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Web Marketing 101
When evaluating web development and web marketing companies, you will
probably have a few questions, such as: "How do I get people to my website?"
"What is SEO?" "Why do I need it?" and "Why should I get it from you?"
Let's begin with a few simple statistics, just to get an idea of the possibilities inherent in your online venture.
How many people have access to the Internet, anyway?
Worldwide, 580 million people have Internet access. That's over half a
billion! In just one month (February, 2003) 181 million people went
online.
Source: Nielsen-Netratings Feb. 25, 2003
Tell me more about U.S. users
Out of a population of 290 million, 168 million Americans have
Internet access. That is 29% of the total number of people who have
Internet access worldwide.
Source: Nielsen-Netratings Feb. 25, 2003
More and more people are going online all the time. Right?
Yes. The number of people worldwide with Internet access is projected to
increase to 1.10 billion in 2005, according to the Computer Industry Almanac.
Source: Computer Industry Almanac
How are these people likely to find my
website?
Depending upon the statistic you choose, anywhere from 60-80% of online
users find products and services via search engines. Read on:
Search engines are the top way consumers find new web sites online, used by 73.4% of those surveyed.
Source: Forrester.com, March, 2003
More than eight in ten American Internet users have gone to search
engines to find information on the Web. More than one in four U.S.
Internet users - about 33 million adults - present queries on search
engines on a typical day.
Source: Pew Internet & American Life (study conducted Jan. 2002)
"Search engines continue to be the primary tool people use to
navigate the Web," said Jason Levin, analyst. "Online shoppers have
turned to search engines not only to find stores but to comparison shop.
Search engines are quickly becoming the first destination for online
shoppers, and we expect that trend to continue through 2004."
Source: Neilsen/Netratings Feb. 23, 2004
114.5 million Americans used a search engine during January 2004.
That is 39% of the U.S. population as a whole, and 76% of the active
online U.S. population.
Source: Neilsen/Netratings Feb. 23, 2004
So...it's important that my website be listed in the search
engines.
According to the WebTop Search Rage Study, "Americans experience
'search rage' if they don't find what they want within 12 minutes."
This means that your website should not just be included in major search
engines. It should rank well, appearing within the top 10
listings for searches conducted on keywords relevant to your product or
service. Research shows that most people do not click past
the first page of results, and usually the first page of results
includes just 10 or 20 sites. That is why I aim to position your site
within the top 10.
How do you build a website that "ranks well"?
When you input a phrase in a search engine, the engine takes that phrase
and compares it against its database. It uses an algorithm to determine
which pages in its database are most relevant to your search. These
algorithms are highly guarded. As a result, web marketers can only study
the results of the algorithm (pages that rank well) to understand
how the algorithm works. This research is the foundation for our ability
to create pages that are likely to rank well.
Yes, but how do you do
it? Including keywords relevant to your product or service at the
statistical frequency required by the engine in question is how you
build a website that ranks well. The technique is known as search
engine optimization. Often this work is outsourced to search engine
specialists because a) it is a specialty which requires intensive
training, b) the search engines are always changing, so it requires
ongoing research, c) it's a major project, and d) it requires an
understanding of statistics, creative language skills, and web
development - ideally in one person.
Why should I choose you to optimize my
website?
The following list contains the most important points from two other
pages in this website. I hope you will explore the full
Features and Benefits of
working with me, and read more details about my skills and experience on
the About Karyn
page.
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I make decisions with your budget and goals in mind.
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I can help you avoid costly mistakes, such as graphic elements or
programming which prevent people from finding you in the search
engines.
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By outsourcing to me, you can avoid the expense of
engaging a large company whose overhead is exponentially larger
than mine.
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I can work with your web development team, if applicable, to
integrate SEO to your site.
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By outsourcing to me, you can call one person who will never leave
you waiting on hold, who always calls you back, and is accountable
directly to you.
How can I trust that you know what you're doing, when your own site doesn't come up when I search for it?
It's possible that you're searching with a key phrase which my
keyword research deemed unusual or irrelevant. Perhaps you're searching
in a search engine to which I never submitted my site. More likely,
though, is the simple fact that I have put strategically little effort
into the search engine optimization of my site. As you can imagine,
competing with a world full of search engine strategists for top10
positioning on a phrase like "search engine optimization" is
extremely difficult. Just imagine...it's like an upstart phone company
competing with the dominant phone company for ad space in their yellow
pages. There is not a single industry more competitive than my own, as
far as search engine optimization is concerned. Every search engine
strategist out there is competing to win for phrases directly related to
my business. Chances are, you will not be in the same position when it
comes to marketing your site in the search engines. And if you were, I
would tell you not to spend your money on search engine optimization,
and advise you on alternate methods of driving traffic to your site:
pay-per-click, e-mail marketing, interlinking, and so on. Search engine
optimization is the most cost-effective form of web marketing out there,
so it's incredibly rare that I recommend against it, but it can happen!
What happens when they get to my website? How many will buy my
product or service?
This depends on many factors, but a well-known standard across
many types of industries
is 1 to 3%. This means that you should expect 1% to 3% of your visitors
to place an order for your product or contact you regarding your
services. For example: Let's say your website gets a modest 1200
visitors per month. You could reasonably expect 12-36 people to convert
from visitors to customers every month. This is known as conversion
rate. I have heard of conversion rates as high as 10% or 15%, but
this was when the conversion being measured was a request for
information, not a purchase.
Where do I go from here?
If you sell to a strictly local market: You may not need a web
marketing specialist, or a website at all. If your customers are best
reached via print advertising, a website can be an expense, rather than
an investment. For example, a local hair salon may spend more on
maintaining its website than what it gains in visibility. On the other
hand, a grocery delivery service which accepts orders online and
delivers them within a local area, such as Boston, would definitely need
a website, and probably a web marketing specialist. Whether you need a
specialist or a straight-ahead developer, I will be happy to help! Contact
me today.
If you sell to a broad regional, national, or international market: If
your customers are online, you probably need a website and a web
marketing specialist. Contact me today.
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Testimonials
"Karyn helped us achieve number one rankings in
the search engines... We have seen growth in sales every year by 40-50%....We trust Karyn with our business and attribute our success on the Internet to her."
Patty Englebaugh
President
Ergostoreonline
More Testimonials
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TRACK RECORD
I increased traffic to one website from 200 to 9,000 visitors per month with search engine optimization alone.
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DID YOU KNOW
that 60-80% of online users find products and services via search engines?
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DID YOU KNOW
that search engine optimization is widely known as
the most cost-effective form of web marketing?
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