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(originally published in The
Jerusalem Post, August 2004)
Why You May Not Want High Search Engine Placement
Did that title make you blink? Are you thinking it's a typo?
After all, most of us with brand-new sites tend to obsess
about getting good search engine listings. Entire new industries
-- Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing
-- have arisen to aid in the quest for search engine (SE)
traffic.
However, it doesn't take too long or any extraordinary measures
before SEs automatically list new sites -- provided they
have plenty of keyword-rich content and incoming links --
and the number of visitors increases dramatically. But is
lots and lots of traffic -- generating numerous phone or
email inquiries -- beneficial for all sites? Depending
on the nature of your company, perhaps not. Here are some
factors to consider:
How many leads can you handle?
An online store can easily handle as much traffic as it generates,
automatically. But many service companies, particularly
one- or two-person operations, can only accept a limited
number of new clients per year. If your site attracts too
many active responses, dealing tactfully with all of them
can eat up a lot of valuable time.
Does your site do enough to help pre-qualify
potential clients?
As always, well-written explanatory content is helpful. A
site consisting of a few images, general boilerplate text
and contact info may generate responses from too wide a range
of people. Make it clear to visitors who your target audience
is, for which sort of individual or business partner you
are a good fit.
If you've begun thinking that your business might benefit
from less, but more targeted, traffic, what should you do?
Ironically, discouraging SEs is as challenging as encouraging
them. One method to restrict them is to use an appropriately
written robots.txt file that will block the "robots" SEs
dispatch to find and index sites. Another is to omit meta-tags
for description and keywords from the page code. More difficult,
if not impossible, to control is preventing other sites from
linking to yours.
The most drastic step to curtail traffic would be to password-protect
the entire site, limiting access to a chosen few. This can
be useful when your site exists mainly to support or disseminate
information to an existing base of users, customers, or partners.
But although this effectively blocks SEs, it's probably overkill
for most sites, and could even be viewed as "hostile" by
some.
In my opinion, rather than trying to discourage SEs, let
them do their thing. If your site is generating more contacts
than you can handle, instead of restricting access, adapt
the site to filter out your ideal customers from window shoppers
and tire-kickers. Two easy steps will help:
- Provide more well written content. People
who contact you are often simply looking for more information
than is currently available on your site. So keep expanding
and refining your text to address frequently asked questions.
- Don't be coy. If you're continually
approached by people wanting to work for your company,
and if you're not hiring, say so. Have a link from the
home page to a page called "Jobs" or "Employment" and
politely state the situation. Similarly, if you cannot
presently accept new clients, be frank and state this fact
in a prominent space, either on the home page or news page.
(However, you can also mention when you anticipate that
you will once again be able to do so.)
But -- when appropriate -- let the site help you leave your
door slightly ajar, rather than slammed shut and bolted.
Even if you aren't currently hiring or accepting new clients,
encourage visitors to sign up for your newsletter. That way
when the situation changes, you'll be able to notify good
leads of new opportunities, and in the meantime they won't
have forgotten who you are.
Resources:
Do you have any questions? Contact
me and I'll try to answer them in upcoming articles. Also,
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