By: Arthur Cooper
Submitted: 2011-05-24 21:49:52 | Word Count: 664
There are various ways to market your business on the internet. Depending on your business, some strategies may be more effective than others. Businesses looking to market online usually opt for pay per click (PPC) or search engine optimization (SEO).
PPC
[ advertisement ]
This is a model that is used to direct traffic to websites by paying the search engine each time your ad is clicked. You bid on the keywords phrases that are most relevant to your business. Keep in mind that the competitors in your market will likely bid on the most common phrases as well. Bidding on these phrases can get very costly. You can target “long tail keywords” to avoid spending too much money on broad terms.
If your ad appears when a particular keyword phrase is searched, this is your chance to gain potential customers. Be sure that the landing page on your site directly pertains to the clicked advertisement. If your landing page does not directly correspond with the keyword searched, the user will likely leave your page. This increases your bounce rate and wastes your money.
PPC is expensive. You want to be sure that every click counts. The more relevant your keywords are to your landing pages, the likelihood of conversion increases.
A downside to PPC is that results may be short term. If you are outbid for a keyword phrase, you may lose your standing in search engines. In order to remain noticeable in search results, you must keep bidding and use a wide range of keywords and an effective strategy.
SEO
This is the process of improving the visibility of your website in organic search results. Below you will find a few tips for successful SEO:
Content: Make sure that the content on your site is fresh, relevant and updated often. The more helpful and informative your content, the more your site is seen as an asset. When writing the content for your site, always consider the user. Determine what your users are interested in and work on providing relevant information. All of the content on your site should be relevant to your products or services. Irrelevant content is the quickest way to increase your bounce rate.
On Site Optimization: We recommend that you create your website using a content management system (CMS) such as Joomla or WordPress. These CMS submit a notification to the search engines every time the content on your page is updated. You can also indicate priority pages on your site. All of your title tags and meta descriptions should be relevant to the content on your site.
Off Site Optimization: Back links are essential for successful SEO. Links to your site serve as votes for your site. If these votes are coming from sites that are noted as reputable by search engines, this increases your chances of gaining better standing in search engine results. Avoid link patterns and link farms. Google algorithm might find these linking trends to be spam and your rank might be affected negatively.
Conversion Optimization: Your goal is for a potential customer to respond to a call to action and convert. This is not always easy. Sometimes there are split test required to determine which marketing strategy works best. This will take trial and error. Use different graphics, font, header or content to see what generates the greatest response and the highest conversion rates.
This may seem like a lot to take on, it doesn™t have to be. Contact us today, we can help!
