If you want to truly understand the good, the bad and the ugly of search engines, I strongly recommend you read this. Keywords for a website need to be specific to the site or page on the site, relevant, applicable and clearly associated with the content on your page.
Direct Navigation Traffic
There are ONLY three ways to reach a website:
Many people bypass search engines altogether and still find what they're looking for online. These Internet surfers are using direct navigation. In direct navigation, users type exactly what they are looking for in the browser's web address field. This could be the exact domain name or web address. Millions of people do this, emphasizing the need for on- and off-line marketing and branding. As much as 8-14 percent of Internet traffic comes from direct navigation. Direct navigation traffic is by far the most highly targeted form of web traffic available. If your firm is lucky enough to own the proper domain name for its industry, not only will you get this highly targeted "type-in" traffic, but you will keep you competitors from obtaining those leads as well.
When you choose your domain name, remember this quote from the former CEO of McDonald's: "We are in the real estate business. The only reason we sell hamburgers is because they are the greatest producer of revenue from which our tenants can pay us rent."
Real estate is a great road to wealth. "Domain names and Websites are Internet Real Estate."
Entering a generic web address often directs the browser to a page populated with relevant ads that generate commissions for the site owner when visitors click on them. Many times these ads provide the relevant content the searcher is looking for.
Several organizations have estimated that traffic to unused, generic domain name sites, also known as "parked domains," drives 10 percent of the Pay-Per-Click market. Conversion rates from click to purchase for direct navigation are almost double those for search engines.
The best thing you can do to bring traffic to your website is to control as many natural, direct-navigation, typed-in domain names as possible, provided they are related to your niche market or industry. Traffic generated in this way comes directly to you and will never be dependent on the ever-changing search engines.
Making Money With Direct Navigation
Here are three ideas that'll help you quickly generate dollars using direct navigation:
1. Redirect ALL of your generic domain names to your primary domain name website. Barnes & Noble does this with books.com.
2. Use a generic domain name site as a vertical portal that redirects to your company's products or to your main site. Johnson & Johnson does this with Baby.com.
3. Create a new "brand" with a generic domain name. Generic names should do well (until corporate America figures out the value of these assets and starts to buy them up).
Investing in a direct navigation generic domain name can yield a good if not great return on your investment. It will depend on the quality of the domain name, how you market and promote it, how you attract traffic and how you convert the traffic into actual clicks and sales. Generate enough traffic and sales,and you build equity. In the Get Rich Click world, cashing in on this equity will increase your income significantly.
The purchase of a highly targeted, marketable, generic domain name can deliver more high-quality, targeted visitors at a lower cost than Pay-Per-Click advertising.
Marc Ostrofsky is a "New York Times" bestselling author of "Get Rich Click" and owns 300+ websites including CuffLinks.com, Blinds.com and eTickets.com. He's been seen on ABC's "The View," the "Today Show," and 20/20, as well as in the "Wall Street Journal," "New York Times" and "USA Today." His sale of the URL "Business.com" landed in the "Guinness Book of World Records." He can be reached at www.GetRichClick.com, where you can also read more of his business insights and review his schedule of speaking engagements.