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Building a Web Presence : TIP #2 - Driving Traffic to your Site

By far the best (and most cost effective) way to drive traffic to your site is through search engines. The top 8 search engines (Google, Alta Vista, MSN, Yahoo, Lycos, Netscape, Looksmart, AlltheWeb) account for 90% of all new web traffic. You may have heard that there are over 7,000 search engines in existence. This is true - but the remaining search engines only account for another 2% of new web traffic. The other 8% is from sponsored links and direct requests.

You should focus you efforts on getting ranked by the top 8. The only hard part is getting your site noticed by the search engines.

You see, 7 or 8 years ago when the web was in its infancy - there were only about 1 million websites in existence world wide. The only criteria for having a top ten ranking in the category of 'horse racing' was that you had to be one of the 10 sites in existence about horse racing. Even if your site was about golf - but you had a passing reference to horse racing on one page - you would probably still get a top ten ranking.

Today there are well over 9 billion documented websites in existence. (Don't ask me how its possible for there to be more websites in the world than people.) As a result search engineering has become a true science. Programmers at Google and Lycos work very hard to make sure that when somebody types in a search for 'Bowler Hats' that they are given quality links to information filled pages on the subject they requested.(rather than a site dedicated to professional bowlers wearing hats).

Any attempts to over saturate your website with keywords aimed at attracting attention from a search engine - will in fact be perceived as deception and will instead get you blackballed from search engine rankings. Search engine placement has become a very long, careful and professional process. Companies that advertise submission to all 7,000 search engines with instant results are lying. True - they will submit your site to 7,000 search engines - but more often that not your site is ignored unless you take special care in making them search engine friendly. Even then it takes 3 to 4 months to get any type of listing.

Sounds too complicated doesn't it? In fact it's simple - and very worthwhile. Once you have a solid search engine presence - you have a permanent sales rep, on the world wide web, working 24 hours a day to put you in contact with people looking for your specific service.

The best rule of thumb to follow - is to create informative, high quality pages with ample text - and multiple references to your desired keyword or phrase (but not too many). Keep your pages fresh by editing on a reglar basis because search engines favour new content over old content.

Search engine preferences constantly change so they can continue to deliver the most informative, high quality content to users. The Web Department at Digitalprint.net has professional software and expertise to constantly follow these ever changing trends. Optimizing your site for a high search engine ranking is one of the most valuable investments you can make. Feel free to contact Digitalprint.net about various services we offer for turning your web site into a search engine magnet. We'd be happy to set up a free consultation.

Direct your questions to:
markb@digitalprint.net