Website Marketing Articles
The Importance Of Internet Marketing and Its Benefits
3 Valuable Website Marketing Tools
Building Effective Websites
HTML Text Formatting
The Importance of Internet Marketing and Its Benefits
by Stuart Briscar
Why should I spend time marketing my website?
Just like any brick and mortar business must invest in marketing and advertising, it is also important for a business to market their website as well. Just because your business has a website, does not mean that people will automatically be drawn to it. I'm not sure if it's a lack of understanding or a case of complacency, but businesses owners aren't grasping the importance of internet marketing.
The internet is vast and contains billions of web pages. How can you make your website stand out in a crowded internet? You guessed it -- marketing. And just like there are all kinds of ways to market a brick and mortar business, there are various ways to market your website as well.
Let's go ahead and get rid of the myth that if it's on the internet, it should be free. If you want to increase online sales, you have to spend the money. Research has shown that a business should spend between 3% - 6% of their revenues on internet marketing.
When would be the best time to market my website?
The great thing about website marketing is that there is never a bad time to market. Even in a down economy it is a good time to market your website. Consumers are constantly looking for things on the internet and your business is what they could find. Why wait? It's very possible your competitors have already discovered the amazing benefits of website marketing. Through an effective internet marketing campaign, companies have easily been able to increase sales by 2%. Even better news: I've seen sales increase by 20% easy.
Should I hire someone or can I do it myself?
It is possible to market your own website. There are all sorts of resources to help you learn about
search engine optimization,
advertising with Google Adwords,
and website management.
However, I will admit that it takes a lot of time to learn and research how to build an effective internet marketing campaign. I have studied and learned how to develop and market websites for the past thirteen years and it has changed quite a bit.
Investing money in a professional is never a bad idea. They are usual eager to teach how it all works as well as perform their services with excellence. If you are unsure of how you can start your website marketing campaign, I would absolutely love to talk to you and give you some guidance.
What are some of the ways to market a website online?
All kinds of marketing techniques have popped up on the internet over the past few years. Although, some of them only work for certain industries, they have almost all proven to work.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) seems to be the foundation of all internet marketing. This technique analyzes your web page's title tags, keywords, content, links, and coding and makes it more suitable for search engine indexing. Search engines appreciate web pages that are accurate and display useful content.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is not only a great advertising tool; it also reports ways to improve your website performance and increase conversions. The most popular tool used in search engine marketing is Google Adwords. Google allows businesses to advertise products and services when users search for a particular word or phrase. Google will also tell you how effective your advertising campaign is and allow you to test various keywords and different landing pages.
Social Media Marketing (SMM) has grown rapidly over the past year and definitely serves its purpose. Today, it is very important for businesses to be more consumer-focused and social media supports this method. Using websites such as Facebook and twitter allows you to get inside the minds of your consumers and see what they like and what they want. Advertising with Facebook allows you to break down your campaigns into very specific demographics including what high school or college users attend and even what music they listen to. This is also a great way to increase brand awareness among a targeted demographic.
The Wrap-Up
I hope that by now you have seen some of the benefits of internet marketing and how you can use it to grow your online sales. Remember that your competition has probably already discovered these benefits and know that there is never a bad time to start investing in online marketing.
If you would like a free consultation on starting your internet marketing campaign, you can click here to fill out the simple little form and I would love to talk
you about your website.
3 Valuable Website Marketing Tools
by Stuart Briscar
Creating a strong marketing campaign for your website will make a world of difference in creating new leads, establishing a loyal customer base, and interacting with your clients.
The three website marketing strategies I am talking about include Search Engine Optimization (SEO),
Search Engine Marketing (SEM),
and Social Media Marketing (SMM). Utilizing all three of these will greatly increase leads, sales, and build customer relations.
Before we get into the three main marketing techniques, I want to give you an overview on creating a foundation for website marketing. The answer lies in website optimization.
