So how DO you get into the search engines?

Remember, no-one can guarantee you a high ranking. Your site has to be search engine 'friendly'. Therefore if you are in the planning stages of your website, this must be taken into consideration now. If you are requiring promotion for an existing site, we will first study your site and, with your permission, make small text changes and, in some cases, major changes to the html (the background of your site) which will not be seen by visitors but will be taken into account by the search engines.

Yes, it all seems rather complex, but remember that in most cases, your site is not checked by humans but by search engine 'spiders' who are simply programmed to look for certain items which are not seen by your site visitors. It IS complicated unless you are an expert in this field but luckily this is a service we are happy to provide.

How long does it take for a search engine to list a site? 

Please see the following report on the top search engines.

This report shows that some search engines had not been updated for a couple of months. Please note that indexing’ does not necessarily refer to when your site is added, but to when your site is considered for inclusion into the index. 

Links 

Robert Woodhead in the survey mentioned above, discovered that almost as many site visitors arrive at websites because of links. Paradoxically, this makes links even more important. Why? A perfect example is a recent client who offers luxury accommodation in a castle in Ireland. Site visitors from search engines could be people looking for accommodation in France, castles in Germany or even children researching school assignments on the subject of Ireland!

Search engines are by no means an exact science. Perform a search yourself for the subject of your choice and you’ll see many totally irrelevant results.

So what DID work for the castle in Ireland? Targeted links. There are many sites which deal with accommodation, there are directories which are specific to Ireland, tourist board sites plus many more. This applies to any type of site and we often find that our clients are aware of many suitable avenues to explore. 

Your site is not aiming for a large number of hits by people who aren't interested in your product! Fifty people who visit your site who have that interest are far preferable to a thousand visitors who have no interest whatsoever! 

There are sites that have thousands of visitors a day. Many of these sites will have visitors which will be interested in your product or services. For instance, visitors to a site which is a resource for yacht owners would also be interested in a site which sells products or services related to boat ownership or sailing. 

We will perform this service for you. 

If you've got it, flaunt it!

Finally, the third most common method of visitors finding your site has nothing to do with the Internet. And this is where you come in.

The greatest number of people choose to visit a site because they have seen the URL on stationery, print ads, brochures, the exterior of business premises or on a motor vehicle. You can add to your site’s popularity by simply including the address of your site on every piece of promotional material, your business cards, letterheads and other stationery. It's surprising how many companies do not take this very simple step.

Another common sense fact is that the more time which is spent on site promotion, the more results you will see! Our first steps towards your site promotion are as follows:

1. We will check your site and make any appropriate changes to make it more search engine-friendly.
2. The next priority is to create links. At this stage, the aim of these links is to demonstrate to the search engines that you have links in place; these are not specifically designed to attract visitors.
3. Now that these stages are complete, your site is submitted to the major search engines.
4. Your site will then be submitted to any search engines which might be specific to your industry or organization.
5. The next stage is to submit your site to indexes which are of relevance. (See the golfing example above).
6. Now we go for the all-important targeted links on popular websites. It may be that you can suggest suitable sites.

 How long does this take?

We recommend that your website promotion begins with the above-mentioned stages. It is obviously preferable if these can be done during a solid block of time. 

We then suggest that your site is submitted to the search engines and indexes on a monthly basis. At the same time, we can create further targeted links for you and perform maintenance on your site should you so wish. 

How much does it cost?

We charge for site promotion by the hour which means that you are in control of the cost of this service. For instance, you might decide that we start with a ten hour block or a six hour block; you might prefer us to perform monthly submissions only which would take approximately one hour or you might decide that it would better suit you to have monthly submission to all relevant search engines and indexes, plus the creation of further targeted links. 

Please contact us if you have any questions about your website promotion campaign.