Marketing your website is a marathon, not a sprint. It requires many personal and corporate traits including commitment, conviction, discipline and patience. In this writing, let’s review the areas that you need to pay the most attention to.
Corporate Signature
This is the most basic form of website marketing. Your URL must appear on every corporate document and traditional marketing materials. These include your business card, stationery, all printed sales documents and presentation materials, your print ads, your TV ads, your radio ads, billboards, your video presentations and demos, your phone book listing, your newsletter and your direct mail. Is your URL, with an active link, included in the signature section of every email you send out? It must be if you are serious about marketing your website.
Search Engines
Not everyone knows your name unless you are McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, et al. However, real people are seeking your products and services; and the increasingly dominant method that your potential customers are looking is page 1-3 of the search engines; 95% of them on Google and Yahoo. You notice I am say page 1-3 as anything below that has little or no value and certainly a negative ROI. That is because 68% of online searchers do not go past the 1st page and 98% don’t go past the 3rd page. So, in essence, for the purpose of online marketing, unless you are on the top 3 pages for your relevant keywords or terms, you are really not on the internet; you are just floating aimlessly in cyberspace.
What did we have before the search engines to find products and services? What was the pre-web method of search? Yes, the good old Yellow Pages. However, when was the last time you used the yellow pages? When was the last time you didn’t immediately throw your yellow pages in the recycling bin? Who wants a bulky book that only provides local results that you have to leaf through to find a name and a misleading ad to choose from? No, we have Google et al now; so few people, baby-boomers down to pre-teens, are searching online for the information, products or services they seek.
You have to meet them at their destination; the first page of Google! How? Search Engine Marketing! Whether it is a paid ad on Google (Google Adwords) or a free listing in the organic section of the first page, the successful marketing of your website absolutely depends on successful implementation and execution of search engine marketing so that you are easily found by those who are seeking you out but do not yet know you by name.
The Keyword
Keywords / phrases entered into the search bar of the search engine are how the searcher looks for the websites of interest. Obviously keywords are text entries. The search engines rely chiefly on text to rank every website for each and every keyword.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is the process of optimizing a website to achieve high rankings on the search engines. Successful SEO depends on the ability of the website owner, or the Internet Marketing Company hired by the website owner, to understand precisely what the search engines are looking for and how the search engines rank for relevance. There are two broad areas of SEO … (1) onsite SEO and (2) offsite SEO. As the name implies onsite SEO involves literally hundreds of individual elements and factors that relate only to elements on or within the website itself. The objective of onsite SEO is to make sure that the site and its individual pages are properly configured, coded and otherwise organized to optimally tell the search engines exactly what the site and the pages are all about and how they relate to one another in terms of relevance. Offsite SEO chiefly involves the syndication of relevant content for the generation of “Backlinks.” Backlinks are one way links coming from outside of the site being optimize directly into that site. Content syndication is a powerful method for the generation of the best Backlinks; highly relevant, naturally occurring backlinks. These backlinks are very important to the search engines and greatly influence the ultimate ranking you see on the first page of Google when you are searching a particular keyword. Remember, keywords being text entries, generally generate rankings based on data generated by textual content, both onsite and offsite. As with all media, content is the most important factor in Search Engine Marketing. It is relevant content that is the fuel that drives search engine rankings. Since online competition is as fierce or more online, it is logical to understand that the best content, the most content and the most continuous stream of content go a long way towards success in being found online and that is what SEO is ultimately all about.
The Social Media
The social websites are an increasingly important factor in marketing your website. Social websites, as the name implies, are sites that foster the formation mini-communities of folks who may have common interests, opportunities, problems et al. They may be customers of the same company who wish to connect and discuss their various experiences with products and services or just the company itself. Some of the most popular Social Media Sites are Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In and YouTube. There are countless others. All of these sites offer their own unique interfaces, advantages and disadvantages.
However, in all cases, these sites offer excellent opportunities to market your website. In fact, Social Media Sites are growing and developing so fast and extensively that people are actually using them as their “go-to” sites to learn about various products and services, in addition to many other topics and discussions of the day.
The point, for the purposes of this writing, is when it comes to the Social Media you need to be there to market your company, your products and your ideas. The Social Media is about being involved, paying attention and just being there. It’s about giving and not about receiving. As in life, those that give shall surely receive more in return. So, the Social Media offers a broad and unique opportunity to be a resource and a welcome entrant to the online community. Check these sites out. Ask questions. Get involved. And of course, contact us if you have any questions or want some help.
