There are many ways to attract visitors to your site, but only one that’s free: Organic search listings. Organic search results are not like paid search results, whereby you pay Google® or another search engine to display your ad on the search results pages for a particular keyword.

Rather, organic search results are based (among other things) on the content of your site and how closely that content seems to match the searcher’s keywords. Because they’re not paid for, consumers tend to trust organic search results, viewing these listings first before reading paid ads.

Getting listed the old-fashioned way

Most search engines display 10 organic listings per page (in addition to their paid listings), and few people will look beyond the second or third page. Obviously, you’ll want your site to appear as close to the top of the list as possible. Ideally, you’re site should make it into the top 30.

Much of the real search action happens behind the scenes, where search engine “spiders” continuously “crawl” the Internet. Unless you submit your site directly to the search engines, it can take months for the spiders to find your site on their own. But once they do, they scan its contents and catalog your URL for future reference (i.e.: the next time a searcher types in a keyword that matches your content).

Create custom Web pages

Because your storefront features the same content as all other Wild West resellers, it has built-in codes that prevent search engine spiders from crawling it. If spiders were allowed to index Wild West sites, the search engines would notice the content is identical and then punish all resellers by excluding them entirely from search results.

So to get your reseller store included in search listings, you’ll need to create some new Web pages with the point-and-click Web site builder included free with your account. Or if you prefer to create your own page layouts, you may use the Deluxe hosting account that came free with your reseller account instead.

By creating Web pages with original text and images and linking them to your storefront, you can get your reseller site noticed by search engine spiders. And on the Internet, getting noticed is everything.

Start with content

If you haven’t already done so, now would be a perfect time to align your store with a niche market.

Let’s say you have professional experience with the law or childcare or nursing. Brand your reseller business as “the lawyer’s eResource” (or childcare professional’s or nurse’s, etc). Then create five Web pages that show how a lawyer/childcare provider/nurse can use your products to make their lives easier, more rewarding or more lucrative.

Here are some S.E.O. tips to keep in mind as you write text and choose images for your custom Web pages:

• Keywords. Find out the top five keywords for your reseller store and work them into the text – as well as into the title tags, alt tags and meta tags – on each custom page.
• Links. Include links on each custom Web page to other pages in your site (including your reseller store). WebSite Tonight makes this very easy.
• Site map. A site map enables search engines to quickly index your Web pages by putting links to every page in one spot.

Once you’ve created your pages, you’ll need to link them to your reseller store. The new pages will “wrap around” your turnkey storefront to give it a unique personality.

WebSite Tonight makes it really easy to link your new page to any product page in your reseller site – just write a call-to-action such as “SHOP NOW,” then highlight it and click the insert link icon in the Page Designer toolbox (it’s the little globe with the chain link). Insert the html string displayed in the browser bar of the page you’d like the page to link to and you’re done.

Watch your search listings improve

Once you’ve published your newly customized store, monitor the search listings for your main keywords. Update your sites and resubmit your site map and then benchmark again. How are you doing?

Be patient. There are billions of Web sites on the Internet and it takes time for the search engines to catch up with changes you’ve made. Your SEO efforts will pay off.

One note: Search engines like sites that are often updated with changing content. Make it your goal to add new, relevant, keyword-rich content to your site on an ongoing basis. Then sit back and watch your traffic (and sales) increase.

SEO RESOURCES
> “SEO How-to,” Reseller Roundup Chat Archives: June 10, 2009 (downloadable pdf)
> “Customizing Your Storefront,” Reseller Roundup Chat Archives: August 12, 2009 (downloadable pdf)
> “Keyword Density for SEO,” Reseller Roundup Blog
> “Building a Custom Landing Page,” Reseller Roundup Blog