After reading this article on allbusiness.com, I felt inclined to post here. The steps they outline here are noteworthy and worth taking heed to. Although, there are still a few steps that I am missing in
my marketing but I definitely plan to implement in the near future. Especially the e-newsletter and pay-per-click-advertising in which I think will make a significant difference in unique traffic.
10 Key Steps to Sucessfully Marketing Your Business Online
1. Optimize Your Site’s Copy for Search Engines–Search engine optimization has become an industry unto itself in the past few years. The idea is to write your website’s copy in such a way that your site will appear high on the results pages of the major search engines (like Google and Bing) when users perform specific keyword searches.
2. Use Pay-Per-Click Advertising–Pay-per-click is often lumped with SEO as a website traffic-building tool, but they’re actually very different. With PPC, you purchase specific keywords and keyword phrases from a search engine on a pay-per-click basis.
3. Publish an E-Newsletter–Electronic newsletters are one of the best ways to drive qualified traffic to your website. When done correctly, they enable you to reach customers and prospects on a consistent basis and direct them to your website for more detailed information about your company, products, and services.
4. Write a Blog–Blogging is another way to drive qualified traffic to your website and boost your site’s ranking in the search engines. Blogs can be used to add more keyword phrase pages to your website, since the search engines view blog posts the same way they do other web pages.
5. Use Link Exchanges–Another factor search engine analytics consider in determining search result rankings is the number of links coming into and out of your website, known as inbound and outbound links. This makes link building a potentially effective tool for driving traffic to your website.
6. Participate in Social Media–While many social media platforms started off primarily for personal online socializing, businesses quickly got into the act and started using social media to drive traffic to their websites.
7. Promote Your Website Offline, Too–One of the most common and easily correctable mistakes businesses make when it comes to marketing their websites is not promoting their sites in their offline marketing materials.
8. Make Sure Your Site Looks and Reads Professionally–The preponderance of sites on the Internet makes it vital that your site be professional in how it looks and reads. Amateur-looking and poorly written websites stand out, but for all the wrong reasons.
9. Make Sure Your Site Loads Quickly and Easily–Another common website mistake many businesses make is building fancy, whiz-bang sites that have lots of bells and whistles but take a long time to load for most users. Research shows that the typical Internet user will wait no longer than two to four seconds for a website to load before giving up and moving on to another site.
10. Generate Positive Customer Reviews–Shoppers are relying more than ever on the reviews posted at sites like Kudzu and Yelp when deciding which companies to do business with. These sites allow customers to instantly post both praise and criticism of the products or service they received from virtually any business.
Source: http://www.allbusiness.com/business-online-marketing/16672669-2.html#ixzz1mYg10DEn
Category : Blog &Marketing &Newsletter &search engine optimization &Search Engine Ranking &SEO &Web Design
Thanks for visiting and I hope to see you back next week for our Monday Marketing Series.
- The Benefits of Link Building
What are the benefit of link building? Below are five instances that we hope you can benefit:
- Links Build Credence With The Search Engines: If the search engine see links to your site from reputable web sites also called authority sites, the credence of your site increases. You see, each link to your site from these authority sites is like a “co-sign” for your site from the search engine point of view. After receiving enough “co-signs”, the more important or reputable your site becomes. This in turn increase your ranking and is referred to as link popularity.
- Link Building Increases Search Engine Rankings: Let’s face it, the web wouldn’t be called the web if there were no connection. Networking is what make the web so powerful. It’s the links that connect your site to other sites that either offer merchandise or information related to your business, which in turn connect your website to the world. When a gradual and consistent link building campaign service is provided to your site, this increases your ranking in the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). The whole point of increasing your search engine ranking is to increase traffic to your site.
- Link Building Increases PageRank: What is page PageRank? PageRank is a numeric value from 1 to 10, that represents how important a page is on the web. Google and other search engines measure the importance of your web site as it relates to other sites. So in simple terms, if you are not connected to other sites, then you are not a viable source to the web. This makes sense on the web and in business, I think. When you connect links to your site with high PageRank, this passes to your site and gives your site credibility, making it a resourceful measure to the web.
- The More Links The More Traffic: Other benefits of link building services is naturally occurring referring traffic also called “organic traffic” from these sites that are linked to yours. The more quality sites you are linked to, the more quality traffic that you will receive for your business website. Link building can be the one thing that keep you ahead of the competition.
- Links With Good Anchor Text: What is anchor text? The anchor text, link label or link text is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. For example: Link Building Services. The more hints from various sources, the better your site does in the search engine. Simply put, links give you better and faster search engine indexing.
Linking from trusted sources to your site can get your pages indexed more quickly. Google and other search engines crawl trusted web sites frequently and follow the links that are on those sites. Let’s make sure that you are there on those trusted sites.
