Web Marketing

Have you ever searched for your product as a customer would and found hundreds of page results? How many pages of results did you look through? 2 maybe 3 pages at the most? How will you get your site listed on those first few pages and not lost in the hundreds of others. That is where Internet Marketing comes in. 

What is Internet Marketing?

Marketing your website effectively is a multi-faceted approach. Search engine optimization alone is simply not enough. So lets take a look at what should be involved in an effective Internet Marketing campaign.

Targeted Keywords should be determined before any internet marketing efforts are begun. Three factors should be considered when compiling your list of keyword and keyword phrases. 

1. Are you marketing locally, nationally or internationally.  

2. Think about what they typical customer looking for a web site like yours would search for.  

3. Your list of potential keyword and keyword phrases should be run through some tools to check their Keyword Efficiency Index or KEI. These tools typically return the average search engine traffic volume that the keywords receive. You will want to target the words and phrases with the largest volume as it indicates the most potential for traffic. These tools also typically return similar keywords that you may not have thought of. At this point, you are going to want to trim your list down to 10 words or phrases at the most. These will be your targeted keywords.

Content. The old saying "Cash is King" can easily be updated for our marketing purposes to "Content is King." Relevant, keyword rich but not spam filled content will go along way towards helping your site get better search engine placement. You may even gain inbound links if your content is valuable enough and considered a resource.

Search Engine Optimization goes hand in hand with content creation. There is a fine line between utilizing your target keywords and spamming the search engines. The key to getting the most reward for your effort is to walk that line in such a manner that search engines read the relevant content coded in the correct page areas.

Internal and external linking is the other major factor in letting the search engines know that you are relevant. Lets be clear that we are not talking about the old gimmick of link farms and buying links on hundreds of irrelevant pages. Effective link exchanges are done with quality keyword rich links to and from quality websites. Inbound links to your website carry significantly more weight than outbound links. Working with product distributors and leaders in your industry can be a great place to start requesting links.

Pay Per Click (PPC) advertisements are generally found on the top, bottom or right side of search engine results pages. Typically you will bid on keywords and keyword phrases relevant to your target market and pay only when a user clicks on your ad and lands on your web site. Although even a basic campaign can be effective, a well thought out campaign that serves relevant ad text, based on the keyword or phrase searched for, can be far more powerful.

Landing Pages are often used to speak to a visitor that clicks on a specific advertisement that you have placed. These landing pages are created to contain all of the information someone might need to submit a lead form or make a purchase.

Banner and Display Advertisements are typically static graphic or animated ads that can be placed on web sites where your customers may be visiting. For example if you are a sporting goods supply store, banner ads may be relevant on web sites that cater to sports and outdoor enthusiasts.

Traditional Marketing such as business cards, television and radio advertisements, print ads and flyers should all be branded with your websites domain name.

E-Mail marketing is a very inexpensive way to reach your customers to encourage return visits and sales. Their email addresses must be collected in a legal manner and your mailing list managed responsibly. Your emails also need to be designed to be compelling and compatible with the wide variety of methods that the recipient may read them on. A quality email marketing service will not only send your mail, manage your list automatically and collect addresses but also generate reports on the effectiveness of your e-mail campaign. Tidal Web recommends iContact as our email marketing service of choice. 

Search Engine Ranking monitoring is essential to keep an eye on where your site is listed on various search engines for your targeted keywords. Any sharp decreases should be a red flag to check for any potential content spamming.

Social Marketing and Blogs can be great companions to your website. In addition to the inbound links that they will supply, you get the opportunity to speak to people interested in your web site's subject matter in an informal manner. By authoring articles on your blog and linking to them from social mediums like Facebook, Twitter and Myspace you can take on the role of an expert. This will help your online reputation and brand recognition ultimately resulting in greater traffic to your website and higher sales.