Different Medium, Same Stuff

The biggest thing on people's minds right now regarding the web is Search Engine Optimization, or "How do I get my site to the top of Google, Yahoo, etc.?" To be perfectly honest, I'm still constantly learning about this process myself, even after 12 years in the business.

There's a paper out there that will tell you how search engines work. It's a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo about the algorithms, but if you read between the lines, you'll find that a lot of what will move you up - notice I didn't say necessarily to the very tippy top! - in the search engines includes: well-written, organized content that contains and highlights your keywords (wouldn't you do this with a brochure?), good descriptions in your metatags, and link popularity -- networking with other sites so they will link to yours. I'll be talking about these more in future blogs.

But really, much of SEO and web site marketing is based on good old fashioned marketing tactics that have been around since the dawn of time. The good news that you don't need a degree from M.I.T. to market your web site! Many of my clients link their sites from wherever they can - My Space, LinkedIn, or they create blogs like this. They're the ones that have inspired me to get off my fat butt and do this blog.

The bad news is that like anything else in your business, you do need to invest effort and possibly other resources into your marketing your site. OK, that's not necessarily bad news. This is stuff you already know -- you just need to be reminded :-)