Category : Blog &Marketing &Marketing Mondays &search engine optimization &Search Engine Ranking &SEO &Websites
WordPress is definitely one of the most robust and flexible content management systems available today. WordPress can be used as a basic blog site that looks very similar to those that are on the net today or it can be customized to your specific look and feel. The most effective characteristic of WordPress is that it is Search Engine Optimization friendly. Here are 5 reason why WordPress is one of the best content management systems for SEO and blogging:
- SEO Friendly Permalinks– Permalinks are links or URLs that are linked to your articles. For example, when you generate a post or article in WordPress, a URL is immediately created. In essence, this means that every time you create a blog post, you are creating webpage. The more pages in turn creates more pages listed in the search engine and in turn creates more traffic to your website, which leads to more visitors and customers. It also allows search engines crawlers to rank your site for the word of your choice.
- SEO Compatible Article Titles– WordPress can be setup automatically to make article titles a permalink. Using keywords in your titles will make it simpler for you to achieve greater rankings in Google. One of the most important strategy for writing article titles is to write them the way people will search for them. Making your articles rich in keywords. Placing your keywords at the front of the title will make a huge difference.
- Allows You to Create Tags– Tags are found at the end of an article of any WordPress site. Tags or key words will let the search engines web spiders better index your blog post. When a visitor clicks on a tag within the cloud, they are brought to an archival page of related post excerpts rather than having to wade through months of post archives to find what they’re looking for.
- Lets You Cross Link Content– Adding cross-linking between your posts, pages and other websites can be a great tool for increasing Google ranking and web traffic. Cross-linking is an essential element for effective SEO.
- Effortless Install of Google Sitemaps: Google Sitemaps has two important advantages for site owners. Not only can it help site visitors see a outline of exactly what they can find on your web site, but it helps Google to further index and rank your website by letting Google know exactly which blog pages are the most important.
Category : Blog &Marketing &search engine optimization &Search Engine Ranking &SEO
For those of you who are beginners, the first question you mights want to consider is, what is SEO? According to the dictionary definition, SEO refers to “The process of maximizing the number of visitors to a Web site by ensuring that the site remains high on the list of results returned by a search engine”.
How to get your website indexed by search engines?
In other words, SEO is just a fancy word for bunch of things that can make a website more or less important in a Search Engine’s (such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc) eyes and as a web master, you want your website to be the most important.
However, the first step in SEO requires you to actually get your website indexed or submitted into the search engines; because you can’t have rankings in something you are not a part of and that is what this article is going to be about.
Category : Advertising &Blog &Business &Networking &Newsletter &search engine optimization &Search Engine Ranking &SEO
Submitting Your Website to Search Engines
Before submitting your website to search engines, make sure that your web site has been optimized for indexing. (If you would like to see an article on optimizing, place in the comment section below.) Submitting your website to the search can be a very simple process.
Don’t be fooled by the many services that promise to submit your site to hundreds or even thousands of search engines or guarantee placement with different search engines. These services do not necessary mean that your site will be successful; to be honest, it’s possible that your money can be spent in better ways. On the other hand, if you don’t have time to submit your site, this may be a good option for your company. Just make sure you use a reputable company.
Take preventive measures before you write the check or let someone charge your card. Companies have been charge with spamming. And once your website/domain has been labeled for spamming, this can cause your site to be blocked or banned from the search engines. This is a not a title you want, trust me!
Although there are said to be close to 4000 search engines out there, the top four or five — Google, Yahoo, Bing, and AOL — are responsible for the majority of the traffic. So, this is the obvious place to start.
In order to submit your site to Google, go here and enter your site’s URL. Search Engine such as Google has powerful spider engine that will crawl your entire website, this way you need to submit your website only once. Submitting multiple times does not get you in any faster nor does it get you listed any higher.
Yahoo submission process is simple also, visit their submission page and enter your information. Keep in mind there is no guarantee that your site will be listed after you have submitted your link. It is up to their discretion.
Click here to submit your site to Bing. AOL’s search is powered by Google, so submission to Google will be inclusive to AOL searches.
As I allude to above there are thousands of engine out there, and you are welcome to drill down to second-tier engines such as Ask, Lycos, and Excite. But, truth be told, the most effective are the major four listed above.
With the popularity of Social Networking such as FaceBook, and Twitter, and too many others to name, it is wise to get your website as much exposure as you possibly can. This can also help with search engine ranking; you see the more sites that your site is on, the higher possible ranking you will achieve in the four major search engines.
Category : Advertising &Blog &Marketing &search engine optimization &Search Engine Ranking &Web Design &Websites
Google has been indexing PDF files – a stalwart of the myriad content forms accessible on the web – since 2001, and by our very rough estimate there are over 500 million PDFs currently indexed by the search engine.
