Small Business Search Engine Marketing

SEO is more than half the battle in marketing your website and building traffic.. SEM experts define SEO as the practice of editing a site’s content and code in order to get better visibility within one or a lot more search engines. Different strategies are used by a website administrator to help increase their rankings in natural listings by making it ‘easy’ for search engines to be able to identify what the site’s about, and decide how ‘valuable’ the content is to someone who’s searching for information on that topic. SEO activities can also be divided into two broadly designated categories: on-site (search engine optimization) and off-site (search engine marketing).

To start, you’ll wand to outsource and run a free SEO search engine rankings report on your website.

Some of the modifications you’ll want to look at might include:

1. Editing HTML page titles, H1 tags, and content to incorporate keywords that you’re targeting.
2. Writing keyword-rich content to correctly reflect the material that is visible to the search engine.
3. Optimizing your alt attribute tags for all of your images.
4. Editing site architecture or internal linking structure to enhance usability for visitors that enter through search engines.

Off-site SEO includes activities outside of what occurs on your site to help boost your search engine rankings. These techniques typically take time and effort, and off-site SEO is an ongoing process. Some of these search engine marketing activities include:

1. Submitting your sites feed to related no cost as well as compensated directories
2. High PR (Google “pagerank”) sites about sales channel management software
3. Soliciting hyperlinks from associated websites
4. Social bookmarking
5. Content and press release advertising and marketing
6. Marketing through social networks
7. Becoming an lively community forum member
8. Commenting on other pertinent sites

Find more info about how to outsource SEO for your small business.

That’s about all there is to it.

kiyokakanou.dabadu.ch

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So You Want To Build A Website?

Introduction

When I decided I needed a website for my business I had no idea of the very many processes involved. Like most people, I thought web design meant deciding on the graphics and the look of the pages and then by some magic it would all happen.I simply hadn’t had any exposure to the planning and build process which I now know to be extensive!

I have a friend who is in the business of SEO web design and web content management systems so I approached him for a quote. As a complete novice who is computer literate up to a point, I was amazed at the depth of initial questioning required to find out exactly what I wanted to achieve.

I had no idea about the various elements and the structure of the site and I found it mind blowing when I learnt about the amount of work involved. So I thought other people would be interested to know more about this complicated process particularly if you consider yourself a non computer person and have to get a website built. I have asked my SEO friend to supply the technical information for this article.In case you are wondering ‘SEO’ stands for search engine optimisation, and refers to the practise of getting your website ranked as close to the top of the results for a particular search term in a search engine. You see you’re learning already!

Stages in the Process

Target Audience

Before building a website there are important questions to consider. I was asked who would be my potential audience. Who are my customers likely to be? Would they be children, businesses, home owners, sales people, parents or teenagers and so on?

The Objective of the Website

Then I was asked, what was the purpose of my website? Did I want to sell products on line or use it to market my business and get more leads for potential customers? Maybe I would want to use the site as an online brochure to showcase my services. Another possibility was to use the website to foster a community so that I was in contact with other like-minded people, with chat rooms, online discussions and being supported by advertising on the site. This didn’t really apply to my business, although I did think about offering to advertise allied services!

I hadn’t quite realised the scope of a website but as I was asked these questions it became clear that a lot of careful planning went into the preparation before building a website. I realised it is like any project, the majority of the work is in the preparation, a bit like decorating really!

Creating a Site Map

The importance of creating a site map is to get it clear in your mind of all the pages you will have on your website so you can prepare the content for each page and begin to design the flow through the website, such as when a user adds a product to their basket, then enters their delivery and billing address and makes the credit card payment in the correct order.

A sitemap is basically the blueprint for your website and is an essential part of the plan if you want the design, copy writing, search engine optimization and monitoring of your website to be successful.

The aim is to make the site as user friendly as possible so that there are no barriers to getting into the website or making a purchase. For that reason often user name and passwords are set for the customer so that they are not put off making a purchase by having to register. How many times have you gone to buy something online and then been faced with having to choose a user name and password to create an account, and fill out all of your address details and decided not to bother in the end? Well they just lost a sale!

