It is still a common misconception among web site owners that a web hosting company is responsible to promote their site in the search engines.  I hear this often where a hosting client will call and say “there’s a company trying to sell me search engine marketing services. I thought you provided that with your hosting?” or “Don’t you submit my site when I started hosting with you?”.

Let’s first define what Web Hosting is. According to Dictionary.com Web Hosting means: A business providing hardware and services to store, maintain, and present Web sites and provide Internet connection to those sites.

This says Web Hosting is a place to store web files. It allows you to say my site is “BigSharkMarketing.com” and people will see it when they type this into a web browser.

Marketing a web site to the search engines is a separate and major component to your business. Think of it this way: You wouldn’t assume your landlord for your company’s building would automatically promote your business on billboards, postcards, yellow pages would you? Online world it’s the same concept.

Now there are many hosting companies these days offering web marketing as a service and that can be to your benefit. Often they will provide combined services and discounts by using both programs. What you do want to consider is making sure they actually have a staff of experienced SEO professionals and not rely on the IT department to optimize and promote your web site (no offense to IT people out there. I certainly couldn’t program or manage networks and nor would I want to offer it ).

Ask your hosting provider if they have SEO services or better yet, check out this site: http://www.hostservices.net -

This is a phrase I use often whenever a client is interested in web site design with Big Shark Marketing or if they have come to me to improve their current site rankings.

As part of any site design, the search engines should be included within your plan. Simply designing a site to make it look flashy or exciting will not necessarily help it rank well in the search engines. The functionality of the site when it comes to search engines should include:

• Individual Web Pages that focus on particular services or products you want to promote
• Individual Web Pages should have well-written text on each of them that talks about the product or service as well as sell it.
• Pages should be programmed in HTML/HTM if possible. If a database is necessary, consider PHP.
• Use static URLs
• Consider each page name to include a keyword within it. For example: http://www.bigsharkmarketing.com/search-engine-optimization.html
• Include a nice introduction on your home page. Have at least 2-3 paragraphs of text on the home page that talk about the business, services, or products you want to focus on the most. Make sure keywords people may type in are considered when writing the text.
• Avoid too much flash. Flash programming has come a long way and in recent months search engines like Google have begun reading and even including sites with heavy flash in their indexes. It certainly isn’t a good idea though to design all in flash. Avoid flash navigation (or at least have a text based version on the footer perhaps), and especially avoid flash intro pages.
• NO Flash intro pages! As I just mentioned, when someone comes to your first page, they are not going to dazzled by a flashy intro. It will not only annoy a visitor, but it may prevent a search engine from reading your page properly, continuing onto other pages of your site and thus no or poor rankings.

Over the years,  I have seen a variety of ways to get a web site to rank in the search engines. Everything from stuffing keywords, hiding text, link ‘bombing’ and the old school ‘doorway pages’.

Content - updated, well-written text for web sites is still one of the most imporant and valuable elements for good search engine rankings. You can create content easily by blogging, writing articles, and adding relavent pages to your web site.

Many people  are concerned that they do not have time or the ability to blog, or write articles. If you own a web site business, you more than likely have the knowledge of the products or services you are offering. Try to commit 1 morning or evening a week or even every few weeks to write about what you know; news, updates, information pertaining to a product or service you sell.

Content is considered one of the most important elements of good SEO but is only 1 of the factors needed for rankings.

Taking cover and scaling back on your advertising is the normal business reaction to what is happening in our economy today. With people trying to save money on high gas prices and looking for great deals, more and more are choosing the internet as their shopping alternative.  As a business owner, there are many ways to continue promoting your web site online without having to spend a fortune! Here are some simple ideas and tips to consider during these difficult times:

• Improve Search Engine Rankings- One of the biggest areas of your online marketing; having good rankings among the search engines is essential and can pay off if done properly.  If you need to hire an SEO Company do so with caution. Avoid the site that “Guarantee first page rankings”. No reputable SEO Company can do that without either bidding for placement (AKA Pay Per Click) or some type of trick that can either harm your rankings over time or obtain the wrong type of visitors. Search Engine Optimization is a process that will take time, and should be done by a reputable company with experience.
• Blogging- This is a FREE way to promote your site, services or products. Setting up a blog is easy and it can be done via your site or other blog locations such as blogger.com or wordpress.com
• Articles- Write about your services or products and submit to article sites. Most of these are free, but a few may require a small membership. Articles allow you to be the authority on your service or product and it also provides a way to link back to your website- free traffic!
•  Press Releases- Online PR is a bit different than traditional. One of the biggest advantages includes having copy (text) that links back to your site which in turn can increase your search engine rankings. Online PR can also be posted within search engine rankings especially in Google. Submitting your PR can cost anywhere from $60-$600. There are some free areas as well.
• Smaller-Localized Pay per Click- If you currently run a PPC campaign but it’s costing you more than your selling, consider consolidating it to a smaller campaign or even target your local market. Another option is to focus on 2-3 of your main products or services that bring in the most money.
• Social Networking- Sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace are all becoming a great tool for online businesses. Use it to promote services, gain feedback on products or ideas, as well as advertising (Facebook for example has their own pay per click program at affordable rates). Youtube is another form of marketing to consider for your business. Be creative!
• Email Marketing- Still a viable form of marketing, if you have generated a list of clients over time (those who have purchased from you before or have requested to receive newsletters and information) you can safely send promotions, general newsletters and announcements to them. This can be an affordable way to remind them that you are here, and you may have a great service or product to offer them at this time. Make sure you use either a company that offers email marketing or a vendor that is reliable in this industry such as Constantcontact.com.

We definitely have some bumpy roads ahead of us, but if you invest your time and money wisely, you can still make money in this weak economy.  Let us  at Big Shark Marketing help you with a FREE Web Site analysis today and see where simple updates and modifications can make a difference in your web business.