Keys to Successful Internet Marketing

Many Internet Marketing customers ask me the same questions: What do I have to do to get my site ranked? Why do I not show up when someone enters my keywords? Why is my site lower than my competitors? I’m going to attempt to answer these questions and more in this article.

Why do some sites rank better than others

Google currently uses over 200 criteria to determine where your site should fit into their rankings. This is a combination of Page Rank, Inbound Links, Link Quality, On-page Optimization and many other things. Google adds up all of these items and gives you an overall score for each individual keyword or phrase. It takes more than any one criteria to get your site ranked high.

Keywords

For example, take a guy that sells watches. Of course, most watch store owners want to rank high for the word “watches”. It is always difficult to explain to the client that their site is simply not going to be #1 for this keyword. It is simply too much time and too much money to go after such a competitive keyword.

A much better way to gain traffic is to target keywords and phrases that are narrower in their focus. Perhaps targeting a specific manufacturer or even model number is a much better plan. Indeed, if the client really feels that the keyword watches is the only way to go, this plan will put us on that path. This way the client receives traffic everyday until the main keyword climbs to the top.

One more quick thought on keyword selection. It does you no good to be ranked at the top of a keyword that nobody is searching for. Often customers “know” what their users are searching for to find them. It is not uncommon to find zero searches for any given keyword in Google. All the optimization in the world will not make you a nickel!

Why Search Engine Marketing

Some cliens look at the Internet in the wrong way. They try to compare it to traditional marketing methods. People that are really not with it still advertise in the phone book. They really think that people still look in the massive phone book to find local businesses. The customer you want is a customer that has already made up his mind on which product to buy. When you stop at the gas station, you get gas. You will always buy, no matter what. The same principles apply to Internet Marketing. When the client searches for something very specific, he already made up his mind. When he clicks your link and is looking directly at the product he wants, it all comes down to price. The individual is not shopping for watches, he is shopping for a very specific watch.