Let the Search Engines Know You are Open for Business
I compare submitting your site to the search engines as to a brick and mortar store having a business sign on their doors and being listed in the phone directory. If you are not visible to the customer, who will find you? Fill Your Niche
Prepare your site for customers and the search engines. First of all, make sure that as you customize your site, your site always stays professional looking. Think to yourself, "Would I put my credit card information into this web site?" If you wouldn't, most likely neither would anyone else.
Secondly, I think it helped me to find my own niche market. Here is an idea... your bookstore is a ministry, right? So, how about finding a topic you are naturally interested in. Do you carry books on that subject in your store? Do you have any expertise or thoughts which you would like to share with your readers (create original content). Would like to share any additional reference sites on the subject? Digital Point and Word Tracker are a couple of tools to help you decide what keywords you would like to target. Be sure the keyword niche you choose is worth it! Start with Digital Point. Here you will find if people are even searching for the topic you are thinking of. Digital Point may even give you some additional keyword ideas. Followup by using Word Tracker. Word Tracker is a tool which will give you some insight as to how many other websites you will be competing against for your chosen keyword phrases. When using Word Tracker, make sure that the keyword phrases you choose have a high kei analysis (step 4 in the Word Tracker process). A high kei analysis means a high search to low competion ratio. I look for phrases that come back with kei analysis numbers close to or higher than 100. If your kei analysis comes back too low, you may want to consider narrowing down your keyword niche or choosing another niche which has less competition. Digital Point - Gives an idea of how many people are searching particular keyword phrases.
Word Tracker - Follow the steps. Step 4 will offer you an idea of not only how may people are searching a particular keyword phrase but also how many site's you'll be competing against. Look for phrases with a high "kei" analysis. Important note
Keep in mind. Usually, single keywords have a higher competition than multiple word keyword phrases. Also, multiple keyword phrases tend to bring higher sales conversion results. Let me explain... When someone is surfing the web they tend to search simple words or phrases. Say they type in "gifts". It's pretty generic, right? This person has just started their search or is just surfing to see what is out there. As they continue to surf, they may begin to refine their search to say, "father's day gifts." Some chess sets may show up in the results and now they have direction. They begin to search "chess sets." They may stumble across some nice Civil War chess sets so now they limit their search to find the best deal on, "Civil War chess sets." Tadah! They end up at www.TheChessShop.com (Sorry :), couldn't resist. A quick pitch for the first website I ever created. It's the site that I did most of my learning from.) So, don't worry too much about highly competitive single word or simple keyword phases. Find your niche, let's say "children's books" and stick to it. This is a time when diversification is not the best rule.
Salt and Pepper Your Site
Here is what you want to do with the results... Let's say there are 2 web sites; One says "Johnny went to the store to buy some apples." The other says in various places... "green apples", "red apples", "pippin apples", "fuji apples"... which site is more relevant to a search on apples? The site targeting "apples," of course. Now, what do you do with this information? Use the information to discover which key phases to target, then salt and pepper your site (and meta tags) with those key phrases. Please notice I say "salt and pepper." Don't over do it. Too much spoils the dish. Use your keywords freely, but don't over do it. Let your keywords flow naturally. Here is a tip to remember... Don't put the same keyword next to itself. In other words don't end one sentence, then, begin the next sentence with the same word. This is also to be avoided when doing your meta tags. (example: "We have many books. Books for children,..."What are Meta Tags?
Meta tags tell the search engines what your site is about. They are really rather easy to do, so don't let your store's back office meta tag warning scare you off. It says that it is for "Advanced Users Only" and asks if you are sure that you want to proceed. Click, "Yes." If you played with your meta tags and think you really messed things up, just hit, "Reset to Default." Now, here is what you do. Take your strongest or main keyword phrase and use it first. You may even want to put it in your "title" tag. I use my store name and some keywords in my "title" tag. Opinions vary on how long your tag should be. Some say the "title" should be no more than 60 characters, some say no more than 75 or 80 characters. I have even heard that up to 90 characters may be okay. By the way, character count includes spaces and punctuation. Others count in numbers of words rather than characters. As for the "description" tag, opinions vary between 150 and 180 characters. "Keyword" tag opinions vary between 220 and 250 characters. Here is a behind the scenes hint. Your site has 2 meta tags labeled "title." Rename them both. One of the "title" tags adjusts what displays at the way top of your browser (the blue bar at the top of your monitor). All sites come stock with "Spread the Word" in your "title" tag. If you change it, it will read your store name or the keywords you have selected. It is usually also this "title" tag which web searchers will see in their search engine results. Your "title" tag usually becomes the search engine's title description of your site. The "description" tag often becomes the search engine's description of your site.
