In Search of...My Credit Union
by Mary Ann Koelzer
Finding information on the Internet is as easy as typing a few words in a little box labeled “search” – or is it? With literally billions of pages of information on the Internet, it is often difficult to find precisely what you are looking for – and more important – difficult for your potential members to find you. Studies show that 50 to 70% of people use search engines to find new sites, but as many as 90% of web sites may have architecture problems that would keep them from being listed properly in search engines. Many companies are now adding “search engine promotion” as a valuable marketing tool.
What is “search engine promotion?” It is the overall process of improving how a site interacts with search engines, so that a target audience can find the site. A typical Internet user will look at only the first two to three pages of results given by a search engine, so a search engine that is aware of a site’s existence simply is not enough. It is critical to get the site noticed by the search engine and ranked in the top few results for the keywords that are important to your organization.
If your site is not currently found in a search engine for a particular keyword, it is almost certain that your site will need some redesign in order to boost your ranking. In some cases, a certain area of the site can be redesigned; in others the entire site may need to be redone. To understand why this additional work may be necessary, it is helpful to know how search engines index sites and what is considered important.
To determine the ranking of web sites in relation to a keyword, a search engine uses a complex set of rules, called an algorithm. The algorithm may vary slightly from search engine to search engine; however, all major search engines follow the same general rules. Frequency of keywords is one of the main rules in a ranking algorithm. The search engines assume that words used more often are more relevant to the content of the site. Location of those keywords is another important factor. Search engines expect that the most relevant words will be mentioned right from the beginning. In addition, there are several other factors that search engines may consider to determine where a site should be ranked for a particular key word, including page titles and headings, overall page content, images, and hyperlinks.
Selection of the keywords for your site is crucial to the process of search engine promotion. When thinking about which keywords to target, it is important to have specific objectives in mind. Are you hoping to gain visibility and easy access to your current members; is your goal to reach anyone who falls in your field of membership; or do you want to reach anyone looking for any type of financial instrument? Maybe it is a combination of several things. The better you have defined your goals, the better your keyword selection will be. From this keyword list you can tailor your site to maximize your exposure on any search engine.
Another way to increase your exposure is to pay for a listing for a particular keyword. This can be an effective way to get listed, but can be costly, depending on the popularity of the keyword you choose. The companies that provide the paid listings have strict guidelines for which keywords you may buy – they must tie in relevantly to your site. Again, some site redesign may be necessary to increase the relevancy of the keywords you wish to target.
If you’d like help optimizing your site for certain keywords, call CU Village.com at (800) 262-6285, and ask to speak with a CU Village business consultant.
