The 5 Key Steps To Promoting Your Website
September 1, 2010
Promoting your website can seem like a daunting, complicated task. The truth of it is that it’s not a trivial undertaking. But with some well laid plans, you can be sure that you’re leaving no stone unturned and working toward the best possible results.
Step 1: Preparation
- Prepare your website for the search engines -
This is a critical phase where elements such as keyphrase selection and web page optimization come into play. Whether you have a website already or not, this is where you need to start. Your site must be prepared and optimized to ensure that when the major search engines and directories visit your site, they index it properly and favourably.
Step 2: Popularity
- Establish a network of incoming links from other sites -
It is crucial that you establish plenty of quality, relevant links to your site. This typically means approaching websites in your industry (be they indirect competitors, vendors, suppliers or directory owners) and asking for a link, or offering to exchange links. Having a strong initial link popularity greatly increases the chances that the major search engines will find you before you even let them know you’re out there. During this phase you should also consider purchasing pay-for-inclusion memberships at some of the major directories. Although the costs can add up and typically need to be renewed yearly, the links that they provide are often extremely valuable.
How To Use Banner Ads Effectively
August 27, 2010
It’s no big secret that banner ads have become less effective than text links over the years. This phenomenon is called “banner blindness”. Banners were so ubiquitous in the early years of the Internet that users simply began to ignore them.
So what did many advertisers do to combat banner blindness? They made their banners harder to ignore by causing them to flash, rotate, jump around, and all sorts of other annoying tricks.
This of course led most users to like banners even less!
Does this mean that banner ads are useless? No, not at all!
There are several things that you can do to make your banner campaigns more effective. First of all, ensure that each of your banners is pleasant to look at and blends in well with the web page it’s displayed on. Match up the design and color scheme with those of the site.
This means you’ll need to create a customized banner for each and every site you advertise on, but the results will most definitely make the extra effort and expense well worth it!
Hunting For Online Directories - The In depth Strategy
August 21, 2010
Directory marketing can help boost your companies performance a great deal. Not only will you get qualified leads for your business, your web site will also increase it’s traffic ranking a tremendous amount.
Here are a couple basic advantages to online directories,
- Substantial staying power
- Repetitive marketing
- Your listing grows with the entire site
- No updating unless necessary
- Not necessary to link back to the directory
Please Note: This article is meant to discuss and implement marketing strategies for local business directories online, not link exchange, a.k.a swapping links with other websites.
For many people, one/two directories always come to mind,
With web marketing, you want to have ever lasting staying power, online directories can provide you with this and more.
Many people who DO NOT use the internet everyday stick with the basics when they come online. Many people are usually looking for a specific service or product that they want to check up on within their local community. This is why it is so crucial that you get noticed locally online.
Every major city has atleast one or two good business directories for you to submit your business to. Many of these directories don’t even require that you have a website.
Your Website on My Forehead
August 12, 2010
People are so focused on promoting their websites on the web these days that many are overlooking the original marketing medium-the offline world! Many tried and true methods of advertising exist for brick and mortar businesses that could just as easily be applied to online businesses. These methods have been developed over hundreds if not thousands of years-what cavemen used to sell I have no idea-but the point is still valid. Business promotion existed long before the internet. So what methods of marketing in the "real" world can an online business owner apply to the cyber world?
One extremely effective method is brand marketing through merchandise. Think about it-before the web existed, how did businesses like real estate companies market their brands? One way they did it was to give stuff away-a marketing trick that is still being applied effectively today. How many pens, pencils, and magnets do you have lying around the house, stuck to the refrigerator, placed behind your ear-wherever-that bear some company’s logo or name? If you have ever worked in an office environment doubtless you would have noticed several different slogans on a hodgepodge collection of pens (some that might even still work) and pencils collected over time from seminars, informational fairs, trade events, etc. Brick and mortar businesses are doing it, so why aren’t you?
Branding With Banners
August 6, 2010
You might have heard that banner advertising is dead. Nothing could be further from the truth! If you can find a banner exchange that gives you a decent ratio you can begin branding of your site, and branding may be the one thing you MUST do to get and keep business.
Banner ads and banner exchanges are great tools for branding your site. Even better, most banner ads can be shown for free through banner swaps. It isn’t necessary to purchase ads to have a successful branding campaign.
You must however, remember the most important part about using banners for branding –The Brand! Never create a banner, button, or other graphic to submit to any exchange be it banner ads, reciprocal links, etc., that does not have your name, logo, or tag line (Slogan) on it.
