WEBSITE MARKETING & PROMOTION SEO

ITT CONNECT is fast becoming the preferred Internet Service Provider ( ISP ) for the travel and tourism industry in Southern Africa because we are delivering the goods!

Here's where it gets interesting, and where the Travel and Tourism clients really do notice a marked difference in service and delivery. Especially the [ Host & Promote ] package where we not only host the website but also promote the website as well.

Every single person that owns a website wants it to perform, so here are some "no nonsense" general tips that will assist you in getting your website seen. Have a read through these tips - they definitely work! If it's too much or too confusing to digest, drop us a line and we'll gladly assist.

Website Content should be your #1 priority!
Your quest for high placement on search engines must start with a good website. It is important to have a lot of text describing what you do. Use your keywords in the content, but don't repeat them over and over. Many search engines rate sites based on 'keyword density'. This is usually a formula that looks at META Keywords, words in your TITLE, words in paragraph text, words in links to other pages, and even words in the 'ALT' text on your images. They will even look at different forms of your keywords. For example, if an important keyword for you is 'FISH', the word 'FISHING' in the body of your document will raise the confidence in the word 'FISH' on some engines.

Links to Other Pages
We can't emphasize enough the importance of links. Both from your page to other pages, and from other pages to yours.

First consider links on your pages. When many search engines see them, they consider your site more 'real'. It also gives the search engine spiders a place to go. Make your links meaningful. Make sure they relate to what you do (and keywords that are important to you). You can't have too many links on your pages.

Links from other websites
Some search engines place a very heavy rating of importance on how many other websites have links to your website. Think of it for a second. If you knew that a company was only linked to by one website, versus a company that was linked to by fifty websites, which one would you consider more important? If you were a search engine, you would surely try to link the more important ones first.

This is where patience comes in again. It can take some time to get a ton of links to your website. iTT CONNECT helps quite a bit here, however. The fact that iTT CONNECT submits to so many sites will help you get a great head start in this area!

Don't use frames
Most search engines simply cannot index a frames page. They get to your site and can't go anywhere. Consider frames like a big 'GO AWAY' sign. iTT CONNECT can assist in "un-framing" your entry page or your entire website.

Keep the most important content near the top of your pages.
Some engines will place a higher rating of importance based on where they find the text in your page. Closer to the top is usually better.

Don't stuff the top of your pages with data the engines can't read.
As with the last example, something higher up in your page can be more important that something further down. Therefore, HTML formatting, images, scripts, etc. toward the top of your page can result in lower ratings.

Don't go Image Crazy
We have all seen pages that are almost all images. Usually they are the most beautiful sites. After all, your artist can make beautiful screens that display your content in the most eye-pleasing way. However, the search engines don't have eyes. They don't see the beautifully formatted text in your image. All they see is 'yourimage.jpg', and 'yourimage.jpg' doesn't go far in terms of content and relevancy.

Patience is a virtue
We understand how difficult it can be to sit and wait, but it can take many months before you achieve desired results. Remember that you are competing with hundreds of millions of other websites on the search engines, and patience will prevail!

One of the worst things you can do is over-submit your website. Left alone, iTT CONNECT will keep you from doing this. Remember that when you over-submit, you run the risk of being banned from search engines.

Look at the competition
Consider everything you have read so far and have a look at the people that have the top 20 positions with the keywords that are important to you. Look at what they are doing and what they are not doing.

Don't try to fool the engines
This is probably the biggest trap people fall into. People come up with ways to 'fool' search engines, and they work for a little while... sometimes. But then the search engines catch on and write routines that penalize sites that use this practice. Examples of this include, but are not limited to: repeating keywords over and over; using invisible text (white text on white background); using very small text to jam the keywords in a small area.

Here's how we promote your website in the Host & Promote web hosting package
	Optimization of the home page for search engine submissions
	Managed Links to over 100 related travel web sites
	Managed Links from the same 100 related travel web sites
	Website design advice for SEO
	plus all the standard hosting features details viewed here

If you want to receive more information on the Host & Promote web package, just contact us and we will assist you to tailor a package to your needs.