If you're planning to operate a successful Web hosting business that goes beyond attracting clients by word of mouth, you're going to need an effective search engine marketing strategy. Search engines remain the number one way to attract visitors to your Web site, and you'll need to corral their power in order to turn a solid profit.

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There are four essential components to conducting an effective search engine marketing campaign, though not all of them are available to companies on a tight budget. These are free listings, keyword bidding, premier sponsorship campaigns and paid inclusion. By using all four in an effective manner, you'll be well on your way to making your Web hosting business stand out above the rest.

Free Listings

Free listings are obtained by submitting your site to search engines that will include you in their indexes free of charge. This is a fairly effective way to get noticed with little effort, and can lead to a great deal of traffic with minimal work.

Make sure to tune up your Web site before you submit it, keeping in mind that search engines are becoming increasingly focused on Web site copy and less on HTML data. Also, search engines are smarter than you think; spam-heavy META tag data and no comprehensive site text will only set you back in your efforts to get your site noticed.

Once your site is ready to be submitted, be sure to visit all of the major search engines and directories that accept free submissions. These include but are not limited to:

Submitting your site to major search engines and directories will take less than an hour, and is a must for anyone truly serious about success. Don't use "autosubmitters", however - always submit manually. Patience is also key, as once you've submitted your site, it will likely take a month or two get listed. If you haven't been indexed after six weeks of waiting, submit your site again.

Keyword Bidding

Keyword bidding allows Web site owners to put a price on terms people search for in major search engines and directories. While not the most effective search technique for users, it helps search engines and directories to make a profit - and it drives targeted traffic to your Web site. What's more, you only pay for what you get. Therefore, you don't waste dollars on costly impressions that don't convert.

As pay per click search engines become more popular, bidding among Web sites is becoming more competitive. As a result, the key to success when bidding on keywords is to choose inexpensive and unpopular, but still effective words. This will drive large amounts of traffic to your site for a reasonable price.

Once you've identified a suitable set of keywords, you'll be able to apply them to other popular pay per click search engines, but at an even cheaper rate.

It's also important to keep in mind that hosting-related keywords are particularly difficult to purchase at a reasonable rate these days. The term "dedicated server", for example, costs anywhere from nine to twenty dollars at any given time at Overture. So before you start, put a price on your clicks - how much one visitor to your site is worth to you - and don't deviate from that maximum bid price wherever possible.

Premier Campaigns

Premier search engine campaigns are typically only for companies able to operate with a sizable marketing budget. These campaigns allow you to display ads on some of the Internet's biggest search portals, via banners, text links and buttons, alongside search results.

Before you can purchase a significant campaign with a major search portal, however, most will require a minimum purchase ranging from $750 to $3000. The majority of these sites work on a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) basis, meaning you pay a flat rate for every 1,000 times your ad is displayed to site visitors. Still, always ask if a CPC (cost per click) rate is available, in order to keep your options open.

Even if you don't think you have the budget for a premier campaign, remember that it never hurts to inquire. Most search destinations periodically offer discounted campaigns in order to lure new advertisers in.

Like keyword bidding, it is important to pick your spots carefully when initiating a major marketing campaign with a search engine. Generic keywords like "Web host" tend to perform poorly, as search engines receive an incredible number of queries containing generic terms like this each day. Try to incorporate targeted, more specific keywords in to your campaign whenever possible.

There is a Catch-22 to this, though: most search engines require you to purchase a minimum number of impressions in order to start a campaign. While this may not seem like a big deal, many of the impressions you will be offered will likely reside in more popular, mainstream searches. Targeted, more obscure words, which tend to perform much better, are not readily available as impression inventory, because they get fewer searches. Most search engines will include them with your campaign free of charge should you ask for them.

Most hosting companies appear to take one of two approaches to managing their premier sponsorship campaigns. Companies that choose the "hands off" approach tend to purchase large quantities of impressions, submit their ads, and then leave the campaign alone until it is time to renew it. While not the most effective route, it works for companies with larger budgets and higher priorities than micro-managing advertising campaigns, and it still leads to traffic (those with big budgets typically can't lose when buying in bulk).

With a "hands on" approach, however, a little attention can go a long way. Remember that when you purchase a major marketing campaign on a popular search engine or portal, the representative assigned to you is there to help. Don't be afraid to try new things all the time, be they new text links, ad copy tweaking or using several rotating banners. Even in the ultra-competitive Web hosting industry, there is no reason why an effective marketing campaign cannot generate click through rates well above one percent - in many cases above three. It simply takes a little bit of work, tinkering and intense analysis of your campaign results.

Paid Inclusion

Paid inclusion is the final key to a well-rounded search engine strategy. By paying for inclusion in to search engines and directories, you are essentially buying your way in to the search index. Most search engines will spider your site on a weekly basis once you sign up, which guarantees that your new content will be updated continually.

The most important paid inclusion programs to sign up for are Inktomi, Altavista and Lycos. Inktomi is of particular importance because it powers major portals including MSN.com, iWon, AOL and HotBot.

Each of these paid inclusion programs is relatively inexpensive, and definitely worth the money.

When signing up for a paid inclusion program, make sure you know if you are paying for the inclusion of one URL or your entire site in the search engine's index. Should you be paying by the URL, it is recommended that you only pay for URLs that have not yet been included (you'd be surprised, if your hosting firm has been around for a while, how much of your site may already be indexed). Re-indexing existing links could have a negative effect on your rankings.

Conclusion

By using all four of these search engine techniques, you should be able to drive additional traffic to your Web site while signing up new customers at the same time. Make sure to keep your Web site copy to the point, concise and well written - doing so, in conjunction with these programs, will not only boost your company's exposure, but will set you apart the thousands of other hosting companies already out there.