Website Optimization
Although this isn't exactly the same thing as Search Engine Optimization this is definitely your first step in creating a successful web site. Optimizing your website will help prepare your website for search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Search engine optimization would be your next step.
When you take the time to analyze your pages for title tags, links, navigation, calls-to-action, and other attributes you will begin to see how effective (or ineffective) your website actually is.
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
1. Do I encourage my visitors to participate? Do I have a Call-To-Action?
-- Using phrases such as "Click Here" or "Buy Now" can prove to be very valuable when used effectively. Your customers are looking for an excuse to "Buy" or "Download" or "Donate", so you need to provide them with this option often by strategically placing a call-to-action on your pages.
2. Can my visitors easily navigate my website to find what they are looking for?
-- You need to take some time to view your site as if you've never visited it before and see how easy you can find the information you are looking for. Another great way to do this is to get a friend or co-worker to browse the site and have them give you feedback. If customers are struggling to find the information they are looking for they will leave!
3. How effective are my links?
-- Links are a good way to let your visitors know where to find the information they are looking for. Use keywords or key phrases in your links to help guide your customers. I've used this example before, but if you run a blog about gardening an example of an effective link may be "How to Grow Roses in Poor Soil" as opposed to "Growing Roses".
I provide businesses a free website consultation to help guide them in making their website more effective.
Contact me for more information!
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization is the process of analyzing and re-writing your web pages to make them more acceptable to search engines. It is a valuable tool that will organically increase search engine rankings for your web site. There is no guarantee of being placed in the number ONE spot on Google, but it will definitely help search engines find your website more efficiently.
Some of the areas to focus on are Title Tags, Keywords, and Content.
Titles
Your title tags are one of the most effective ways to increase not only search engine rankings but your click-through rate also. Many businesses insist on having their company name as their title, but that isn't going to help your keywords. It's okay to use your business name, just put it after your key words. Using keywords in your title will let people know what you offer and what your website is about.
A good example is Payless Shoes. If you search Google for "Shoes" you will see they are actually number three, but what is in their title tag? As of writing this article it reads "Shoes, Boots, Sandals, Designer Shoes & Handbags". That is a good title tag. There are a few things that could be tweaked to make it more effective, but overall it's good.
Keywords
Keywords help search engines know what your website is about. If you are running a gardening blog some keywords could be "gardening articles" or "gardening tips". You would not want to use words such as "trees" or "plants". While those terms might help a little, they are too broad.
Content
A good website needs unique and valuable content. This not only helps your search engine ranking, it helps educate your visitors and allows them to find what they are looking for. Your content should contain some key phrases pertaining to your site. This shows search engines that it is relevant to each page.
One of the services I provide is an extensive Search Engine Optimization campaign for small business web sites. If you are interested I would love to talk with you! E-mail me!
Search Engine Marketing
I am going to focus on using Google Adwords as a search engine marketing tool.
Utilizing this wonderful service is a great way to draw new leads to your website and increase your sales.
Why? Because you are using targeted advertising for specific keywords and you only pay each time a person clicks on your ad (real leads).
Another benefit is that it is pretty much instant. You set up your account and write your ads, it is reviewed, then voila!
Your ad is circulating Google to your target demographic. Google also provides great analytical tools to show you which pages and keywords work and where your traffic is coming from.
I am experienced with writing and managing Google Adwords campaigns. If you are interested in getting real leads to your website and increasing sales then let's chat!
Social Media Marketing
Here you have a new way of marketing that will help you promote your products and peak interest in your business. Companies are flocking to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media site to learn more about their customers and promote their specials.
Facebook provides a few tools for businesses to effectively market their business. First, you can create a page specifically for your business. This allows you to educate users on what you have to offer and give them a call-to-action. You can also pay for advertising with Facebook using very specific demographics and interests. They offer pay-per-click and pay-per-impressions.
Twitter and Facebook both allows people to interact with your business, letting you know what they like and don't like. It is an amazing Relationship Marketing tool that should be used if you want to build relationships with your clients.