For a non e-commerce site things are simpler with a contact form which allows you to receive enquiries by email without publishing your email address on the website, thus avoiding junk email.Web forms can also validate the information before you receive it, so ensuring that the phone number provided does not contain words, and that the email address is in the correct format, for example. These things may sound very technical to us lay-folk but I assure you everything has to be decided in advance before starting on the construction of the site.

Your Domain Name

Choosing a domain name is often quite a problem because every name you initially come up with will almost certainly have been taken. Domain names ending in .com are by far the most popular and internationally recognised; the snag is that it’s very popularity means that the majority of the shorter names have probably already been registered. However, you can usually think of some domain name that is available, which is much less time consuming than trying to purchase a previously registered domain name from its existing owner, most of the time just contacting them, and getting a reply is a challenge.

So looking at names with endings such as .net; .org .co.uk or .info may be able to provide you with the domain name you want. When choosing your domain name it is very important to include one or more of your keywords if possible as this can apparently help with search engine rankings. So although the name of your business is the obvious choice for a domain name, it is not necessarily the only option.

Copy

The next stage is preparing the content. This is not the design of your website – just the words and visuals you want to have one each of the pages.

Having gathered all the above information you will need to decide what imagery you want to use within the website content. As we all know, a picture speaks a thousand words and remains in people’s memory far longer than just words. It is a popular concept that people don’t read, and is even more true on the web today, so use as many images, diagrams, cartoons and illustrations as possible.

For each image you could also have a caption, as the caption of an image is the next ‘most read’ words on the page after the page title. Images and their captions need to be clickable. When you click on a picture it should take you to the next stage of the process such as the sale page or placing an enquiry if your website is for lead generation. All images should also have alternative text or alt tags. Alt tags will display the hover text when you position your mouse over the picture, but also they are used by screen readers to assist visually impaired users know what the image is about.

Website Design

Finally we come to the design of your website.

Sometimes one of the most difficult parts in website design can be the creation of the designs, whilst there are clear technical aspects to be worked in there is no clear right and wrong with regards the style and your work is almost entirely dependent upon the impression of the client contact that has to review the work.

There are a number of ways to approach website design but ultimately you need to create a design brief for the designer(s) to work from. Look at other websites and your competitor’s websites to find out what you like or dislike. The design brief should give reference to the logo, any existing brand guidelines or schemes and fonts and colour schemes, and should also detail which pages of the website that the designer is being tasked with creating visuals for.

The very best results will be achieved by using a graphic designer, and beware – not all graphic designers are the same. A graphic designer who designs specifically for print is working in a different discipline than a graphic designer who designs for screen and specifically the web. So choose your designer carefully, look at other work that person has done and determine whether or not you like their style.

If you are working in the big time and budget allows, use multiple graphic designers who have all been given the same design brief and request three concept designs from each designer. If the client themselves also do a graphic design, even if it’s a back of the envelope scribble, you will then have 10 concept designs. The next step is to get them all together and select the preferred elements from each design. Then give the work to the selected graphic designer to work up as the final artwork.

The artwork should be finalised and agreed on by everybody before development of the site begins.

Navigation

Another important consideration when building a website is how you want your navigation to work. You can have links within the content of your website, in the text, so there are not just links from the menu. You will need to decide whether the links will open into a new window, retaining your original page open or just change the page to the one clicked on. Next time you go online, you will realise how much thought has gone into the way in which a website works. You will may also have some ideas for improving how some of them work after reading all of this!

Production

Finally the preparation has been done and the site is ready to be constructed. Now for the more technical stuff! You will need to have decided which programming language to use to build the website. There are two main types for developing a website, one is Unix based, and the other is Windows based. Each one has pros and cons. If you are starting from scratch then it probably won’t matter, so you can go with the preference of your professional doing the work. My website is built on the Unix platform (apparently!) which is the same as many of the more well known websites such as Ebay, Facebook, Google and Amazon. Also your website hosting must be compatible with the development language with which your website is built.

