We have heard many people say that they are disappointed in what their site delivers. They expected their site to perform better by adding to their quote requests or finance applications or sales of accessories, parts or apparel. But, that those things just aren’t happening and they wonder why.

We tend to ask right away “how is your search engine positioning?”  Many can’t answer and many simply become glum when they admit that unless they do a direct search for their site, that they are not anywhere near the top for their products and services. All would like to do better as they realize that unless people can find their site near the top, that they simply will not attract any visitors that are not already aware f their web presence.

So how can they get nearer the top to attract new customers?  Through web site optimization and search engine marketing or by paying search engines a fee to list their site in the pay per click category that appears on all of the major search engines.  Search engine optimization and marketing requires a plan of action that includes providing search engines with content to recognize what your site is about.  It’s not enough to simply list products for sale, you must also have content that supports keyword phrases and enough of it so that your site is more relevant than the competition.  Remember that in the powersports or motorsports industry, that all of your competitors have the same product line available.  If you sell motorcycles, so does your competitor and you each have the same models posted on your site with the same information regarding that model.  This becomes especially true if you use a company like PSN as your website solutions provider. Your search competitors also include enthusiast sites that cater to people that are interested in your type of product.  Although most of these sites do not offer anything for direct sale, they are filled with word content about the products you offer.  That can become extreme competition very quickly.

The next question that comes to mind is one of how can you get around the sameness or beat out sites that cater to the subject matter of what you want to sell.

The answer is pretty simple but requires a real good effort adding content or a lot of money.  You need to have content that is relevant on your site to achieve generic search positioning or be prepared to spend generously on pay per click campaigns that are only good at keeping you near the top as long as you are paying.  Even if you are creating content for your site, you need to answer some questions: Does it meet the guidelines that the search engines have secretly established for ranking purposes?  Do you have any idea of what those criteria might be?

Although we do not claim to know the exact procedures that search engines use, we have enough experience in website promotion and optimization techniques that will generally allow us to gain top exposure.  A little additional note here is that no one can assure top search placement unless they are using keyword terms that have zero competition.  Here’s an example: http://www.google.com/search?q=xnztpfddqur&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGGL,GGGL:2006-42,GGGL:en. Use this a primary search term and you’re virtually assured of top placement, but who would actually use these words to find you?  Keep some thoughts of skepticism in mind when you receive unsolicited offers from companies that promise that they can get your site to the top.

Your keywords phrases must be well thought out.  They must be relevant to your site.  They should not be so generalized that you are facing search competition with millions of other results, especially if they are not directly related to your business.   Powersports dealers for example should probably not spend the money to try and get first page “organic” search results for the term “Motorcycles” or even the term “Honda Motorcycles” depending on your budget. However, “Honda Motorcycles North Carolina” should be in your budget if your Powersports dealership is in North Carolina.

Unless you are prepared to study and learn search optimization methods and put in a lot of effort, some of it producing no results, it will probably be best for you to hire a professional that is well versed in creating content for your site that will help to work your site into some top positions over time.  For most people that are busy trying to run their businesses, this makes the most sense since you will not generally be able to learn quickly enough the things to do to please a search engine, plus the time that it takes to create this type of content may be better spent by you in working to effectively manage your business.