Next Exit: Your Web Site

Anyone who takes a family road trip this summer will notice countless billboards dotted along the interstate. From fast food restaurants to hotels, businesses utilize this marketing tool because they know that the thousands of people traveling our freeways each day will see it.

In many ways, the web is a lot like our freeway system. Web users travel search engines each day, seeking out information. As a matter of fact, nearly 90% of web users go to search engines first to seek out products, services, and information online.

So Where’s Your Billboard?
Just like fast food chains compete for the prime spots to place their billboards, your competitors on the web fight for the number one spot on Google, Yahoo, and the other search engines. While having an attractive web site that reflects your company’s image is an important part of the web marketing mix, what good is your site if no one can find it? This is where search engine optimization and registration come into play. Sites that are properly optimized as well as registered with leading web directories such as Open Directory Project experience increased search engine rankings and traffic.

Search engine optimization is not a one-time project. Instead, Starkmedia’s approach to search engine optimization is a fusion of research, technology, and long-term monitoring.

Extensive Market Research
To kick off the process one must evaluate their target market, which keywords are most relevant to their product/service, and which keywords their competitors are using. Links are also considered at this stage. The more links to and from a site, the easier it is for search engine “spiders" to find it.

Web Technology
Once keywords are chosen, they must be incorporated into the structure and text of the site. This must be done carefully to avoid saturating the site with keywords. Search engines refer to this as "spamming" and will ban sites guilty of this offense.

Continuous Monitoring
It can take a while for search engine "spiders" to find a newly-optimized site and crawl it for keywords. In some cases, it can take anywhere from a week to one year before a site appears on any given search engine. However, many Starkmedia clients have found that it’s well worth the wait once they see their site’s rankings increase along with a surge in web traffic.

It is important to note that search engine and directory administrators are always changing the technology on their sites in order to stay one step ahead of the "spammers." This ensures that only quality sites maintain the lead in search engine rankings. In response to search engine changes, Starkmedia maintains and updates sites to make sure they are "search engine friendly."

For more information about HR Application Tools, call Starkmedia at 414.226.2710 or click here.