Category: Email Signatures

Perhaps one of the most important methods to promote your web site is including some advertising in each and every email you send and all newsgroup postings that you make. DO NOT spam the newsgroups by sending useless messages. Instead, make useful postings which include your signature. People will be interested enough to visit your site as long as you appear to be an intelligent, knowledgeable person. This is generally done by defining an email signature in your email client. It's pretty simple to cause Outlook 2000, for example, to send a couple of additional lines for each and every email that you send. It's equally simple to do the same thing with Outlook Express. Your email signature might read: Visit my web site at https://www.seoogle.info/ Anything which helps to promote your site or service is fine (excluding profanity and the like). You should keep the signature to just a few lines - no more than 6. Also, it's a good idea not to include any pictures and to stick with straight text (not HTML). This way everyone can see your ad, which is the whole point. One additional word of caution about email (and newsgroup) signatures: some words will trigger spam filters. This can be especially annoying on newsgroup postings. I had a 900 number in my signature which caused an automated spam checker for newsgroups to send my posts straight to my ISP! The postings were on topic and definitely not spam, but they were treated as such. Naturally, this could also cause good email spam filters to also block your emails. Before you create your email signature, it's a good idea to sit down for a minute and determine what your objective is.
  • If you want to advertise your web site, it's a good idea to include a small ad and a hyperlink.
  • If you are a salesperson, it may be wise to include your phone number and extension.
  • Some people like to include a favorite quote.
Some cautions include:
  • Do not include your pay-to-surf, moneymaking or affiliate links in your email signature. Not only is it considered tacky, but these things can trigger spam filters and get your emails automatically deleted. It's better to include these items on your website and put a link to that site in your email signature.
  • Do not include profanity or harsh language.
  • 900 numbers can also trigger spam filters.
Be sure to use standard formatting in the signature.
  • Avoid any special fonts or colors
  • Do not include graphics
  • Do not use HTML
  • Keep the width to 65 characters or less
  • Do not exceed 6 lines

Search Engines Vs Usability

Sometimes people seem to make a choice between making their site pretty for search engines or making it useful for people. I am always fascinated when I hear this discussion. In fact, it is interesting to hear someone say "I'm removing my Webring because Google will get annoyed" or "I'm deleting my links page because god, uh, Google, won't like it", or "search engines don't use meta tags, so I took them all out". These comments all ignore the basic datum about the internet. It's about PEOPLE! The internet is not about some silly, stupid little robots, or some faceless idiotic rules enforced by their creators. The internet is about communication.

Yes, search engines are a part of that communication, as it is one (and only ONE) want of getting people to your site. But there are an infinite number of other ways to get people to your site, from viral marketing to Webrings to link exchanges to contests to newsgroups to whatever else you can think of.

But if your site does not cater to PEOPLE, it will fail. Period.

Yes, it's a good idea to make sure your site is known to the engines and known well. But that is NOT the purpose of the site. The purpose of the site is to communicate. Pure and simple.

Google's customers are advertisers; the searchers are the commodity that's being sold to the advertisers. The search engine is the bait used to get the commodity to view the advertisements. SEO types tend to reduce the value of the bait, which in turn lowers the value of the commodity, which in turn makes the advertisers (the customers) more likely to look elsewhere.