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Internet Geography
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Global
Visibility at Minimal Cost
Understanding Hit
Rates |
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Geography, in its broadest
sense, represents the physical characteristics of a place. From a
business perspective, geography is typically thought of as the physical
location, such as a storefront, and the characteristics of its associated
community.
The "concrete geography" of
your business or storefront in the physical community includes your point
of business, as well as all of your (tangible) points of customer contact
- newspaper ads, brochures, bills, business cards, mailers, industry
and/or community directories, and other types of paper-based information.
“Internet geography”,
on the other hand, is more than the physical number of pages of a website.
It is a means of understanding how to benefit from visibility across the
Internet and increase name recognition with little or no cost compared to
concrete geography.
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Global Visibility at Minimal Cost
With name recognition
dependent on message, frequency, and location, effective paper-based
advertising may be costly. Newspaper ads and mailings that appear
regularly incur a significant budgeted cost. However, hosting (rental)
costs of a website associated with this visibility can be as little as ten
dollars a month, even for larger websites.
In the
Internet-based community, advertising frequency and cost are not
necessarily directly related. Name recognition and global visibility can
be increased simply as a result of the structural design of the internet
itself. Increasing visibility in the internet through scheduled and
regular search engine submissions, directory postings, cross-linking,
press releases, and classified ads improves internet geography.
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Understanding Hit Rates
Search engine positioning is
determined by hit-rate. A hit-rate on the internet is the frequency
that a website is "referenced", not necessarily visited. Unlike placing a
newspaper ad or sending out a print mailing campaign, internet users
“surf” to your website at no “distribution cost” to you. You can increase
the potential of their reaching your site through search engine results by
increasing your internet geography. Higher hit rates enable your website
to “rise above” others in search results. Many no-cost methods for
increasing hit rates (and internet geography) are available, including
those used in the concrete community:
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