Internet marketing is synonymous to web marketing and online marketing. It means promoting business online. Having an Internet marketing strategy could go along way strengthening web presence with high conversion rate. Development of a website does not stop when the design is completed. The website is just an instrument or a medium to a higher goal. A measure of a websites’ success is no measured with the way it looks, no matter how beautifully done it is, in view of a business owner, it is still a numbers game – the end-result of the Internet marketing campaign. Read More
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For those who have heard SEO but do not know what it means, it’s an acronym for Search Engine Optimization. It means optimizing your site for greater chances on appearing on Search Engine Result Page (SeRP). This is the primary goal of every website owners. It may sound simple but definitely requires attention and dedication to make it work in your advantage. It can either improve or damage reputation of a websites’ performance. It’s an Internet Marketing strategy that analyzes how Search Engine work and how people behave.
There are two types of SEO, on-page and off-page optimization. The on-page optimization is improving the elements within your site. This includes:
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Title that you would like to appear on SeRP</TITLE>
<META CONTENT=”description of the content”>
<META CONTENT=”keywords separated by comma “>
</HEAD>
- Content – content should written based on relevant keywords.
- Title Tags –appears on the top portion of the code of your page.
- Meta Tags –not required though it allows detailed description of your site. The most commonly abused tag is the keyword meta-tag. Google in fact recently mentioned that they do not use keyword to rank in web search result, other Search Engine still does. People have used it to spam search engines.
- Title and Alt Attributes – describes text links and images.
- Internal Linking – linking within the site
- URL Structure
Off-page optimization is on the other hand is any method done off-page to maximize performance, such as:
- Link Development – backlinking, link exchange etc.
- Article Marketing – article distribution
- Social Media Marketing (SMM) – Facebook, Twitter etc.
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – paid listing
- Pay Per Click (PPC Campaign) – AdWords etc.
There are numerous techniques to optimize site off-page. The methods above are just common strategies. Both methods complement each other.
Although different search engine optimization experts have their own opinion which is better used to optimize websites. In my opinion, no matter how optimize the pages of your site is, without proper and continuous off-page optimization effort your SEO campaign may not be as successful as you thought it would be.
Additionally, you may implement both but still you will wonder why your site does not appear on the first page of SeRP, don’t be frustrated, there are more factors to consider including the number of years you have been in the web. There is no road map to follow in SEO – not because everybody is doing it, you should as well.
Before doing anything always remember that every move you make could either break or make the best out of your business. SEO may be simplified in layman’s term but it’s not for everybody to chew. All in all, experimenting on techniques and keeping up to date with the current trend is one of the factor behind SEO success.
Site owners have been focusing on Google PageRank which should not be the case. You could also use conversion rates and ROI. Google have in fact removed it from the data in the Webmasters’ tool. It’s not as important as it is. They only update Google Ranking a few times a year as indicated in the Google Webmaster Help thread:
“We’ve been telling people for a long time that they shouldn’t focus on Google PageRank so much; many site owners seem to think it’s the most important metric for them to track, which is simply not true. We removed it because we felt it was silly to tell people not to think about it, but then to show them the data, implying that they should look at it. :-)” – Susan Moskwa, Google Employee
All this time site owners and webmasters have been having the wrong notion. They think that the higher the PageRank is the more important your site is. This could stop people from focusing too much on PageRank and more on the relevancy of the content. Though admittedly, we could not change the perception of the people overnight.
There is far more important Key Performance Indicator (KPI) to choose from to say how well your site is performing. Like for example, conversion rate, perhaps you have a huge traffic to your site but are these converted to sales? Or are these Visitors your target market. Site owners and web masters could use Analytics to monitor website performance using different metrics. In fact, it was also stated in Google Webmaster Central FAQ Crawling, Indexing and Ranking as follows:
Q: My site’s PageRank has gone up / gone down / not changed in months!
A: Don’t worry. In fact, don’t bother thinking about it. We only update the PageRank displayed in Google Toolbar a few times a year; this is our respectful hint for you to worry less about PageRank, which is just one of over 200 signals that can affect how your site is crawled, indexed and ranked. PageRank is an easy metric to focus on, but just because it’s easy doesn’t mean it’s useful for you as a site owner. If you’re looking for metrics, we’d encourage you to check out Analytics, think about conversion rates, ROI (return on investment), relevancy, or other metrics that actually correlate to meaningful gains for your website or business.