Work In Progress

The best way to build a website and be able to monitor work in progress is on the web server where the site is ultimately going to live. This way, those involved in reviewing the work can see work in progress and provide comments throughout the development process.

Launching Your New Website

The moment of excitement comes when your site finally gets launched and you see the results of all the thought that has gone into the whole process.

I spent many hours working with the web agency to get the Xbox 360 steering wheel review site just right for our company before taking it live, and when the day came to publish it I was really pleased at all our hard work.

As soon as the site has gone live there is no substitute for real world testing though, so ask as many of your friends and colleagues to view the website from their own offices and give feedback..

Accessibility and Compliance

The website has to meet the current standards for website coding and doing so insures that disabled users, such as the visually impaired, can still access the entire website if they are using a Braille web browser. To date there has only be one case of an organisation being charged for having an in-accessible website which was the site for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, make sure you are not the second case and get it clear in your mind what this entails and be sure you and your web designer agree the same thing. Accessibility and Compliance are confusingly similar and have different levels, each having potential implications on designs and technology components, and build costs. It is also a good idea to also discuss conformance moving forward, particularly if you have a web content management system, because and accessible of compliant site may become un-accessible after six months of being edited by you if you do not add or edit the website content in an accessible manner.

Unforeseen Items

There are always things that arise in any project which you suddenly realise you have forgotten, so no matter how well the web developer prepares and asks the right questions, there is bound to be a last minute change of mind or addition to the site. The main aim is to minimise the number of glitches that might arise because they aren’t calculated in at the start and they could cause extra costs and delays on the date of the website going live.As a general rule it is always a good idea to get he site live to the original plans and then look at an update after it has gone live, unless it is a very small deviation from the initial plans.

Reporting and Monitoring

Once your website is up and running, you might like to know how many people visit your website and from that number how many actually buy the products or place an enquiry. From these statistics you can work out the ratio of hits to sales and gradually make changes to improve the ratios. There are some reliable statistics packages such as Google Analytics or Web-Stat.com which allow you to collect and review website visitor data in near real time. All you need to do this is to have a small block of code inserted into each web page on your site.Using web stats programs is also invaluable for SEO keyword reviews after your site has been live for a while because it tells you what phrases have been typed into the search engines by users before they visited your website.

Another useful service that Web-stat.com provides is to monitor the website and warn you by email or text message if the site is offline.

Marketing

Once the website is live there are lots of things you can do to market your product or service. The first step is to submit it to the search engines and at the same time write articles, and press releases. Getting links to the site from forums, blogs and other social networking spaces are other options. For more on this subject ask your designer about SEO, remember that’s search engine optimisation.

How to be Found on the Web

One of the first questions I was asked was, ‘Do you want it to be found by Google the main search engine?’ If I did then there was a whole process of establishing Keywords. So finding the best keywords are vital if you want to be found in Google. He says there are two main types of keywords. The first is the trophy, or generic, keyword for the industry which in my industry is simply ‘demolition’. The second kind of keyword is the long tail keyword. These are not searched for as frequently but if you can get a match then they are much more likely to convert into customers. A good example of this in my industry is ‘factory demolition company Derby’. So it is very important to do a lot of research on keywords to find both those that are the most popular and the most specific. Generally most users only look at the top ten results so you will want to get your website promoted so as to get on this page for your chosen keywords. By using a keyword research tool such as the keyword lookup in the Google Web Master Tools kit you can find the single most popular keyword for your industry.

Conclusion

Wheww. What an amazing amount of work! I hadn’t realised when I started the process of getting a website up and running, how complicated it all is and how many factors you have to consider before even designing the website. The word web design is really a misnomer, as people often think it’s just about the graphic design on the home page, and the branding of the product. Unless you are a computer whizz, most people have no idea how much goes into designing and building a website and the systems that support the work you want it to do. I hope that this article gives you an understanding and insight into the whole process of website development from start to finish.Next time you type in a web address or click on a link to a website, remember all the above work that has probably gone into it!

