It’s important to know that these days your customers aren’t just surfing the web anymore…they’re searching the web.
Search engines enable your customers to search for your business’ products or services online by typing in keywords and relying on the search engines to find the best/relevant matches. So as a business owner, you definitely want your website to be easily found by your potential customers. But what if your site isn’t even being indexed? Over the next couple of weeks, we will be posting a five part blog series so you can learn the 10 most common internet marketing mistakes that might be standing between your business’ website and the top positions in search engines like Google and Yahoo! So here are the first two to watch out for…
10. Hosting Issues – Your server might be too slow! Some experts have estimated that there are as many as 4 billion live sites out there, so search engines don’t have that much time to spend trying to index all of them. So if your website’s host server has a small Internet connection, the search engines will often time out – so your site might not get indexed at all. To avoid this, limit the size of your home page to less than 60kb or you can simply switch hosting companies to someone who is more reliable.
9. Hosting Issues – You could be using a free Web space provider If you host your business’ website with a free hosting provider, you might want to change this. Some search engines will only list a certain number of pages from a single domain, so if you’re sharing that domain with thousands of other people, there is no guarantee that your site will get indexed. And, there are even some search engines who will disregard free hosted pages altogether because of the amount of spam sites they receive from these domains. Also, as a business owner, your business’ URL should instill confidence and trust in your potential customers. Make sure it’s easy to type and remember – and, typically, free domains are not. For instance, www.genericsites_forbusiness.com/canada/yourbookstore/home.html does not look professional, regardless of whether it’s been indexed by the search engines or not. It’s worth paying for hosting to get a URL that positively reflects your business and is seen by search engines. Coming soon: The next 2 common mistakes that will result in low search engine rankings.
Learn more about the different Internet technologies and website platforms you can use to build your business’ online credibility.
