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Internet Marketing |
| Three ways to Promote your Site |
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| You've built a terrific website - the design looks great and the content is right on target. Your next step is to make sure your prospects find it. websites are passive, but Web marketing is not. Here are three tried-and-true ways to create an effective promotional campaign that seeks out your best prospects and draws them to your site. |
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| Master the Search Engines |
Millions of Web users turn to search engines to point them in the right direction. Now with pay-per-click placements, you can immediately achieve prominent positions. At a cost of about 15 cents to a dollar or two per click, you can choose as many keywords as you like and your listing will appear each time someone searches on them. The key to making paid listings work is to carefully track the activity of visitors who click through and fine-tune your program until the resulting sales are sufficiently profitable.
Free search engine listings take longer to acquire than pay-per-click, but they're also well worth the effort. Interland's Search Engine Manager allows you to fill out one form and submit your site to hundreds of search engines and directories. Rankings are determined by how often the keywords appear on your website and the number of links there are to you from credible sources, such as the Better Business Bureau or major manufacturers. For high rankings, choose about 10 keywords or keyword pairs your prospects will search on, then sprinkle them throughout your site copy, titles and meta-tags. |
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| Cut through the Clutter |
Online advertising can yield immediate results - prospects simply click on your link and are instantaneously transported to your place of business. Like off-line media, there are consumer and trade sites on the Web, so you can select the sites whose content most effectively draws your unique prospects.
The latest research shows that larger ads work best. Small, standard banners are often ignored and have insufficient space for compelling ad copy. Skyscrapers, which usually appear on the right side of the screen, offer a larger space for creative execution, with graphics, copy and multiple links, plus constant exposure since they remain visible as users scroll down the page. For a successful campaign on a tight budget, purchase a few large units, rather than many small ones. And if you advertise on several sites, be sure to code the links differently so you can evaluate their effectiveness |
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| Take Direct Action |
Direct marketing to e-lists is an essential component of a successful promotional campaign. Whether you send an e-mail newsletter to your customer database or rent opt-in e-mail lists to reach prospects, you'll be rewarded with increased traffic and repeat visitors.
The advantages of e-mail marketing over traditional direct mail include lower costs, reduced turnaround time and the potential for higher response rates. E-mail offers a substantial savings by eliminating the cost of printing and postage, and a campaign can be executed in about two weeks from start to finish, versus three times that for traditional direct mail. What's most compelling, is that while effective e-mail solicitations produce an average return of one percent, some marketers report results as high as eight percent or more.
In all, successful online promotion requires reaching out to prospects. For best results, combine e-mail marketing, online advertising and search engine listings to successfully draw traffic and increase sales.
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| Author: Kim T. Gordon |
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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) |
| 7 Proven Steps to Search Engine Success- |
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Having a good website isn't enough — you need to help people find it. The most commonly used tool for finding sites is the search engine. Unfortunately, how to get search engines to recognize and include your site on results listings isn't always clear.
In fact, getting a prime, "natural listing" in a search engine is more an art than a science; still, there are some steps you can follow that will take you a long way toward improving your chances. |
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| 1. Decide On Your Message |
To create your top key phrases, think like a person doing a search.
Write down the top ten key phrases that describe your business, the products or services you provide, and the geographic region you serve. Be as specific as you can. Each phrase should be at least 2 words — "running shoes", "custom furniture".
Come up with these phrases quickly; the goal is to replicate the thinking process of those you hope will find your site. If you have some time and want to test your terms, you can go to www.overture.com and use the Term Suggestion Tool, which lets you enter a search term and see how many searches were made on the term in the previous month. This tool also suggests related terms you might not have thought of. |
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2. Add Relevant Content to Pages |
Use your key phrases, but not at the expense of compelling content.
Draw on your key phrases to write your page content. Be sure to use the exact same wording, and repeat yourself often. The frequency with which the phrases appear will help in listings.
Try to fit the phrases in naturally and keep your writing natural, not stilted. Remember, getting people to come to your site by way of a search engine is only part of the battle. You also need to provide compelling, useful content once they arrive. |
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3. Create a Relevant Title for Each Page |
Use key words in page titles, and keep titles short.
Once again, draw on your key phrases to create a title. Repetition is important! Try to keep the title to the three words that matter most, but make sure the title is descriptive. |
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4. Create a Description Metatag for Each Page |
Include your key phrases in your description metatag, but keep the content coherent and interesting.
Metatags are hidden HTML codes that describe pages. The description metatag is recognized by some search engine "bots," and is also used by many search engines when listing a site in a search results page.
Your description metatag should be a short paragraph that includes as many of your top ten key phrases as possible, but is still understandable, coherent, and capable of stimulating visitors to click through to your site. Again, do not sacrifice good content by getting carried away with key phrases. |
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5. Create a Keyword Metatag for Each Page |
Cover your bases by including all your key phrases in the keyword metatag.
Historically, everyone thought the terms in a keyword metatag were responsible for a high ranking in a search engine; and for a while, they probably were right. But today's search engines are more sophisticated. They pay more attention to page content than metatags — but it doesn't hurt to cover your bases.
Add all the phrases you generated in step 1 of this procedure into your keyword metatag, but maintain good content, not only for the search engines' benefit, but also for the benefit of the visitors to your site. |
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6. Have Related Businesses Link to Your Site |
Linking to other sites not only helps in search engine ranking, but it can bring you more business.
The number of sites that are linked to your site is important to some search engines. If many other sites link to you, it confers a legitimacy that improves your ranking.
Linking to other sites has other benefits, too. Linking to related sites can bring you referrals and related business. For example, if you have a bicycle accessories business, and you have a link from a bicycle repair shop, customers of the repair shop will probably click through to see what kind of accessories you carry. |
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7. Don't Cheat |
Don't list key terms hundreds of times; the bots will know you're cheating.
Cheaters do things like list key terms and phrases hundreds of times on a page in the background color of the site so visitors cannot see them. They think the search engine's bots won't realize what's happening, but bots are clever, and the search engines will ban your site entirely if they find you are trying to trick them. Stick to the steps previously mentioned. You'll get your site noticed without running the risk of getting blacklisted (banned from the search engine).
The Bottom Line...
Your best chances for getting your site in search engine is following simple steps. Focus on content, key phrases, and proper use of metatags.
Author: Linda Woods |
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