|
Withe more and more Jamaican individuals and companies setting up an on-line presence in recent times, it definitely stands to reason that quite a few will be bitten by the desire to get more and more visitors. Search engine marketing is one of the most popular and cost-effective ways to get targeted visitors to a web site. The concept is very simple if the site is for a Jamaican real estate company, and ranks #1 at Google..Com for the search phrase "Jamaican Real Estate", it's definitely a safe assumption that this company will get quite a few useful real estate queries via this ranking.
SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING
The key to search engine marketing is to get your site to rank in the engines for whatever word or phrase you think or know will bring the type of visitors that you seek. It is important, however, to understand that there are no guarantees with regard to search engine rankings, and any individual or company that promises you a specific search engine ranking is probably just doing a bit of a "play on words" in order to get their hands on your wallet.
It's a play on words because although no one can guarantee a specific ranking in any of the more popular traditional engines that use algorithms to produce their rankings (this includes Google, AllTheWeb and Inktomi). They can, however, do certain things to ensure that your site has a good chance of ranking, and they can also pay to have the site featured in text-only ads that appear on a search engine's listing page for a particular search word or phrase. But they can never guarantee where this site will appear in the listings.
What can they do to ensure that the site has a good chance of ranking?
They can suggest certain tweaks to the content, title and meta tags of the site's pages. These three aspects of a site are a major part of the ranking algorithms for most search engines. Most engines also offer a pay for inclusion service which doesn't guarantee where you appear in the listings; all it really guarantees is that your site will be spidered and included in their search engine database a lot faster than normal.
For the traditional engines that use algorithms, while you cannot pay to be specifically positioned in the results for any given search, you can however pay to have a banner or text ad of some sort that could be just about anywhere on the search results page including near the top, along the side or near the bottom. These are called paid/sponsored listings and are usually clearly marked as such. Notably, Overture.Com, Findwhat.Com and Espotting.Com belong to a different class of search engine where you can actually pay to be at the top of their listings. These are called Pay Per Click search engines, and their rankings are determined not by algorithms, but by the amount that a person is willing to bid for certain positions.
Be wise and be wary. As is often said, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, so don't fall for the promise of #1 at Google for some keyword or phrase.
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20030820/business/business6.html |
Articles 
