Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello everyone,

Hope to get a bit of advice.  My wife and I have recently acquired a distributorship for a medical alert device.  Many people know this in the generic name as "lifeline".  Nevertheless, our company will distribute a competitors product in the pacific northwest.  Unfortunately, the national affiliate does not supply marketing support other than basic materials.

We will look to direct solicitation with physicians and retirement homes, limited direct mail and ValPak for our limited marketing.  We also would like to drive potential customers/family members to our website.  Here is the rub.  I had a friend set-up a basic site for us (my 3 year old daughter is more proficient in the web/computers than I am).  How do we apply to search engines?  Is there a cost?  How about links to other "retirement" types of sites.  Naturally we are on a budget.

I suppose the question is:  "What did you all do when you first put up your site and how did you go about doing it to get people to the site?"

Thank you for your input.

Elliot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Google Adwords and Yahoo sponsered search work very well. You can limit Google Adwords to a region also, which mitigates the cost. Basically you bid on search terms and only pay if someone clicks on your ad. The higher the bid, the higher the placement of your ad when someone searches your keywords. As far as submitting to search engines, I did it for free, but many companies offer services that do that for you. From a ranking standpoint, Google ranks you partially by how many sites have links to your site, so untill you get some partnerships, you will be pretty low on any actuall searches. I am no expert, but I have had what I would consider a lot of traffic to my site, which has a very narrow focus (Theory of Constraints consulting). Good luck with your venture!

Elliot,

I can`t say I have the largest hit rating at the moment on my site...but I also haven`t been advertising it either. Mine has been a ton of word of mouth. I do know that getting a brochure put together and making sure the web address is on it and providing that to local offices that deal with people who would be interested in this type of equipment is always a great way to drive business...and fairly inexpensive! Drop me a line with your web address...I would be happy to link it to my site as well...which adds some visibility from the people that visit my site! I have linked with quite a few others who are in my area of expertise so that we can share visitors.

Lots of other ideas if you want to drop me a line...I can share how I have been going through it...again...I haven`t been advertising as of yet...but only cuz I am not at that point where I can handle the MASS influx of visitors...but I know how I will when I am ready!

Leah

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Leah Tucker

The best thing we`ve found so far to actually get people to our website is referrals and search engine optimization. We were lacking in the SEO department for a couple of years, and even though the site was designed well and very informational, we still weren`t getting a lot of customers from it. Once we worked hard on the SEO, we started getting more and more calls. 

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Adwords can get expensive and may not generate much business.  SEO is on option but can run you around $30/page and even then site age and other factors are considered in the search process.  Plus this is an ongoing process with SEO as the algorithms change.

Sounds like you are doing some direct marketing, make sure you pick an easy domain name to type in and spell.  Then tie that to your direct marketing campaign.

You need to determine who will access your site, and why they will go there, e.g. order product, for infomation, etc..  Then find out the best way to connect to those users online or more traditional channels and get your site to them.

Here are a few of the tools I use to help me optimize my key words,
phrases and content. They should also have answers to some of your
"how do I..." questions. Holler if you need help!

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
Overture keyword selector tool. This one is
great to help me discover which key words are getting the most
volume, and even discover potential business ideas. A two-for-one
super special. ;)

http://www.submitexpress.com/
Submit Express tag analyzer, link popularity checker, keyword
suggestion tools.

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/web-page-analyser.shtml
Web page analyzer. This is the main tool I use on this site, but check
the menu in the left column, there are many more tools here to help.



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-Zepp

Creative solutions for digital communication; providing web site design and marketing for small businesses.

Zepp:

Thanks for your reply.  Question... I noticed on one of the links an ad for Search Engine Optimization Software.  Does this really work?  Will it save time and have you or do you know of folks who have used this software and found it to be productive.  I believe it was being sold by a Brad Callen.

Thanks again.

Elliot

 

 

 

Christina:

Thank you for your reply.  Zepp referred me to a few different sites where I could get information.  One of the sites had a link where one could purchase Search Engine Optimization Software.  I asked him the same question... does this actually work, save time etc?  Otherwise what is the best way to go about this?  How did you "work hard on SEO?"  What did you do?

Again, thanks for the help.

Elliot 

 

HI Elliot,

I`m not sure about the ads you mention. The only thing I have ever
done (that wasn`t free) is hire a consultant for about $65/hr to help.
The things he
told me to do were definitly things these free tools I mentioned also
help you with... you just have to do the leg work on it.

I would be happy to refer you to my consultant. He`s a one-man
operation, but is very honest and knowlegable. His web site is http:/
/www.searchsummit.com/

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-Zepp

Creative solutions for digital communication; providing web site design and marketing for small businesses.