One of the biggest misconceptions about the internet is the idea that in launching a new website, the world will suddenly flock to it. That is just not the case. Like any brick and mortar business, a website must be marketed. Website marketing is essential to make a website visible in the search engines and driving traffic to the website. There are several methods of website marketing, the first being SEO.

SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and is the foundation of website marketing. SEO begins with building a search engine friendly website. Each search engine publishes webmaster information explaining what will earn a website better ranking. Every search engine has different requirements and the SEO goal is to satisfy as many requirements as possible for the top search engines which are Bing, Google and Yahoo.

Build a Search Engine Friendly Website

Things to consider are load time. How long does it take the browser to load the website pages? This is important because pages that are too heavy with bells and whistles like auto run video, flash, music files, excessive graphics or action scripts can cause the site to time out and never be displayed. Statistically, the average website viewer has a three-second attention span. That means the website has three seconds to interest, entice and possibly make a sale to a viewer. If a website takes too long to load in a browser the new viewer will be lost to another website that doesn't time out. Overuse of technology will cost in traffic, search engine ranking and a failed website business.

Keywords

The proper use of keywords in content and meta tags is crucial in creating a user friendly website. Keywords epitomize the subject of the website. If the website sells blue enameled steel cookware, the keywords are blue, enameled, steel, cookware, and should be used often in the text and content of the website.

Meta Tags

Meta tags, which are not visible on the website, contain the list of keywords that are pertinent to the subject of the website. In this case, the meta tag would list blue, enameled, steel and cookware. The purpose of a meta tag is to enable the search engine to find the website. When a viewer types a subject into the search engine window and clicks, the search engine’s technology crawls websites for those search words. Again, in this case, the viewer is looking for "blue enameled steel cookware." The search engine technology looks at the meta tags of websites and lists in a browser the search results of websites whose meta tags listed blue, enameled, steel and cookware. Without meta tags this website would not have been included in those search results.

Link Exchanging

A fundamental of website marking defies traditional marketing logic. In the real world of marketing, a company would never market itself by promoting competitors. In website marketing, promoting competitors is essential. Search engines dictate the rules of internet and website marketing. These search engines determined that ranking will be increased by networking with other similar websites and exchanging links. Google took this idea a step further and gave better ranking to websites with incoming links, meaning site B linked to site A but site A linked to site C. This linking process, at best, is a juggling act. Most websites will only agree to link exchanges between site A and site B. Google finally abandoned this idea.

Content

The final component of website marketing is well-written content that is keyword rich. One of the best ways to get good ranking is any search engine is to constantly refresh the content of the website. This works well to improve ranking and it has the added benefit of giving regular website viewers a reason to keep coming back.

Website marketing is involved, complicated and absolutely necessary for a successful online business. The methods of website marketing are constantly changing and it is important to keep up with the changes. What worked last month is obsolete this month.