How to Submit Your Site to the Search Engines
Do a search and find places to submit your site. Remember, there are a lot of competing sites submitting to the search engines. Don't let that discourage you. That is why you are choosing a niche market. It takes time to get into the search engines, so do it now. Of Yahoo and Google, I have found Yahoo is the easier of the two to get listed with. Frankly, Google seems to change what they look for in websites more often and therefore can be more difficult to get into and/or maintain ranking, but you definitely want to submit your site to Google anyway. That way, if your friend or family member accidently puts your web site address in the "search bar" instead to the "address bar," your site will still show up. Here are a few links. Happy submitting!
Submit Your Site to Google
Submit Your Site to MSN
Submit Your Site to Alta Vista
Submit Your Site to the Yahoo Directory
Submit Your Site to Christian Search Engines
1200 Search Engines and Directories Don't Miss This Additional Info Page - Click Here
Exchange Links
Exchange links with other sites which are relevant to your niche. Avoid exchanging links with just anyone as this may actually hurt your search results. Your want your link exchange partners to be relevant to your niche keywords in some way. It tells the search engines that you are important to your niche and relevant enough to link to. Blog It
You may want to do a blog. What is a "blog"? It's a web log. Kind of like a journal. Blogging is free! Provide info while sprinkling in a more personal touch. This can be a great way to build traffic to your store. Click here to check out our blog. Forums
Whenever posting on a forum, be sure to include a signature with your website address in it! It's a great way to get yet another link to your store on the web.
What is a .Com
Now, you may be thinking that your bookstore name is a little long with ".spreadtheword." in the middle of the address. If that's the case, you can do what is called a redirect. It requires registering a domain name from an outside company. It will cost about $8.95 per year. It is nice to use the shorter web site address on your business cards. Let me give you an example of how a redirect works. My daughter's site is www.ChristianFamilyBookstore.spreadtheword.com. She has chosen to optimize her site for music. Instead of putting on her cards the full www.ChristianFamilyBookstore.spreadtheword.com address, she puts on her cards www.cfbmusic.com. It takes them straight to the her site.
To register a domain name
1.) go to www.KingsDomains.com
2.) Do a search for the name you want
3.) Scroll down and click "Continue"
4.) Register for a new account
How to redirect the domain name to your STW site
1.) Just log into your KingsDomains.com account
2.) Click on "Manage Account"
3.) Check the small box to the left of your domain name
4.) Click on "Forwarding"
5.) Type in your store address into the forwarding address box (please do not click "mask," you do not want to mask your site) and click "Save"
:-) You're done!
Start sharing your business right away...
Domain Names and Business Cards
When ordering business cards you may want a shorter web site address to put on your cards. KingsDomains.com can help. For $8.95 per year plus a .25 ICCAN fee, you can have a .COM domain name of your own. In other words, instead of having MyBookstore.spreadtheword.com, you could purchase the name MyBookstore.com (if still available). Then, you may want to visit Vista Print. They offer a beautiful collection of full color business cards. Business Card Tip - Name your title or position as "Web Site Consultant". This allows you the ease of announcing your store as well as the business opportunity. Every large business has departments, right? You are in the ministry of setting-up web sites, right? What better title? It seems to go over well for me. It gives me an open door to explain the business opportunity while giving them my business card. Okay, so are you ready to get started optimizing your store? What? You still need to signup? You'll want to do that now. It's quick and easy. No experience is necessary. Let us help you. Get started today!
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Christian Family Bookstores, All rights reserved.
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