Web Site Redesign and SEO

J Hodson operates Canonical SEO, a Charlotte, NC based SEO consulting and training company servicing clients throughout the US. Visit our blog to learn SEO free online.

What Is Internet Marketing – Here Are Some Quick Descriptions

What is Internet marketing?

1. Depending on whom you ask, the term Internet marketing can mean a variety of things. At one time, Internet marketing consisted mostly of having a website or placing banner ads on other websites. On the other end of the spectrum, there are loads of companies telling you that you can make a fortune overnight on the Internet and who try to sell you some form of “Internet marketing program“.

Today, Internet marketing, or online marketing, is evolving into a broader mix of components a company can use as a means of increasing sales – even if your business is done completely online, partly online, or completely offline. The decision to use Internet marketing as part of a company’s overall marketing strategy is strictly up to the company of course, but as a rule, Internet marketing is becoming an increasingly important part of nearly every company’s marketing mix. For some online businesses, it is the only form of marketing being practiced.

2. Internet marketing is comparatively inexpensive when compared to the ratio of cost against the reach of the target audience. Internet marketing is a fantastic way to bring more profit to your business. Internet marketing is a cost effective way to deliver excellence buyers for your services at little cost compared to most types of marketing services.

Search engines are important to your Internet marketing strategy because according to a recent study, some 85% of all Web site traffic originates from either a search engine or directory. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most successful tactics used in e-Marketing today.

3. Internet marketing is the business of both advertising and selling goods and services over the Internet. This form of business is ever-increasing in popularity, with millions of people now making purchases on the Internet. Internet marketing began in the early 1990s as primarily a means of product description, consisting merely of text descriptions. As technology progressed, Internet marketing rapidly advanced to include pictures and other rich graphics as part of advertisements for products and services. After realizing the remarkable potential of this means of marketing, Internet-based companies started opening their virtual doors for business. As opposed to what are now known as “brick and mortar” operations, these e-businesses offer their products and services to a growing number of consumers, conducting all, or nearly all, of their business in the virtual world of the Internet.

There are numerous forms of marketing on the Internet. For more details go to www.split-test-profits.com Among them are article marketing, blog marketing, e-mail marketing, search engine marketing (to include search engine optimization), banner ads, pay-per-click ads, and pop-up ads. It is important to note that each of these forms catches the attention of the target market in different ways, and some may be more effective than others depending on the product or service, the target market, and the strategy and goal of the business marketing itself. Among the business functions that may require use of different means in their strategies are client service, sales, public relations, information organization, and others.

4. Internet marketing is still a complete mystery to a large majority of Internet users. For a lot of users, Internet marketing is seen as some odd area of the web, occupied with silly get-rich-quick schemes and nasty characters ready to rip off the innocent and uninformed customer at the click of a mouse.

Worldwide there are now over a billion Internet users, representing one large global consumer base or marketplace. The total amount of goods sold online has been steadily increasing each year as the Internet gains in both popularity and familiarity. Studies have shown people shop online because of lower prices, a wider selection of products, easier comparison shopping, and many just prefer not having to travel to stores to make a purchase.

5. Think of your website as a local shop that is situated down a dead end street. To succeed your customers need to know where you are and what you are about.

First of all this means having good road signs and there being a road layout that makes the street easy to get to. In the online world the road signs and layout are the website software and optimised content and they are just as important if you want online customers to find you.

6. Internet marketing is the research of the target audience, studying the market situation and predicting changes for the online market, plus the package of actions aimed at bringing potential customers to the website by improving the web site’s visibility in search engines and placing all sorts of ads throughout the Net. An integral part of the Internet marketing is the web site’s visits statistics.

Any of your actions toward increasing sales are to be evaluated in terms of their efficiency. The quality analysis of the Internet statistics will help you understand your prospective customers’ demands and interests, evaluate the attraction and retention methods that are good for the customers and reveal what makes them to not get interested in your products or services.