Which are you going to use as a metric really depends on what is important to your business. In the end you should always measure you’re success in terms of optimizing your site by comparing your website performance vis-à-vis operational performance – end result.
Name me a person that do not know what a website is, perhaps even the elderly knew about it. It’s actually the page you browse on the web, just like the establishment or stores you walked-in to. It’s a visual representation of a company, store or even organization. A website is an important investment for every industry. It is even important for professional practitioners like doctors and lawyers. However, not everybody has all the factors to develop loyal clientele.
Having access to the World Wide Web makes the impossible possible, just look at meeting conducted online, businesses surviving after the recession and shopping without literally leaving your home. I am probably one of the million people who could not live without an Internet connection. It makes life a little bit easier for me. I could learn without literally staying at home – FREE. But what makes a good website design, what people would actually love to see and experience in your site. Technology is changing so fast. HTML – PHP – CSS – CMS and all sort of things that could be utilize and integrated in your site. People are easy to distract. They try and see what is better. We forget though. We forget the simple goal. Websites are created for user experience. Regardless of the physical design.
What are the essentials of a good web design? First and most important factor is the Cross-browser Compatibility. It simply means the website runs in whatever browser visitors used to navigate the site. The best thing webmasters should do is make the site WC3 compliant.
User-friendly Interface is the next on the list. Basically it is the navigation to the sites’ interface. Users usually want a straightforward approach to a websites’ navigation. It’s a good practice to keep in mind that some users do not have the time to study how to navigate within your site; they are just there to get what they want and not figure out how to make it work.
Another thing to consider is the loading time. Flash designs and creative images are very impressive provided that they load fast, but if visitors to your site would have to wait 3-5 minutes before it loads, I don’t think it helps attracting potential clients.
Privacy and Terms of Use also need to integrate into the site specifically. This is the page in the site that details how information is collected and other information with regards to user security and privacy.
Lastly, accessibility, a good website design not only caters to the general public.
Having a good web design is indeed very important nowadays, aside from cutting operational cost, it reaches a wider market without spending millions. So if you’re spending on website or would like to have one, be sure to remember that the site is created NOT for YOU but for your VISITORS, NOT for SPIDERS but for USERS.
Website client forms (such as a contact us page or a price request quote form) prove to be a useful tool for collecting client data. For example, email and phone numbers so that qualified leads can be cultivated via newsletters, mailings, etc.
However, most people do not prefer to fill out forms. They are tedious and time consuming. So, making your forms easy and quick to fill out will ensure they are done so that a company can collect the data to their advantage.
To keep the form efficient, try to collect only what you need. Really, the main items of interest are names, telephone and email contact information. Also, a postal code should be enough for your user tracking statistics. This keeps your form easy.
If you are using drop down boxes, keep the choices simple or use an enhanced text field that incorporates an autocomplete function so that the user can enter a couple of keystrokes and retrieve the city they are looking for without having to scroll down a multitude of choices.
Building an email database is important because sending effective e-mails on a regular basis will help increase your registration numbers, drive traffic to your website, and build loyalty with your participants:
- E-mail is free. With no production, materials or postage expenses, you can easily and affordably communicate event information.
- E-mail is fast. Receive time-sensitive information in minutes instead of days or weeks.
- E-mail generates an immediate response. By providing links within your e-mail, you give potential participants the opportunity to register right then and there. You can see the results of your efforts instantly.
- E-mail is a target. You can easily segment your lists into groups so your e-mails go to the individuals who are most likely to respond to that particular message.
- E-mail is proactive. Instead of passively waiting for participants to visit your Website, e-mail enables you to communicate with and educate your existing participants.
- E-mail expands your reach. Grow your database by sending information to your participants and encourage them to forward to their own friends.
- E-mail allows you to foster long lasting relationships. Build a regular, ongoing dialogue with those registrants/participants who appreciate the routine communication.
- E-mail will grow your organization. Maintaining and growing your e-mail database will allow you to fully utilize your services, including free broadcast e-mails and an upgraded version of HTML e-mails in order to reach more participants.
So, you have decided you need a website? Great! Nicely built websites engage users and keep them motivated to return to your website. The more this happens, the more likelihood they will spend time on your website and review your goods and services, ultimately leading them to make a purchase. The more time a prospective client spends on your website, the greater the likelikhood of a purchase being made. However, getting a customer to your website in the first place is the hard part. Building a website is easy. Attracting quality customers is not. You need to create an effective marketing strategy to engage your customers so they ultimately buy from you.
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