Yewell said he sold six figure jobs to those clients without ever having seen them face-to-face.

Low Cost: Search engine optimization is cost-effective. A key-phrase banner ad campaign runs $2,500 to $35,000 per month depending on the number of key phrases. A professional SEO campaign with an equivalent number of key phrases runs $1,000 to $10,000 per month.

Branding: An NPD Group study of recall for search engine text links and banner ad copy reported that search engines outperformed banner ads by three to one. More than twice as many respondents recognized companies listed in the top three search positions than those recognizing companies featured in banners ads.

Conversion Rates: Case studies based on client server file logs have shown that search engine traffic outperformed banner ads and email marketing campaigns by producing more purchases, form or catalog requests, newsletter subscribes, and software downloads.

Five Strategies for Higher Search Engine Rankings

Make your eBusiness Web site search engine friendly by focusing on five strategies to improve search engine rankings: keyword selection, Web page optimization, correct site submission, monthly monitoring, and improved link popularity.

1. Select Your Best Keyword Phrases

The most important thing you can do is to carefully research your keywords, identifying the phrases most likely used to find your Web site. Query employees, customers, vendors, family and friends. Look at your web logs to identify terms actually used to find your site. Spend some time with keyword popularity tools such as Wordtracker or WordSpot to finalize your best key phrases.

Prioritize your list and try a search for the key phrases generated. Search each phrase, noting how many similar documents are found and for which competitors. Scrutinize for relevancy and then optimize your pages only for your most relevant keyword phrases. Use two to three key phrases on the home page and two key phrases on each inner page.

2. Optimize Your Site for Customers and Search Engines

   First, it's necessary to write the best marketing copy for your customers. Use two or three of your strategic keywords at the top of each page, in your headline, in the first paragraph, and throughout the copy on your homepage. Then optimize each inner page the same way using two different keywords per page.

   Next, optimize for search engines by installing the proper "hidden text" in HTML program language that lies beneath the marketing copy visible on the Web. This helps search engine robots crawl and index your site.

   • Install proper title head tags.
   • Create proper keyword and description meta tags.
   • Create proper image ALT tags.
   • If using a <noframes> tag, insert keywords, descriptions, meta tags and content within the <noframes> tag.
   • If using JavaScript links or image map, add text links if possible.
   • Check the search engine compatibility of dynamically generated pages (.cgi, .asp, .cf, .php, etc.).
3. Submit Correctly to Major Engines and Directories

   Each search engine and directory has specific criteria for accepting a request to be listed in its database. For best results, hand submit all URL's. The order of submission matters.

   Manual Submissions: Most engines and directories post their "Add URL" instructions and links from the home page. Follow instructions carefully, and create bookmarks for future use.

   Dynamic Sites: Alta Vista, Inktomi and FAST now crawl dynamic sites. For crawlers that don't pick up dynamic sites, you have two options: optimize and submit several static pages, or rewrite your dynamic URLs in a syntax that search engines can crawl (i.e., without the question mark (?) in the URL).

   Framed Sites: Google and Inktomi now index framed sites. For other crawlers, use the <noframes> tag or add meta content and a title to the frameset.

   Directories: Directories require hand submission. Carefully select your best category for proper ranking..

   Registration Confirmation: After submitting your pages, you must confirm registration. Each engine and directory has a timeframe for indexing your site which can take from two weeks to several months.

   Query the engine after the proper timeframe to confirm submission was successful. If you're not listed after the indexing period, you must re-submit. Only re-submit after confirming you're not registered as there are penalties for over-submitting.

4. Monitor and Maintain Your Listings

   To view and monitor your page submission results, run a keyword position report with TopDog or WebPosition SEO software. However, be careful... attempting to submit a lot of pages on one domain name, or submitting multiple domain names from the same IP address, can cause poor results.

5. Reviewing Results: After monitoring your pages across engines and directories, you'll be auditing the results, which may call for:

   1. Re-submit (URL not found)
   2. Re-optimize (URL not found in top 30)
   3. No action required (URL found in top 30)

   When using software for monitoring, auditing, and reporting, these tasks should not be performed more than once or twice per month to avoid poor results. Only judicious use of monitoring and reporting techniques yields favorable results..

   Good Rankings Can Change: Because of the dynamic nature of search engines, optimization is a recurring process that doesn't end once you achieve favorable rankings. Rankings can change from month to month -- that's why you need maintenance, recurring verification, and re-submission.

6. Improve Link Popularity

   Most search engine algorithms now use link popularity for relevancy, resulting in higher rankings. The rationale is that if your site has links from other popular sites, it must contain unique, relevant content. Following are a few strategies for improving link popularity.

   • Get Listed in Directories: Directory listings result in link popularity because they use human editors who only accept sites with unique, relevant content. They also seed many other databases.
   • Ask Popular Sites to Link to You: Search for your top key phrases, then review the sites that come up. Visit each site and ask those that are non-competitive to exchange links with your site, giving them reasons why your site is valuable and suggesting the page where a link to you might be advantageous. Links from these sites are valuable because their high rankings will improve your link popularity (and increase traffic if users click your link).
   • Modify Your Site to Promote Linkability: Provide quality informational resources and outgoing links on your site, such as links to search engines, news portals and industry professional organizations.
   • Start a Referral Program: A good way to increase links (and traffic) is to offer a referral or affiliate program. This must be done with proper content and not just a page of affiliate links. It takes time, research and planning but is an excellent source of quality links.
   • Put Content on Your Site: Write articles in your area of expertise and post them on your site. Submit articles to other Web publications and ezines.
   • More Information: Webmaster World's Reciprocal Linkage Topics.

Mastering the above process can result in seeding search engines and directories to deliver qualified visitors deep into your preferred content areas. Targeted visitors will land on your product and service pages or commerce areas. This highly-qualified traffic brings excellent leads to convert into sales.

Should eBusiness Owners Optimize In-House or Outsource?

SEO is frequently handled in-house but this may not be your best option because most Web sites are not optimized properly despite in-house efforts. This isn't surprising because SEO requires a considerable investment in personnel and technology to do the job right. CyberAtlas reported that eBusiness spends less than 1 percent of its marketing budget on SEO, even though this marketing strategy provides excellent ROI. This suggests that eBusiness could pay for the cost of outsourcing from the increased sales and profits resulting from professional search engine optimization.