Don’t try to fool the Search Engines – white hat SEO

Nobody likes a pushy salesperson. And it doesn’t matter if it’s someone trying to sell you a car or someone blocking your way past a kiosk in the mall, these sales people have a commonality that is persistence and the belief that they can persuade you to buy anything and/or everything. Maybe they can fill your head with so many claims or talk fast enough that you will be convinced or at least moved enough to make a purchase. The internet is loaded with websites that follow this same belief. If they inundate their visitors with claims and boasts and incomprehensible numbers and figures, they’ll persuade you that what they are offering is exactly what you need. Has anyone ever seen a web hosting company that claims 99.9% uptime? Try asking them how this figure is calculated. Just like when you look at a store from the outside and you feel it might have something that you want inside, when you enter you realize that it is not what you want at all. You make a hasty retreat. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) practices work the same way. You can fool someone while they are searching, but once they enter, if it’s not what they are looking for, they are gone. Given this knowledge, it should be obvious that being honest and clear is a very important part of SEM. It is just as important as keyword dense content writing and link building if you want to create conversions from the visitors who come to your site. By being honest and clear about your message, you can focus less on finding the magical term to drive traffic to you site and focus on the delivery of your product naturally. If you have something that people are looking for online, they will find you. Once they have found your site, make sure that your landing page lets the visitor know they are at the right place and then give them a quick call to action. Don’t make them read through lines of text before giving them a link to click or an option to do something. Links are free – double them up, put one at the top and one at the bottom, put them in the body copy. Make it clear what the action will entail. Use a web designer to help (that is what they are trained to do). A massive page of links is not a good resource. Finally, differentiate yourself from the competition. Do it in an honest manner, using clear comparisons and real testimonials. Open up a ratings system and live feedback. This will go much further than simple corporate jargon that most web visitors glaze over. Obviously if your product or service is not getting good feedback, you will have other issues to deal with. And that is another topic altogether.

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Published On: Sep 26, 2008