I often get two types of questions from newbie Internet entrepreneurs:
1) Why isn't anybody buying my products? I have a web site!
2) My competitor is getting all kinds of Internet sales. I sell the same products and nobody is buying from me. Why?
Over the life of this blog, I will address issues to help you understand how your web site works for you and what you can do to improve your visibility on the Internet and make you more competitive in your market.
The one area I will not address is your product. You will have to have done your homework to make sure you have a saleable product and come to some realization as to your potential sales in a world wide market.
Let's get started.
The last time you searched for something on the Internet, how did you search for it. Probably with a search engine such as Google, Yahoo or
MSN. And, you probably entered some keywords or a keyword phrase to find what you were looking for. The more you refined your keywords, the closer you got to finding what you wanted in the list of sites returned by the search engine. This list of sites returned by the search engine is called the search engine results page (
SERP).
Keywords and keyword phrases are how people will find your site. The sites listed in the
SERP are listed from most relevant to least
relevant as they relate to the keyword(s) or keyword phrase you entered to find what you were looking for.
The owners of most home businesses or small businesses find themselves writing a bunch of text for their own web site to be put on the web by a "webmaster", a web development company or the kid down the street who can make a web site. Often the requirements for this text is either not presented to the business owner or if presented, not understood by the business owner.
In order for people to find your site you must use specific keywords or keyword phrases in the text within your web pages. The keywords you select and place within the text on your pages will be what the search engines identify you with and they will put your site in their
SERP when surfers do a search using those specific keywords or phrases. It is through these keywords that people will find your site.
Be careful not to use the keywords or phrases too often on each web page. To many iterations of the keywords or phrases is considered spamming or keyword stuffing by the search engines and your site will probably be penalized for it and be more towards the end of the
SERP. Repeating keywords or phrases two or three times per web page seems to work.
Too many different keywords on a page will cause confusion when trying to identify just what your page is about. So, only select a couple of keywords or phrases to use per page. You can use different sets of keywords or keyword phrases on your different web pages so that each page may attract different surfers. The keywords must be relevant to what each page is about.
Go through each of your web pages and see if you can pick out the keywords or keyword phrases. Jot down the keywords and keyword phrases you find for each page.
Using each keyword or keyword phrase, do a search engine search for it. Jot down, next to each keyword, the number of pages the search engine presented you for that keyword or keyword phrase. Unless you have a very unique product, the search engine results pages will probably present you with over 25,000 pages competing for your keywords or keyword phrases.
And, yes, you still wonder why you are not listed as number one. As we address each area for becoming noticed on the web, you will begin to understand what you have to do. Next, we will address your choice of keywords.
Don't Give Up.
