If your business isn’t already using some form of web marketing…shame on you! Virtually everyone is online these days. People shop online, they socialize online, and they certainly look for what you sell online. The question is, are you going to be there when they do?
I guess website marketing can refer to many different things, but for the purpose of this article I will just say that it is marketing your business on the web.
In my experience, the top 3 website marketing strategies are as follows:
google ads
Google AdWords are the small advertisements found on the right hand side of a Google search results page. Also known as pay per click, they appear when someone types predetermined keywords into the Google search engine. You can also find them on websites that have similar content. This is known as the content network. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad and sends them to your website. You can also control your budget and where your ads will show geographically. Obviously, the main benefit of AdWords is that you can send targeted traffic to your website and pay only when someone visits it. In an unstable economy, features like this will allow many smaller businesses to continue advertising. Think about it… if someone told you that it’s possible to pay only when targeted visitors actually visited your site, would you care?
Merchandising of articles
Article marketing is becoming more and more popular these days. Basically, online articles like this are written and submitted to online article directories. The good ones will be keyword rich and will eventually find their way to Google’s organic search results on the left hand side of a search results page. This type of marketing will also create a lot of backlinks to your website which will increase your popularity in the eyes of search engines. It can take a lot longer to get things up and running with article marketing compared to AdWords, but aside from your time, you don’t have to pay for traffic.
The website itself
Once people searching for what you sell end up on your website, it’s up to the website to convert that prospect into a buyer. There are countless ways to accomplish this, but if you can remember to always keep your website visitors in mind and tailor the site to them instead of your own ego, you’ll be on the right track. Making sure your website is easy to navigate and full of useful information also helps. Just think about what you’d like to see if you ended up on your own site.
There are many other elements to web marketing, but in my opinion, these are the 3 best website marketing strategies. Being there when your prospect is looking for what he’s selling, and then selling it to them is really what it’s all about.
