The exact search engine marketing definition is usually stated as, "to help major search engine such as Google and Yahoo naturally find a website among the millions their automatic systems review every day." Search engine marketing involves a mix of keyword selection, search engine optimization (SEO) writing, useful links, and many more tactics. Many internet marketers make some common mistakes in their search engine marketing program.
Splash Pages with Animation Hurt Search Engine Optimization Efforts
Fancy splash pages with moving images, movies and pretty graphics may look appealing, but they hurt a search engine marketing program. If the place to enter the website is embedded in the Flash object, automatic web searching programs called spiders cannot find your website. In addition to this, many users hate splash pages with animation, finding them distracting and hard to use. Some computers cannot run the specific scripts and when the first thing a user sees is an error message, they often leave.
Too Many Images and Not Enough Text
Many retailers and others selling image-based products have websites that are heavy on the pretty pictures and light on copy. While at first blush this seems like a good thing, spiders – those automated programs that comb through websites seeking relevant content in response to user queries – cannot recognize pictures. They only look at text. Find relevant keywords for search engine marketing and use them properly on all internet marketing projects.
Long Web Page Titles and Meaningless URLS Hurt Marketing Plans
Titles that exceed 65 characters get cut off on search engine results, making people less likely to click on them. Same goes for long, cumbersome URLS. Some website packages and blogs automatically assign a URL to your post. That's fine if they're friendly URLS with nice keyword-rich titles, but not so great if they just pack numbers and random letters into the URL. Check URLs and make them friendly for search engines by including relevant keywords whenever possible.
Poorly Chosen and Improperly Used Keywords Make SEO Difficult
One of the biggest mistakes internet marketing managers and those new to search engine marketing make is improper use of keywords. Many people stuff their websites full of keywords in the hopes of tricking the search engine spiders into picking up their sites. Keywords must be used judiciously, about 8-12 times per every thousand words for a one or two keyword phrase and less than that for longer phrases. They must also be used in context. If this is not done, the site can be branded a spam or trickery. Research and use keywords appropriately in well written copy.
While there's a lot to learn about search engine marketing, there are many free resources and articles online from some top name search engine marketing experts and search engine marketing firms help newcomers understand this important topic. Improve your online marketing efforts and increase sales with a little work every day on a website.
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