With many potential clients searching online for your services, a Web site is a must in your marketing mix. But simply having a site isn’t enough any more. Your site needs to be optimized so search engines find it and list it near the top of the search pages.
Some of the top things search engines look for include:
• Presence of the key words searched
• Frequently updated content
• Links to your site from other sites
Surprisingly, many company sites, while including in-depth information about products or services, may not include typical phrases people search to find those products or services.
For example, imagine you own a Greek restaurant in Marietta, Georgia. Your Web site includes your restaurant name, a description of your food and your location. This should be enough to bring your site up when people are searching for Greek restaurants – right? Well, maybe. But assuming you want people from all over the metro Atlanta area to find your restaurant online, maybe not. Think for a minute how you search for restaurants … would you put Marietta Greek restaurants or Atlanta Greek restaurants into a search engine? If you put Atlanta Greek restaurants in, and your site doesn’t mention Atlanta anywhere, your restaurant is not going to come up in that search.
Thinking like a potential client will help you determine what key words they might use to look for products or services like yours. Once you’ve come up with a list of potential key words, you need to take a look at your site and see if those words are included on your site. If not, it’s time to update your content … which is another way to improve your search engine ranking. You can also do this by frequently adding news items or a blog to your site, as well as increasing your digital footprint by starting a Facebook page or Twitter or LinkedIn account.
Seeking links to your site from other sites can be time consuming, but also very helpful in improving traffic to your site. Look for opportunities to add reciprocal links to your site from trade associations, chambers of commerce, vendors or other sites such as Digg, Facebook and other social media sites.
Wootton Marketing Associates, LLC can help you define appropriate key words; update your content and identify linking opportunities. Contact me today to learn more!
Wootton Marketing Associates provides sales and marketing services using traditional and electronic solutions primarily for B2B organizations in Atlanta. Services include public relations, web technologies, social media marketing, lead generation, research and creative services.