If you are interested in getting started with your social media marketing campaign feel free to send me an e-mail!
Building Effective Websites
by Stuart Briscar
Here are several key components you should consider when building an effective web site. Mastering these elements will make your web site more visually appealing, user-friendly, and encourage repeat traffic.
Layout
Having a clean and neat layout is important for your visitors to be able to move around the site efficiently. Remember, they are usually there for specific information. Make it easy for them to find that information. If you are having trouble keeping your navigation clean I recommend using a template. My friends over at FreeWebTemplates can help you out greatly.
Navigation
When a user visits a web site for the first time they are usually looking for specific information and they want to be able to find that information easily. Your navigation should be descriptive and logical. Your main links should either be at the top of the page or across the left side. This is where most people will look. I recommend that your navigational links be underlined and a different color than the rest of the text. This allows visitors to easily distinguish between normal content and links. I recommend having a sitemap available not only for the visitors but for search engine robots also.
Content
I'm sure everyone has heard the phrase "content is king" and well, it's true for the most part. An effective web site needs unique and valuable content. This not only helps your search engine ranking, it helps your visitors find what they are looking for and encourages them to come back again. Content needs to contain keywords that pertain to you web site. Do not overstuff your keywords. There should be between 3-7 keywords per 150 words.
Links
Links serve a very valuable and important function for web sites. Links tell the visitors where they need to go to find their information. Links should contain key phrases. Once again, if you have a gardening web site a good link might be "How to Grow Roses" or "Growing Roses In Poor Soil". It is a good idea to take some of your key phrases in your content and make them links to other parts of you web site.
Load time
An effective web site has a reasonable load time. It definitely should take no more than 10 seconds for your web site to load, especially on broadband. There are a few ways to decrease long load times. Cutting back on heavy graphics is one of the biggest issues. Externalize JavaScript and CSS files. Some web sites have lots and lots of JavaScript and CSS coding and this takes the web page longer to load. By externalizing the scripts it allows for quicker load time. This also allows for search engine bots to search your site for inclusion. I recommend the Web Page Analyzer to test your sites load time. It also gives you recommendations on how to decrease load time.
Screen resolutions & Browser compatibility
It is vital to design your web sites that work on multiple browsers and screen resolutions. My personal philosophy is that it should fit comfortably in a 800x600 resolution, however, most people nowadays use at least 1024x768 but there is no reason to design a website that is 1024 pixels wide.
Also, your web site should look the same when using different browsers. Firefox, Internet Explorer, Netscape, and Safari all read web sites a little different. There are some Firefox add-ons where you can test your browser in IE.
HTML Text Formatting
Makes text bold
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The quick brown fox jumped <b>slyly</b> over the wicker fence
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The quick brown fox jumped <strong>slyly</strong> over the wicker fence
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Example:
The quick brown fox jumped slyly over the wicker fence
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Makes text italicized
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The quick brown fox jumped <i>slyly</i> over the wicker fence
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The quick brown fox jumped <em>slyly</em> over the wicker fence
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The quick brown fox jumped slyly over the wicker fence
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Strikesthrough text
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The quick brown fox jumped slyly over the wicker fence
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Subscript
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The quick brown fox jumped <sub>slyly</sub> over the wicker fence
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The quick brown fox jumped slyly over the wicker fence
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Superscript
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The quick brown fox jumped <sup>slyly</sup> over the wicker fence
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Example:
The quick brown fox jumped slyly over the wicker fence
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Underlines text
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The quick brown fox jumped <u>slyly</u> over the wicker fence
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The quick brown fox jumped slyly over the wicker fence
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Makes text small
Code:
The quick brown fox jumped <small>slyly</small> over the wicker fence
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Example:
The quick brown fox jumped slyly over the wicker fence
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Makes text big
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The quick brown fox jumped <big>slyly</big> over the wicker fence
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The quick brown fox jumped slyly over the wicker fence
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