In our 62nd Annual Survey of Distributor Operations (which will be published this month), nearly one out five respondents say they intend to re-design their Web site in the next year. That's a pretty significant percentage. In addition to redesigning their Web sites, nine percent of distributors say they expect to increase sales via the Internet and three percent intend to buy keywords from Google in order to drive traffic to their sites. It's the first time that buying keywords has been reported in our survey.

Before you even begin to think about re-designing your site, it is critical to develop a proper search-engine marketing approach, says Bob DeStefano, president of SVM E-Business Solutions and an expert on search engine optimization.

DeStefano was the keynote speaker at a search-engine marketing webcast we produced last month. In case you missed it, you can go to our Web site, www.inddist.com, to access the archived version (note that this is a paid webcast). It was pretty obvious from the many questions we received during the webcast that that distributors are taking a serious look at search engine optimization.

DeStefano pointed out that SEM is important because more than 80 percent of Web customers begin by using search engines. Google is, of course, the leading search engine, followed by Yahoo and Microsoft.

One of the most useful hints DeStefano offered is to determine your search-engine marketing goals—for example, do you intend to conduct transactions online? Are you looking to generate leads? Or do you simply want to establish a database? Define who you are trying to reach and determine what they are looking for as they search the Web.

He also advises distributors and manufacturers to take time to identify the best keywords that search engines will pick up; choose keyword phrases that are relevant to your business and searched most often by your target customers. Begin the process by brainstorming with your employees to make sure you are “speaking your customers' language” as you develop your keyword approach.

Here are some other suggestions DeStefano offers for developing the right keywords:

• Create a keyword phrase to the most appropriate page on the site. Ideally, focus on one keyword phrase per page.
• Create keyword-rich copy by using your keyword phrases throughout the entire page.
• Be descriptive.
• Leverage different forms of your keyword phrases.

Taking the time to develop the right search-engine approach will drive traffic to your site and away from the competition.

jkeough@reedbusiness.com