THE SINGLE GREATEST FREE MARKETING METHOD
by: Cary Christian

It seems like every day a new free marketing method is born. There are free classified ads, viral classified ads, FFA postings, surf for hits programs, start page programs, exit popup programs, banner networks, safelists, and new variations of each being born continuously.

If you've been with me for awhile, you know what I think of most of these free marketing methods: they're useless for making sales and SOME of them can be used but only for specific tasks like signing up new subscribers or giving away viral marketing materials. I believe very strongly in the basics. They work.

Did you know that 94 percent of US Internet users use search engines to find what they're looking for? And of those 94 percent, 81 percent of them always find what it is they're looking for when they use a search engine? Those are powerful statistics. No other free advertising method can boast such numbers. Yet so many businesses ignore them altogether. Why?

Many people feel that search engine optimization is way over their head. They ask why they should attempt to compete in a field where it is so difficult to achieve a high ranking? And as soon as you have your site optimized, the search engines change their algorithms and you have to start all over again. And then, the major engines are no longer free. So why bother?

Let's address these issues one by one.


THE DIFFICULTY OF SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)

SEO is only difficult because people believe too much of what they read. They read about using doorway pages, cloaking, hidden keywords, link farming, and other tricks and techniques of the trade and believe they can never learn enough about these subjects to keep up. The bottom line is that it is doesn't have to be that difficult.

Your focus should always be on your web pages. Take each page one by one. Decide what you want to accomplish with that page. Write the content for that page without considering the search engines at all.

Once you're satisfied with the content, use what you've written to determine what your keywords for that page should be. Use your content to determine the title and description. Then set your meta tags accordingly.

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Note:

You can refer to our Small Business Articles for simple, straightforward guidance on creating your meta tags. Take a look at our Small Business Articles page to find the article or you can download my free book which contains a chapter on the subject. It's simple and easy. To look through the articles, go here:

http://www.peakconsultinginc.com/business_articles.htm

Look under the "Web Site Issues" category and you'll find several helpful articles.

To download the free book, go here:

http://www.peakconsultinginc.com/bg2m.htm

End Note
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What you've done is create a page with quality content where the keywords and title match that content in an appropriate manner. The search engines want little more than that. Forget the tricks. They'll just get you banned and will do you little good since your competitors will likely be using them, too.


THE MAJOR SEARCH ENGINES ARE NO LONGER FREE

This is true, and the day might come when none of them are free. But you can submit to some very good ones for free right now, and there is no reason I can think of that you shouldn't.

First of all, you can submit to the Open Directory Project (ODP) if you have a site with enough useful, original content. If you get in, your listing will appear on literally thousands of other search engines that use ODP results, including some rather large engines. (There is an article on this also on our Small Business Articles page).

Second, submit your sites to these three major engines free:

Google - http://www.google.com/addurl.html

AltaVista - http://addurl.altavista.com/addurl/new

AllTheWeb - http://www.alltheweb.com/add_url.php

Third, if you can't submit to the Open Directory because your site does not have enough original content, you can browse through the links of search engines served by the Open Directory and submit to many of them individually if you care to. You can find links to those sites here (the URL is so long it will wrap, so you'll have to copy and paste it into your browser):

Sites Using Open Directory Project


WHY DO YOU WANT TO DO THIS?

As I stated earlier, there is no better, more targeted free advertising than what you will get with decent listings in the search engines. Once you're listed, your listing will benefit you for years to come. The search engine spiders and robots will visit your site regularly and add to your listings as you add content . . . without any additional effort on your part. You simply cannot afford to ignore this.

Once you've followed the directions above and in the articles I've mentioned, you'll see how easy it was to prepare and submit your site. In fact it is so much easier than the hoops you have to jump through to participate in most other free marketing programs. You'll wonder why you didn't do it a long time ago!



Copyright (c) 2003