Visibility Test #1

Go to each of these search engines (Google, Ask, Yahoo, Bing, and Netscape) and search using your company or website name. You should find it listed high in the organic search results on all of the major search engines. If your company website doesn’t show up within the first few listings in the organic search results you have a major problem.

Visibility Test #2

The second test is to search using the same five search engines, but search using phrase(s) that relate to the products or services that you sell. As an example, if you own a landscaping service in Boston, search using phrases like “Landscaping Services Boston” or Boston Landscaping Services”. What was the result of your search using your keyword/phrases? Did your company website show up within first 10-20 organic search results for those or other keyword/phrases that relate to your products or services? If it didn’t than for all intents and purposes your website is INVISIBLE.

Summary

If you show up high in the search results when using your company or website name, that great! But this will only help you if potential customers know the name of your business or website. But what about all of the other potential customers that don’t know you, how will they find you on the search engines?

Potential customers will use keyword/phrases to find your business. This means that anyone who is searching for your products or services using keyword/phrases like “Landscaping Services Boston” or Boston Landscaping Services” as an example, may not be able to find your web site. “No visibility on the search engines means no sales.”

Make You Website Visible!

The first step to make your website visible is to submit your website to all of the major search engines and directories. Start with the five search engines listed above and also include any other popular search engines that you know. Also, submit your website to DMOZ (www.dmoz.org) the leading search directory. This is very important since many search engines use DMOZ’s listings to find new websites for their database. To get a quick start on getting your site listed on search engines, place a link to your website on a business associates’ website that is already listed on the major search engines. This will speed the process of getting the search engines to find your website. This is very important for new websites.

The second step is writing good content. Content is king in regards to getting your most important website pages ranked high in the search engine results. Search engines do not use colors, graphics, photos, videos, or banners on your website when they rank pages. Search engines want to see good content specifically related to the theme or topic of a page.

What is the optimal amount of content to get a web page to rank high on search engines? There is no perfect answer for this question, as each search engine has their own formula for ranking web pages. But be sure of two things: if your website is not listed on the search engines you won’t be found, and if you don’t have good content, only the people that know the name of your company or website address will be able to find you.

If you still can’t obtain high search engine rankings for the keyword/phrases related to your business that potential customers would used to search the search engines, what should you do? You should seek the help of an Internet Marketing company that has professional experience in creating web pages with powerful content that will get ranked high in the search engine’s rankings.