Internet Business Finally Explained

Marketing on the Internet, also known as Internet Marketing, is quite popular nowadays. Internet marketing is the process of promoting a product or service via the internet. Internet Marketing is counter intuitive to what you learn in school.

Esentially, Internet Marketing comes down to locating the right customers online and persuading them to purchase. Fairly similar to other forms of marketing, the goal of Internet Marketing is to satisfy the wants and needs of customers. Internet marketing can also mean that you undertake blogging activites that make you money, which is called blogging for money.

Internet marketing is a broad term that refers to any promotional activity over the Internet designed to attract more customers for a business. This includes paid advertising, such as banners ads and pay-per-click ads, and traffic-increasing activities such as search engine optimization and blog marketing.

The advantage of internet marketing is you can directly target customers that are actively searching for the services you provide and point them directly to your website. Apart from that, one of the many benefits associated with Internet marketing is also the availability of information. Please go to my blog about make money online and work from home and get more traffic site to see for yourself what Internet Marketing really is about.

By creating an Internet marketing strategy that uses your specific business and product as well as acknowledges the customers that want what you offer, you will be able to create an effective campaign. It can be far less expensive and far more effective than many other forms of popular marketing. You need to choose the customer that is truly interested in your business in order to get the maximum ROI (return on investment) that you can.

Typically, building a website for your business is the first step you need to undertake. If you want a truly successful business, you need to put in a lot of hard work and effort. If you’re serious about building an online business, I think your time should be focused on finding or developing the best products to meet your customers’ needs, and closing the sales eventually.

The Australian Tourist

How to find keyword niches

Are you a new webmaster? And looking for a niche place in the cyber world? Or simply looking for a great rating among the search results of major search engines like Google, Yahoo or MSN? In any case, you must indulge in finding keywords. Yes, by finding keywords, that are apt and according to your niche market, you will certainly be able to improvise on your search engine ranking.

The purpose of searching keywords is to find out the exact phrases that are requested by people in the searches carried in the major search engines. If your website has the relevant information about the most searched terms and keywords, your website would be rated higher by the major search engines. The entire process of improving search engine ranking for a website is a wide process and is called search engine optimization. Finding keywords is one of the most important parts of search engine optimization. To start the keyword search for your website, make a list of the keywords related to your website. You can easily find the keywords by using online keyword services.

A lot are trying their luck a long tail keywords.This is a searched for term that contains several words which are very targeted, and can pay nicely.Another is niche keywords .This is a niche where the searchs are even more target than the long tails.You can get niche keywords software That will help greatly,but dont be fooled by all the hype of the freebie niche keyword services.

One popular keyword service provider on the web is word tracker. Using word tracker tools and services, all you have to do is to type a keyword and wait for the list to appear on the computer screen. And you will you have a direct access to hundreds of keywords related to the keyword you have typed in the box. For instance: your website is a website that markets and promotes skin products. Type the word “skin” and you will have all the top keywords related to skin. The keywords will be something like: skin care, oily skin, skin diseases, skin products, animal skin and so on. Now you have to select the relevant keywords for your website. You cannot choose animal skin for your site which caters specifically to the human skin cosmetics and skin care. Yes you can include the keywords like skin care, skin cream, dry skin, oily skin and many others.

You have a number of keyword services and tools that can help you find the most searched keywords for your website. While you select the keyword with the help of these tools, you will also come to know how many number of times the keyword has been searched on the internet.

Let us go back to skin example: suppose you select dry skin, you can also track the exact number of times “dry skin” has been searched on the internet. The number can be some thousand times. Incase you choose “dry skin type”, the number of searches can be less. So, you are suggested to select the keyword with a higher search count first. Another tricky method of finding keywords is to keep an eye on your competitors. Look at the meta-tags of your competitors website. The meta-tags are a good source of significant keywords.

You can also seek help from your customers regarding the keywords they use in their search. Having a weblog page in your website is also helpful in tracking the keywords. Each weblog page has a link which shows the keywords being used to search your page. Once you have the right keywords in hand, you can hit the market with the most relevant and desired information on your website.