Before we go into depth about search engines and how they work, there is an important distinction to be made between search engines search sites and search directories. Search engines have a proprietary way of indexing and catagorizing Web pages that they keep confidential. They build an index or directory you search through at a search site. These search sites are AOL.com, Netscape, EarthLink.com, and DogPile.com, to name a few.

Search directories are the third form of Web Page organizationon the Internet. Search directories use information that is provided by Web page owners and do not use indexes. There are a number of directories on the Internet. Examples are dir.yahoo.com, dmoz.org (Open Directory Project), and Aviva.com. Web Page owners submit their URL, listing and description to search directories, organizing the information within sub-directories. These submissions are edited by human editors who may shorten or reject a submission. Search engines sometimes use the data provided by search directories to help improve their search results, but directory listings can also provide valuable links to your Web page that can improve your page’s ranking. They are an important part of your search engine strategy.

Your website is not an effective marketing tool, if you have few lead and low conversion, minimal traffic, or you receive a low amount of requests for service or information.

A powerful and information-rich Website can position you in your market, create visibility, invite prospects to take action and provide measurable results.

When planned and executed correctly, an effective Web marketing campaign can greatly increase one’s Website traffic. For example, if you implement well thought out techniques and tactics - you can realize an increase and rise in traffic, sometimes as large as 30%.

Remember that increasing your Website traffic is not an easy, fast, or guaranteed fix. Although some techniques like search engine or pay-per-click marketing can be implemented fairly quickly.  Other techniques like search engine optimization can take months to produce results. A comprehensive plan and a healthy dose of patience are two key ingredients necessary to Web marketing success.

We welcome Kaye Swain from SandwichINK.com - Information and Encouragement for The Sandwich Generation and Other Multi-Generational Caregivers

How has twitter and blogging helped SandwichINK.com?

SandwichINK.com’s readership has been steadily growing. There are new articles daily. I recently started using Twitter. I tend to be very practical, so the majority of my Tweets are links of interest for the Sandwich Generation and others, plus I do throw in fun items from time to time. I have to admit, there are a lot of fun contests out there.

The majority of my Tweets also go onto my blog, both right away, which is useful if time is a factor, such as a sale, or special coupon, and also as a daily digest, which is handy for saving and searching for the links. This past week, for example, I provided links for: free clipart for holiday crafts, useful information for caregivers and for those dealing with Alzheimer’s Disease, Christmas coloring pages for grandparents, and even technical advice for using smart phones to make our lives as caregivers a bit easier.

I have also learned valuable information from others on Twitter – both from other caregivers, parents, and grandparents, as well as those who are in totally different fields of interest. It’s a great way to meet new people to brainstorm with.

Thank you, Manny, for the interview you with us at Carebuzz. Manny Hernandez is the Founder of TuDiabetes.com. The Diabetes Hands Foundation was started in April 2008 a nonprofit with the goal of having no people with diabetes feel alone and people without diabetes learning more about what it’s like to live with diabetes.  (I met Manny via Twiiter.com) (more…)

When we first started working with home care, home health, hospitals, long term care, reverse mortgage companies several years ago, we were surprised! The first thing that we noticed - most providers of senior care services did not recognize the need to be visible on search engines.

Some providers purchased Googe Adwords which can be helpful. But the most part, they had a website.. and did not market it. I guess the reasoning is “we have a website and that should be enough”. So, is it?

Good questions to ask yourself when asking whether you need more search engine visibility:

1. Do a Google search on “your company” industry keyword term, add your local city, and click the search button. For example, if you are a home care agency, the keyword search would be home care, senior care, elder care, at home care, and then add your local city; home care chicago. Do your competitors show up on first and second pages of Google? If they do and your website is not found in the first 4 or 5 pages, then you (obviously) need more visibilty.

2. Do a little research, on the web, on “users on the web” - this will give you information on the number of people using the Internet.

3. Go to this site https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal - and do a query on your industry and local city, i.e. home care chicago and see how many users are searching on the Internet for that keyword term.

I just did a query using the above tool on the term home care chicago - guess how many people in November 2008 searched that term? 3600!!!

You may not even realize just how many people are looking for you on the web.