Website Marketing
Corporate Signature
This is the most basic form of website marketing. Your URL must appear on every corporate document and traditional marketing materials. These include your business card, stationery, all printed sales documents and presentation materials, your print ads, your TV ads, your radio ads, billboards, your video presentations and demos, your phone book listing, your newsletter and your direct mail. Is your URL, with an active link, included in the signature section of every email you send out? It must be if you are serious about marketing your website.
Search Engines
Not everyone knows your name unless you are McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, et al. However, real people are seeking your products and services; and the increasingly dominant method that your potential customers are looking is page 1-3 of the search engines; 95% of them on Google and Yahoo. You notice I am say page 1-3 as anything below that has little or no value and certainly a negative ROI. That is because 68% of online searchers do not go past the 1st page and 98% don’t go past the 3rd page. So, in essence, for the purpose of online marketing, unless you are on the top 3 pages for your relevant keywords or terms, you are really not on the internet; you are just floating aimlessly in cyberspace.
What did we have before the search engines to find products and services? What was the pre-web method of search? Yes, the good old Yellow Pages. However, when was the last time you used the yellow pages? When was the last time you didn’t immediately throw your yellow pages in the recycling bin? Who wants a bulky book that only provides local results that you have to leaf through to find a name and a misleading ad to choose from? No, we have Google et al now; so few people, baby-boomers down to pre-teens, are searching online for the information, products or services they seek.
You have to meet them at their destination; the first page of Google! How? Search Engine Marketing! Whether it is a paid ad on Google (Google Adwords) or a free listing in the organic section of the first page, the successful marketing of your website absolutely depends on successful implementation and execution of search engine marketing so that you are easily found by those who are seeking you out but do not yet know you by name.
The Keyword
Keywords / phrases entered into the search bar of the search engine are how the searcher looks for the websites of interest. Obviously keywords are text entries. The search engines rely chiefly on text to rank every website for each and every keyword.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is the process of optimizing a website to achieve high rankings on the search engines. Successful SEO depends on the ability of the website owner, or the Internet Marketing Company hired by the website owner, to understand precisely what the search engines are looking for and how the search engines rank for relevance. There are two broad areas of SEO … (1) onsite SEO and (2) offsite SEO. As the name implies onsite SEO involves literally hundreds of individual elements and factors that relate only to elements on or within the website itself. The objective of onsite SEO is to make sure that the site and its individual pages are properly configured, coded and otherwise organized to optimally tell the search engines exactly what the site and the pages are all about and how they relate to one another in terms of relevance. Offsite SEO chiefly involves the syndication of relevant content for the generation of “Backlinks.” Backlinks are one way links coming from outside of the site being optimize directly into that site. Content syndication is a powerful method for the generation of the best Backlinks; highly relevant, naturally occurring backlinks. These backlinks are very important to the search engines and greatly influence the ultimate ranking you see on the first page of Google when you are searching a particular keyword. Remember, keywords being text entries, generally generate rankings based on data generated by textual content, both onsite and offsite. As with all media, content is the most important factor in Search Engine Marketing. It is relevant content that is the fuel that drives search engine rankings. Since online competition is as fierce or more online, it is logical to understand that the best content, the most content and the most continuous stream of content go a long way towards success in being found online and that is what SEO is ultimately all about.
The Social Media
The social websites are an increasingly important factor in marketing your website. Social websites, as the name implies, are sites that foster the formation mini-communities of folks who may have common interests, opportunities, problems et al. They may be customers of the same company who wish to connect and discuss their various experiences with products and services or just the company itself. Some of the most popular Social Media Sites are Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In and YouTube. There are countless others. All of these sites offer their own unique interfaces, advantages and disadvantages.
However, in all cases, these sites offer excellent opportunities to market your website. In fact, Social Media Sites are growing and developing so fast and extensively that people are actually using them as their “go-to” sites to learn about various products and services, in addition to many other topics and discussions of the day.
The point, for the purposes of this writing, is when it comes to the Social Media you need to be there to market your company, your products and your ideas. The Social Media is about being involved, paying attention and just being there. It’s about giving and not about receiving. As in life, those that give shall surely receive more in return. So, the Social Media offers a broad and unique opportunity to be a resource and a welcome entrant to the online community. Check these sites out. Ask questions. Get involved. And of course, contact us if you have any questions or want some help.