Try to get two of the three on it if you can, and always have a call to action on the banner; such as, “Click here!”, “Sign up today!”, or “Limited Time!” to get the viewer to click on the link and visit your site.
How to Develop a Local Traffic Base
July 31, 2010
Getting a loyal traffic base for your website is an important way in keeping your traffic high. People who like your website are also more likely to tell their friends about it in e-mails and post your website on other mediums like website forums and newsgroups.
There are many ways to help to develop loyal viewers, and I suggest that you try to implement one or more of them on your own websites.
Start a weekly or monthly newsletter, you can setup a mailing list on your website and distribute an e-mail on a regular basis that will tell your users about new things on your site, updates, or some new jokes!
Put up a “of the day” type section. Many websites have “babe of the day” or “joke of the day” and I find myself coming back to them almost everyday to check it out. It’s a great way to get people hooked on your website. But of course if you don’t update everyday then you might anger some of your readers.
Are You A Winner Or A Loser?
July 26, 2010
What do you do next! you have been working so hard to perfect your website you are certain there is nothing else you can do to improve it. So why is there no sign of it in any searches?
Boredom is setting in and you are wondering if it was worth all the bother after all. With millions of websites already out there how is yours ever going to show up.
The thoughts of all the money you were going to make is slowly disappearing. Do you give up and call it a day, or do you sit and wait patiently for it to appear one day.
Well if you go for the first option your a loser straight away and don’t deserve to make money.
And if you go for the second option what a time waster you are. Lets look at Google, this is the search engine that every one is vying to get in the top ten. You could liken it to a finely tuned piece of engineering. Don’t worry it knows you are there and when the time is right your website will suddenly appear in the searches.
Free Tee Shirt
July 19, 2010
Sorry, there’s not really a free tee here, but isn’t it amazing how those 3 little words really grab your attention.
You may have designed your web site to express yourself on the web, or like most of us, you are hoping to earn a little extra cash; but how do you get your new baby site out there and get it noticed? you do after all want to get some visitors,… don’t you?
The first thing to do is choose your keywords very carefully, it is by now a well know fact that targeting an audience with the keywords that have less competition will result in a better search engine position for those keywords so you should end up with more visitors.
The best resource around is still wordtracker.com, use the trial version and see how useful this site is, if you only have a small site then this may be all you need.
Five Ways to Increase Your Website Conversion Rate
July 14, 2010
Though it’s wonderful to get all those hits to your e-commerce web site, hits don’t mean much unless you convert them into sales. This is especially true if you are paying for, and not converting, clicks.
If your website is suffering from the "Conversion Rate Blues", consider the following steps for improving sales and ultimately, profits:
1. Make sure your website is optimized to attract people with the highest potential to buy
When I first designed my log furniture website, Log Cabin Rustics, I unwittingly targeted an audience that wasn’t the perfect one for my site. As things turned out, I didn’t even rank for my two top key phrases, log furniture and log beds, in the search engines. I managed to get pretty high on the scale, however, for log cabin related searches.
People who build log cabins are a target market of mine, since many of them eventually purchase log furniture to go with their home. The most likely immediate customers, however, are those who actually searched for the term "log furniture" rather than "log cabin". When I re-optimized my site for the search terms I thought would bring the highest conversion rate, visitors to my site were more likely to buy because my site was selling what they were searching for. My efforts paid off, when my conversion rate (and sales) doubled in the month or two following my changes.
Three Ways to Market Your Web Site Effectively
July 8, 2010
1. Tell people you have a site
This might seem blindingly obvious, but it’s remarkable the number of people that don’t promote their Web site addresses. Every piece of your business literature that is put before customers and prospects should contain your site’s address, from stationery (letterheads, business cards, compliments slips, faxes and invoices) to marketing collateral (brochures, price lists and packaging).
If you use email, set up a signature that will appear at the end of every message you send. This should contain your name, position, your company’s name, phone number(s) and, of course, your Web address. Email me at signature@nigelgordijk.co.uk and you’ll receive a signature example template in an automatic reply.
2. Encourage repeat visits
Research has shown that many customers decide if they wish to do business with a company after they have visited its Web site seven times. Here are simple ways to encourage repeat visits:
Keep it up-to-date. Nothing discourages visitors more than a site that is clearly not maintained regularly. Make sure that company information is current, including contact details, personnel listings and prices.
