Having worked online since early 2001, and completed a Masters degree on community portals, I can now claim to understand a little about how the internet works and how search engines have changed all the rules.
I say this a little advisedly because not only is the subject very complex, but my background is in information systems rather than computer science, there is relatively little academic research on the subject and the goal posts keep moving all the time.
For example when WollongongOnline.com our first community portal started (now morphed into the YourOnlineCommunity network) most web based information was located in stand-alone webpages, directories and portals and to find information online users normally entered the URL for the portal or website (eg www.wollongongonline.com) directly into the browser’s search bar (usually Netscape Navigator). In those days a URL with a .com suffix was commonly perceived as far superior to one with the more appropriate .com.au which suggested a more local and less global presence – certainly not the image for any self-respecting wannabe start-up internet company.
What’s more, the auDA rules of the time precluded Australian companies purchasing domain names with Australian geographical place names. Of course, you could always buy a .com with any Australian city name from America at the right price, but that’s another story.
The bottom line is that in the early days of the internet i.e. pre the dot com crash in 2000, massive amounts of money were spent on raising the awareness of new websites and portals simply because the name/URL was necessary for web surfers to find them online.
Fast forward to 2008 and virtually all online information is now accessed by a search engine – in Australia usually Google, sometimes Yahoo and less than 10 per cent of the time nine MSN Live Search.
Which brings us to the point of this week’s column: to attract substantial traffic to your website it is necessary to aggressively promote your company’s URL in mass media, i.e. TV, newspapers, radio etc (not usually an option for most people) or, more likely, adopt an appropriate search engine based strategy.
There are three basic approaches:
* SEO or search engine optimistaion
* Buy Adwords from a search engine
* List in online directories
SEO commonly costs $7,500-$12,500 for a reasonably sized web presence (consultants usually charge $150-$250 per hour) and there is no guarantee that the search engines won’t at some time in the future unilaterally change their algorithms and bypass all your efforts – which means you will have to start all over again.
It should also be recognised that any reputable SEO provider should make clear that if your website is below par there’s nothing they can legally do to raise its ranking. To put it crudely: if you start with a crap website SEO won’t be able to magically change it!
AdWords (Google, Yahoo and NineMSN Live) on the face of it appears to be the current answer.
Major benefits are you can choose your keywords and limit your daily spend; but there are a significant number of hazards for unwary newcomers.
Firstly, popular keywords are expensive and are auctioned – this means if you find a good one you can be gazumped by a competitor or forced to pay an exhorbitant price to retain it.
Secondly, just because someone clicks on your website does not mean you will automatically get any business. This aspect must be managed – there are now companies offering this service.
Thirdly, unscrupulous competitors can continuously click on your AdWords to use up your daily allocation.
Fourthly, US research suggests at least 30 per cent of clicks are bogus anyway (probably the same here) – and it’s extremely time consuming to get credits.
Having given all these caveats, AdWords are still probably the most practical way at the moment for SMEs to attract substantial amounts of traffic to their websites.
Which brings us, finally, to online directories.
Many people do not appreciate that search is made up of both directories and engines – always has been.
In the early days directories were edited by humans and it was only the explosive increase in the size of the internet which gave rise to the likes of Google who used software/robots to replace the work of humans who simply couldn’t keep up with the volume of work involved to index billions of webpages by hand.
In fact, human edited directories still play a major role in search and how the current search engines work. This is most evident in the rise in importance of Wikipedia – which appears regularly near the top of numerous search queries in all the leading search engines.
In specialist areas or products there are specific online directories which list all the suppliers in the country or state – these can often be extremely cost effective and provide 24/7 365 day per year exposure.
It is my belief that local online directories will play an increasingly important role in internet search in the future, although it must also be said that the user experience on virtually all of the current offerings leaves a lot to be desired.
To see how easy a local directory should be use check out YOC’s new Local Online Directory www.SmartPages.com.au - which now cover Wollongong, Parramatta and Sutherland Shire.
If you would like more traffic to your website or perhaps discuss how SmartPages can help you – click link below:
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