Does your website exist just for the purpose of existing? Or is it a well honed marketing and business tool? An online presence is an integral part of generating new business, and although most companies now have websites, they are not always generating the quantity of traffic needed to grow the business.

Increasing your site profile is the way to start. Getting on page one of Google can be as simple as signing up your existing website for a business optimisation service, or as complex as having a dedicated web marketing expert give your website a complete overhaul. For many businesses in this economic climate it comes down to what can you afford and when can you afford it. There are a few approaches to consider:

HANDS-OFF
Directories such as CityLocal.ie and MyTown.ie give your business a platform on page one of Google without having to optimise your existing website. This basic optimisation works by creating a profile for your business within the directory that is picked up by Google in your area of the country. By doing a keyword analysis and selecting actual keywords that work for your business, the directory ensures your most effective words show up in every search. The process is performed for hundreds of businesses throughout Ireland, giving the businesses economies of scale and providing every business with a page-one presence in a cost effective manner.

PAY-OFF
Purchasing Google Adwords is the only way to guarantee a page-one presence for specific search terms (keywords). Google Adwords, otherwise known as sponsored links, appear at the top of and/or down the right-hand side of the Google page to ensure your website and services appear exactly where you want them. It is still a good idea to have a comprehensive website for potential customers and clients to click through to; getting them to your site is only half the battle – selling your service is the final hurdle.

TAKE-OFF
If your business is growing and expanding then you may consider a complete site overhaul. Good Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) will successfully build and re-structure your website so that it appears on all major search engines. Hiring a web marketing expert to look at the site from an optimisation perspective and re-do the site structure and content accordingly can be highly effective. It can be time consuming and therefore costly, but the benefits of exposure can outweigh the cost. The following are points to consider when optimising your site:

1. Domain name – If the website name includes a product or service it will increase the search engine ranking of the website, e.g. www.joebloggsplumbing.ie.
2. Site structure – Home page and top-line menu pages are given more authority by Google so ensure these contain strong references to your key products and services.
3. Page structure/content -

• Keywords – It is important to have effective keywords throughout your site.
• image vs. text – Google searches from the top left-hand
• side down so place text at the top of the page.
• Alt tags – This allows every image to have a keyword (phrase is visible when the cursor hovers over the image).
• headings/bullets – Google gives priority to headings and bullet points that contain keywords.
• Site maps – A site map makes it easy for a search engine to index your site.
• meta tags – Meta elements provide information about a given Web page, most often to help search engines categorise them correctly.
• Title – Words to the left take precedence to those on the right.
• description – The brief two-line description that Google displays when searched (needs to contain your keywords).
• Internal links using keywords – Create hyperlinks around important keywords within the site.
• backlinks – Each website is given an overall ranking by Google of between 1 (poor) and 10. When another website contains a link to your website this is called a backlink.

Successful businesses need a mixture of all of the above. Increasing your online profile for a short time is beneficial but the best course of action for every business is to build an online profile that will last. Optimisation isn’t a once-off job: it’s a continual process. As you improve, so will your competitors; therefore, it pays to set your sights high from day one.