Be patient with the search engines
I know the excitement that comes with putting a new webpage up and thinking that, because you are indexed by a few search engines, you are going to see a ton of traffic every morning as you check your site statistics. But as anybody who as experienced this short-lived euphoria knows, seldom, if ever, will you see an unwelcome increase in site traffic within the first few weeks of building a new page. In fact, I know people who will get a page up, wait months for a spider, and even then never realize any real traffic on their site.
Here is the key, which is more important than advice from any SEO “expert”:
Write good content.
Fill your page with rich content that conveys a true knowledge of what you are writing about. Submit your URL to every search engine and just keep writing content. Reciprocal links can help your rankings, but they do not guarantee the coveted Page Rank. Your best best for increasing page ranking is to write rich content - eventually, others will link to your site and your ranking will increase. It is an amazingly simple concept, but you will be amazed at how few people have just learned to be patient.
Google is watching you…
Google announced Personalized Search on Tuesday, meaning it can track an individual user’s search activity and serve up more relevant information as you search. Here is what they have to say about it:
With the launch of Personalized Search, you can use that search history you’ve been building to get better results. You probably won’t notice much difference at first, but as your search history grows, your personalized results will gradually improve. -Google
Only time will tell if this will be a good innovation from a marketer’s perspective or not - for example, it may take longer for consumers to find your company if it is not something that are often searching for. I will keep my eye on Personalized Search and update you on marketing trends.
Paris Hilton retires…from what?
So I am driving in the car a few days ago and an entertainment news story comes on saying that Paris Hilton, 24, has announced her retirement. Later that day, after I got home from work, my wife and I are talking about the news story (apparently she read about Paris’s retirement on the internet).
Apparently, after a long and illustrious career involving internet pornography scandals and a reality-show where the heiress staged her utter lack of understanding about the world in general, she has decided to step into retirement to enjoy a quiet life with an heir that is much wealthier than her…. hmmmmm…..
Instead of calling her next stage of life “retirement,” maybe she should go with “being an obscenely wealthy, slightly less-obnoxious person,” but hey, that’s just me talking.
My little spot on the internet…
Hello there - my name is Preston Wily and I consider myself to be an up-and-coming internet marketer. I am the director of marketing for a small, but successful, internet retailer, Sewell Direct.
Here is a quick background: I grew up in Richmond, VA and graduated high school in 1997. After that, I served a full-time mission for my church in California for two years. After my mission, I moved to Utah to finish up my BS in Economics at Brigham Young University. After a few odd jobs and an internship in California, I ended up working as a marketing assistant for a small company near BYU in 2002. Since that time, I have been learning more about the profession and other aspects of running a small business. The purpose of my blog is to share some of the things I learn along the way with friends, associates and anybody else who might be reading this blog.
In February, 2005 I was married to the best woman in the world (and, incidentally, became the “father” to her pet rabbit, Honey Bunny). I am learning that the transition from single life to married life is not as tough as I had always thought it would be and I can’t even stand the thought of being single again. I can’t speak for everyone, but at least that is the way that I feel…