Tag Archives: Lycos Inc.

About 4859 days ago E-Commerce

Why Your Web Site’s Rank Matters

There’s a pervasive myth among Web site marketers that simply submitting your Web site to hundreds or thousands of search engines will increase traffic to your site. That’s not true! Submitting alone does not guarantee that your site will be found in these search engines. When someone queries a search engine for a keyword related to your site’s services, does your page appear in the top 10 matches – or does your competition’s? If you’re not listed within the first two or three pages (the top 10 to 30 search matches) of results, you lose, no matter how many engines you submitted your site to. Studies demonstrate that most search engine users have neither the patience nor the time to wait for more than three pages of search matches to load. If your site isn’t found in the top 10 to 30 matches when someone performs a keyword query in the major search engines, your Web site might as well be a billboard in the woods. Nobody will find it, nobody will come. There are two barriers to solving this problem. First, you have to know the techniques that will move you into a top 10 position. Once you learn how to achieve a top 10 search position, you have to monitor your progress because rankings take time to rise and can fall without warning. Monitoring rankings manually is too time consuming. Fortunately, this critical step can be performed effortlessly with rank measurement tools now available. A top 10 ranking in a major search engine such as Yahoo!, Lycos, or AltaVista often will generate more targeted traffic than an expensive banner advertising campaign. Plus, a good search engine position is free – anyone can do it. Consider this: Virtually everyone begins browsing the Web at one of these 10 major search engines: 1. AltaVista.com 2. AOL 3. Excite.com 4. Go.com (the search engine formerly known as Infoseek) 5. GoTo.com 6. HotBot.com 7. Lycos.com 8. MSN.com 9. WebCrawler.com 10. Yahoo.com Your rank within these search engines determines how many people will find and visit your Web site. Major search engines attract more visitors than any other Web sites. Search engines are among the most visited Web sites, according to MediaMetrix.com and other audit bureau services. Other forms of online advertising, such as banner ads, are expensive. Just a few good positions under a few important keywords can deliver the same or better results – for free! Bulk submitting is a bit like being in the phone book. It doesn’t ensure even one phone call – you need a good listing and a large display ad in the yellow pages. In search engines, the higher you rank under important keywords, the more traffic you’ll get. Search engines generate more traffic to Web sites than almost any other source. This was demonstrated by the 10th WWW User Survey conducted by the Georgia Institute of Technology (paraphrased): The ways in which people discover Web sites: 1. Links from other Web pages 88% 2. Via search engines 85% 3. From friends 65%

About 4859 days ago E-Commerce

Building a Web Site Is Easy: The Word from the Experts

Myth 1: Building a Web site is easy REALITY CHECK: Oh, yeah? Try putting a traditional business on-line Anderson: The details in technology can clearly shut you down. We’re seeing that in our distance-learning efforts here at Babson. You’d think it would be very simple to prepare course materials that you’ve been using electronically for years and send them out via the Web. You quickly find out that customers have all different types of machines out there. Cramer: A lot of the technology out there doesn’t work well. Nobody admits it, because no one wants to tarnish the gloss that’s on the Web. Technology problems almost demolished us a dozen times. The first Internet service provider that we worked with was really bad. It was as if it was under contract with my personal enemies or with women whom I’d crossed before I got married. With the second, it was like these people were put on earth to destroy my business. Hazard: The real key to success is in improving the Web site over time. It’s really about having a feel for usage patterns — where people are spending time, where they’re getting stuck — and incorporating it into the design capabilities to allow you to go from generation one to five in a year. Johnson: It’s easy to build a bad Web site, harder to build a good one. The greater difficulties are in making a site easy for customers to use and in minimizing the number of clicks. The best example is Amazon’s one-click purchasing. It’s a pleasure to use after buying on a site that takes four, five, or six clicks to make a purchase. Peabody: At Tripod we struggled enormously, but that was because there was no off-the-shelf technology at the time. Today there’s so much more to buy. Of course, if you have a 30-year-old company with a special database, I wouldn’t be able to begin to tell you what to do. I’m sure there’s a lot of integrating that goes on. THE TRUTHMONGERS To help us deconstruct the myths of the Web, we turned to expert observers of the Internet phenomenon. Their comments can be found after each of the case studies we presented. Here are their credentials: Martin Anderson , management professor at Babson College, in Wellesley, Mass., advises executives who are transforming their traditional companies into “click and mortar” businesses. James J. Cramer is the brash cofounder of and columnist at TheStreet.com. He has built successful careers as both a journalist/pundit and a hedge-fund manager. Kathleen Eisenhardt is a professor specializing in competitive strategy at Stanford’s School of Engineering. She recently coauthored Competing on the Edge: Strategy as Structured Chaos. Chip Hazard is a general partner and E-commerce specialist at the venture powerhouse Greylock, in Boston. He helped launch the e-Steel exchange. Tod Johnson , chairman and CEO of Media Metrix Inc., based in New York City, is a widely recognized expert on brand loyalty. Ted Leonsis is president of AOL Interactive Properties Group. In his first three years at America Online (starting in 1994), it grew from about $100 million in revenues to $1.5 billion. Kelly Mooney is director of intelligence at Resource Marketing Inc., a technology-marketing firm in Columbus, Ohio. She has helped companies such as Victoria’s Secret develop their on-line strategies. Allen Morgan is a general partner at Mayfield Fund, in Menlo Park, Calif. He has been involved in more than 350 venture-capital investments and public offerings. Bo Peabody is a cofounder of Tripod Inc. and vice-president of network strategy at Lycos Inc. When he was still in college, Peabody founded Tripod, which helps people build their own home pages. In 1998 he sold the company to Lycos. Scott Randall is founder and CEO of Internet-auction hosting service FairMarket Inc. Randall has been involved in E-commerce since 1995, when he launched an on-line store. He has been president of the Internet Shopping Network and Yahoo Marketplace. David Rich is vice-president of marketing and brand guru at Bigstep.com, which provides on-line services to small businesses. He previously orchestrated brand campaigns for Walt Disney, Pepsi, and Jamba Juice. THE 7 MYTHS OF THE WEB ECONOMY Myth 1: Building a Web site is easy The word from the experts Myth 2: Traffic will make you rich The word from the experts Myth 3: Smart money makes you smart The word from the experts Myth 4: Razzle-dazzle makes Web sites great The word from the experts Myth 5: Brand is everything The word from the experts Myth 6: Wild ads make Web stars The word from the experts Myth 7: Community, community, community The word from the experts Plus: Tales my guru told me Dispatches from the Web economy Back to Intro, “I Was Seduced by the Web Economy”