~~~Search Engine Optimization~~~
From: chinook
I have been following a lot of Search Engine Optimization news and
articles lately, and it seems to me that of all the offers for me to
spend money, it really boils down to about two major engines.
Looksmart so I can get a good listing in MSN, and Overture to cover
80% of the rest. We are listed in Google but getting good PageRank
has so far been elusive. A lot of authors of stories on search
engines casually dismiss inclusion costs as being relatively minor,
but being a small business we only have a very limited budget for this
kind of thing. For arguments sake, let's say $500 USD is our limit for
the next six months.
The question is, how can I most effectively use the $500.00. Your
comments are greatly appreciated.
Wolf Leonhardt
http://www.chinook-computers.com
~~~Jill's Response~~~
Hi Wolf,
This is a *very* good question! I've covered the pay-for-placement topic in the past, but not from the
perspective of one on a very limited budget.
Let's step back and take a look at the fees involved in having a Web
site these days. Gone are the days when anyone could use their free
home page space, create their own Web site, rank highly in the
engines, and make tons of money without spending a dime.
First, you'll need to purchase a domain name. These have actually
come down in price in the last few years. You can register new domain
names for as little as $15 per year from places like WebWizards. You can also have your site hosted with
your own IP address (which I still consider to be important for search
engine optimization purposes) for as little as $20 per month, even
less for additional domains.
So, we're already up to $255 per year just to *have* a Web site.
Of course, simply having a domain name and a Web host doesn't actually
get you a Web site. So now, you've got to either learn how to create
your own site, or you need to pay a professional designer. Back in
1995, one could easily create their own site and it could look just as
good as the next guy's (they were all pretty lame). This is not true
anymore. Not by a long shot. If you have a business, you *need* to
portray a professional image. The Web is one place where even a very
small business has the chance to look like one of the big guys. I
haven't looked at Web design costs lately, but you can expect to pay
anywhere from $200 to hundreds of thousands, depending on your needs.
(Don't expect much if you go with the $200!)
So, with design costs added in, we're up to at least $1,000 for your
first year's costs, and we haven't even considered your copywriting or
your search engine optimization needs. Again, you can do these
yourself, and sometimes they're even included in your Web site design;
but be careful! Your copywriting and SEO should never be an
afterthought. They're just too important to your site's overall
effectiveness. You'll need to minimally add another few hundred to
few thousand for professional help in this area. Your best bet is to
find a search engine optimization company that also specializes in
writing search engine-friendly copy.
Okay, back to our original question. Assuming you've done all of the
above, what about all the search engine and directory costs? Well,
let's see...we've got $299 per year from Yahoo, $299 from LookSmart,
that's already over the $500 budget. We've also got Inktomi paid
inclusion for $39 per year for the first URL and $25 per year for each
additional URL. Plus AltaVista's paid inclusion for $78 per year for
the first URL and $58 for URLs two through ten. Assuming you only pay
for your main page to be listed in all of those places, we're talking
about $715.00 for your first year. Ouch. That's definitely over the
$500 budget now, isn't it? (Add that to the set-up and design costs,
and it's at least $1715 for the first year.)
When I started my business from home in 1995, I didn't really have
*any* costs. That's a major reason why I was able to do it. Would I
have spent over $1,700 to start a business when I had no idea whether
or not it would work? Being the cheapo that I am, probably not! So I
really do understand what you're going through when you're deciding
where to spend those precious dollars.
One thing I've learned through the years of running my business is
that it takes money to make money. Like when I first bought Web
Position Gold. That was probably the first business-related item I
ever spent any money on, and I was very, very reluctant to do so.
However, once I bit the bullet and bought it, I realized that the
amount of time it saved me checking my clients' positions each month
was well worth the price of the software. It enabled me to spend that
time learning new SEO techniques and trolling for new work.
(Ka-ching...add another $149 for the standard version or $349 for the
professional version of WPG!) Same thing was true when I signed up
with WordTracker (there goes another $198 for the year! Now we're
over $2000). WPG and WordTracker are essential tools for running an
SEO biz, just as a decent listing in Yahoo and LookSmart are essential
to being found on the Internet these days. We can hate it, we can
gripe about it, we moan for the "good old days," but the simple truth
of the matter is that the free ride is over. Your growing business
needs to pay for the bare necessities in order to grow and become
viable.
Unfortunately, it's not possible to know what the return on investment
(ROI) will be for your directory listings. Some listings will make
back the registration fee in the first week. Others may never make it
back. There are too many unknown factors involved. Some of these
factors include your keyphrases (how competitive they are), your
category, the description you ended up with, and how many other sites
you're competing with. One thing is for sure: a listing in Yahoo and
LookSmart, (also DMOZ), will greatly improve your chances for a high
ranking in Google. Major directory listings count a lot towards your
PageRank and your overall credibility. So even though you don't
actually have to pay to be in Google, paying to be in Yahoo and
LookSmart will indirectly help with Google rankings. Because of the
importance of a good Google listing, I would have to recommend that
you minimally get yourself listed with all three major directories.
As Wolf mentioned in his question, you can get represented in Yahoo
via an Overture Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign. However, this could
potentially cost you more in the long run than a regular listing, and
I don't believe that PPC "ads" count toward your PageRank. Plus you
have to pay for the clicks forever. Stop paying and you're wiped
clean from Yahoo. It's possible to use up $299 in clicks in just a
month or less for competitive terms. Still, PPC may be a good way to
test what keyphrases people are using to find you, and which ones give
you the best ROI. You could run a short-term campaign and use the
click-through and conversion rate data to help create the best
description once you're ready to pay for inclusion.
There's one piece of good news for my cheapskate peers. If you're
really having trouble coming up with all the directory fees, there
*is* another way to get into LookSmart that is not very well known.
I've told you about submitting your non-commercial sites through Zeal; well, you may not have realized
that you can even get business sites into LookSmart through Zeal! The
secret is that you can submit the non-commercial area(s) of your site.
For instance, if you have informative articles on your site, you can
submit these to Zeal. Read through Zeal's User Guidelines and you'll see what I mean.
The net effect of this is that your site will be represented in
LookSmart, MSN and all the other LookSmart partners out there. How do
you think my business site got in?
Good luck!
Jill
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