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Monday, January 08, 2007
Plain Talk tips for using the Web to Market your Business.
Every business owner is looking for ways to market their business in an affordable manner. You hear about the Web being a fantastic gateway to opportunity. In fact, according to ComScore Media Metrix, Americans are conducting an estimated 790 million searches per week. Yet how do you bake and eat your cake without spending too much for the sugar? In over 8 years of marketing on the web, we have found tips that can make it easier for you:
1.
The Web's core reason for existing is “content.” Content is King. Search Engines exist to index content. People surf to find content. You have to produce as much content related to your services and products as you have time to produce. Anywhere you can find a place to publish, do so (much of the time for free). Be sure to include your name, company name, and your url in every possible avenue you find. Create a free blog at Blogger.com. Find or start a newsgroups at Yahoo.com. Make comments in any blog you find related to your field. The goal is to saturate the world as far as you can reach with your commercial identity. Don't worry about being eloquent – just be informed and understandable.
2.
Selling on the web is a popularity contest. Search engines give higher rankings to the most popular kids on the block. The voting method search engines use is to count the number of links to your web site from other web sites. They also throw a few other things into the mix, like giving higher value to links from sites with content relevant to your site. So your goals should be to a) get lots of sites to link to you and b) get sites with content about the same topics as your site linking to you. Try to stay away from sites that look like they just exist to link to other sites, cause nobody (including search engines) like spammers. Keep in mind context is important. If a bunch of gambling sites link to you, then you might get labeled as a gambling site. Look up the term “link baiting” on google and see what other people suggest as strategies for getting people to link to you. Try to stick to positive strategies, like writing reviews about your suppliers products and sending them the link in hopes that they will put it on their web site.
3.
Ok, now this is a bit tougher, but you can do it. You have to optimize your content for search engines. There are a lot things that can be done, so you will need to spend time learning them. But I will start you off with one concept – Keywords. You have to find the keywords people use to search for the products and services you provide. You will need to look at your competitors, your industry, and historical search requests to find this information. Tools from Axandra and Wordtracker are excellent places to start. Once you find these keywords, you will need to use them in the Title of your page, the Meta tags, and in your content. There is a lot to be said about this subject, but just getting started is the most important step.
4.
You should have multiple websites. Search Engines (and people) prefer focused sites on a specific topic. If you sell blues shirts and black jeans, you should have two sites (or at least two separate sections on one site), each dedicated to one of the products. It will help you be found quicker and make a sale faster.
5.
Your hosting provider should provide you with traffic statistics on visitors to your website. These statistics should include not only the number of visitors, but what pages they are visiting and also the search terms they used to reach your site. You should track your results monthly, and put goals in place for the quantity and quality of your traffic. There is a quick introduction to the concepts at http://www.mrunix.net/webalizer/simpleton.html
So that was some quick tips to get you started. There is a whole universe of marketing techniques to use online. Some are great, some get you into trouble. Keep checking back here as I give you plain talk advice.
posted by joseph mcelroy @ 12:18 PM
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