There remains quite a bit of confusion surrounding the use of PDFs in the relation to ranking on search engines, but Google has showed a quick glance at its cards, clearing up at least some confusion today in a post about the format in search results. If you’re responsible for website promotion and driving traffic to its pages, pay close attention:
Category : Advertising &Blog &Marketing &search engine optimization &Search Engine Ranking &SEO &Websites
You may have superb website designed with using latest featured technology but if it fails to trap online users who are looking for your products and services and drive traffic to your website is useless. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services are a must for placing your website that creates visibility it needs to bring your business to the attention of potential online customers. Search engine optimization is becoming very important factor for online business nowadays.
If you cannot afford to have a SEO team, find out outsourcing SEO firms. It will cost you lesser than hiring a team for SEO. Search Engine Optimization holds a great importance in present scenario. Professional SEO team handles services like Website Analysis, Keyword/Key phrase Research, content or website optimization, link building strategies, PPC Advertising if needed, regularly generating reports, developing the website search engine friendly, content editing to meet the SEO standards like keyword density, prominence and proximity.
Keywords with maximum popularity/traffic less competition, well written content along with eye catching design are some of the techniques that will make your site available easily for the search engine spiders. Apart from this you need to develop content in your website.
Content is the vital element. Your website listing depends upon the content and its keywords which means you will need to make sure your website focuses on these keywords properly in the content and that the content is relevant and useful to the reader if they have searched for these terms. An efficient internet marketer expert creates content according to the W3C standards.
Only internet marketing professional can give you enhanced brand image, greater popularity and reputations, profits, exposures and lots more. Online profits and growth of the business depends upon the importance of Search Engine Optimization support backing up your business transactions. If you desire to grow business online you have no other way except implementing SEO services. Search engine Optimization team keeps track of daily results, traffic analysis, sales conversions and ensure that SEO strategies should be carried out effectively. Ecommerce companies help you to achieve rankings on major search engines by strictly implementing SEO tactics. If they found that your website is not according to the standards of search engines they will edit and modify web design and widen the website.
Category : Blog
Put in the easiest mode workable, natural SEO is SEO completed manually using no black hat techniques, no underhand techniques and no automated software’s. It is the best method of optimizing your website for the benefit of search engines ranking, while still keeping appeal for your site visitors, and done well it is exactly the thing that search engines are looking for in a website. Once they find it they will reward your site with good listing and improved positions within the search engine results pages. In the Entire Course of this guide it will be referred to as simply SEO.
Guide To The Search Engines
Guide To Search Engines and their common theory is essential to the use of successful SEO techniques. Search engines let their visitors to enter a particular keyword or term, known as keywords. When submitted, all pages with those words that can be found in the search engine’s directory are listed on the search engine result pages. Every page is “listed” as per the relevancy, popularity and a some other factors. Therefore, in theory, the more relevant a page is to a given keyword the more chances it will be at the top of the listings. (more…)
Category : Blog
Search engines are the vehicles that drive potential customers to your websites. But in order for visitors to reach their destination – your website – you need to provide them with specific and effective signs that will direct them right to your site. You do this by creating carefully chosen keywords.
Think of the right keywords as the Open Sesame! of the Internet. Find the exactly right words or phrases, and presto! hoards of traffic will be pulling up to your front door. But if your keywords are too general or too over-used, the possibility of visitors actually making it all the way to your site – or of seeing any real profits from the visitors that do arrive – decreases dramatically.
Your keywords serve as the foundation of your marketing strategy. If they are not chosen with great precision, no matter how aggressive your marketing campaign may be, the right people may never get the chance to find out about it. So your first step in plotting your strategy is to gather and evaluate keywords and phrases.
You probably think you already know EXACTLY the right words for your search phrases. Unfortunately, if you haven’t followed certain specific steps, you are probably WRONG. It’s hard to be objective when you are right in the center of your business network, which is the reason that you may not be able to choose the most efficient keywords from the inside. You need to be able to think like your customers. And since you are a business owner and not the consumer, your best bet is to go directly to the source.
Instead of plunging in and scribbling down a list of potential search words and phrases yourself, ask for words from as many potential customers as you can. You will most likely find out that your understanding of your business and your customers’ understanding is significantly different.
The consumer is an invaluable resource. You will find the words you accumulate from them are words and phrases you probably never would have considered from deep inside the trenches of your business.
Category : Blog
Here are 26 sure-fire ways to increase web traffic and site visitors to your website. Use some or all of them, and let us know which ones worked best for you.
1. Optimize your site (SEO).
Win on the search engines when people search for keyword phrases related to your products or services.
2. Get your site listed in directories.
Submit your site to all the major web directories. This will generate traffic directly from the directories themselves and will also help to improve your link popularity. That helps you win on Google!
3. Get listed in search engines.
Submit your site to all the major search engines.
4. Get links to your site.
Get people with complimentary sites to link to yours. You offer rental kayaks on the beach. Ask the local restaurant owners to link to you, and offer to link to them. Ask the local tour guides, the real estate agents, the night clubs, and everyone else. Links lead to clicks onto your website and help to improve your search engine rankings.
Category : Blog
