#1 Rankings: Myths & Legends
So here we are at day one. Your site is all completed, the files are all in place, it is now live for all the world to see. Let's use for an example that you have just launched a website promoting your book store on Mainstreet in Smithsville, population 6,549. For giggles, you type "books for sale" into your favorite search engine and see where your site is. Hmm, not on the first page...Not on the second page...Surely, it must be right after all these links for Amazon and Borders!
Well, guess what, your site may be thousands of pages down in that search query result. So let's say your book store is called "Mathia's Used Books". Now let's query "used books for sale". Perhaps you are now slightly higher, but still thousands of pages away from that #1 ranking!
We'll try the query "Mathia's books used smithsville". Well hey! There you are on the first page of Google! That's great. Now if only everyone who needed a book typed in the query "Mathia's books used smithsville" you'd be on your way to selling more books than you could ever imagine!
The myths
The sad truth is, like anything else, in order for your website to be noticed it takes many hours of spreading the word and/or many dollars of advertising. The good news is, there are a lot of things you can do for free right from your home to promote your website! Social networks provide a great way to implement a viral marketing strategy for free. Take advantage of these sites because they contain a network of people that could eventually land on your page by process of association.
The Legends
So how did those giant website hero's get so popular? Let's set aside the obvious reasons of advertising or getting media coverage and ponder something. People come to a website FOR A REASON. It is your duty to promote that reason. Ever wonder why so many people go to a site like amazon.com for books? These websites make it easy on the user to track books, save books, preview books, read reviews on books, etc. Are you getting the idea?
Supply YOUR internet users audience with what THEY need, keep the content updated and growing and the users will be back!
Lastly, keep in mind not every website needs to achieve a first page ranking. A website can serve as your extended business card of services you offer. A website can have answers to all those frequently asked questions instead of you answering them all day long. Any way you look at it, if you have a message, you need a website!