What to look for when choosing a web hoster for your online business

admin    Website Marketing     Business, Choosing, hoster, Look, Online

What to look for when choosing a web hoster for your online business

Are you serious about making a fortune online? Then choosing a web hoster is a choice that can either make or break your business. Here are a checklist you should have in mind when making this vital choice for your online business.

Unlimited Webhosting
First of all make sure that you choose a web hoster that makes it easy for you to grow your business. Can you host as many domains you need in your business without increasing your expenses? Or does the web hoster limit the number of websites you can build? Do they have an uptime guarantee and a support system that can help you when you need it? Do they have dedicated servers? Do they support you with enough bandwith or do they limit you here as well?

Autoresponder
When building a business online you need several tools. Domain names and unlimited webhosting are vital tools for your business, but they are not the only ones. Building your own email list is fundamental if you want to make a fortune online. Then you need an autoresponder to help you automate your business. Normally this is something you don’t get from hosting companies. However there are exceptions. Having it all in one place will make it easier for you building your business. Also make sure your choice of company makes it easy for you by supporting you with email marketing software and good tutorial videos.

Bulk mailing
Also make sure your web hoster allow bulk mailing. Succeeding well in Internet marketing without mass mailing the email list you have grown is rare. Many hosting companies are so afraid of spamming that they set limitations on the number of emails you can send at a time. This will cause you lots of trouble. Avoid it if you can. There won’t be much use of a large customer list if your emails to them won’t get delivered properly. Also make sure your web hoster supports you with tracking software that helps you learn as much as possible about the emails you send out in order to optimize your messages.

Video producer
Making it big in Internet marketing today you need to deliver your marketing messages in many different ways. Using video is almost necessary in the online world of today. Make it easier for yourself by choosing a web hoster that understands Internet marketing and therefore supports you with all the tools you need in order to build a fortune. Having it all in one place will make it so much easier for you.

Holding your costs as low as possible is important for any successful business. Creating a business on low budget is definitely possible on Internet today. However make sure that you make your savings in the right places. Getting a free web hoster is not difficult to find, but be aware that that it may cost your business more than you save at first eyesight.

The Right Web Design Look and Feel – Does it Matter?

admin    Website Design     Design, Feel, Look, Matter, Right

The Right Web Design Look and Feel – Does it Matter?

This might seem like an obvious statement. Of course the look and feel of my web site matters but how much does it actually matter and what can I do to improve my web design interface? Many companies are constantly tweaking their web site with a view to capturing the attention of potential customers. Although not all web sites are commercial in nature, the majority of web site owners are targeting potential customers with the ultimate aim of securing online leads and sales. Having a pretty web design is nice but it is no guarantee to converting visits into leads and sales.On what basis then should web designers set the look and feel of a web site and how are they monitoring the results of the web design look and feel on visitor’s behaviour?

Whilst the web offers massive sales opportunities, it takes specialist knowledge and constant research and web design intervention to actually secure orders online. Getting traffic to your web site is important. Search engine optimisation to improve your web site’s organic ranking on search engines and pay per click will get you traffic. But traffic alone will not fetch you sales. You could literally have hundreds of visits to your web site and end up with no leads at the end of the day. If you are paying for your clicks, it could be a big waste of money.

The average web surfer i.e. your potential web design customers spends about 10 seconds on your web site. That is a very short time but it is the only window of opportunity you might have to sell your web design services and products to that potential customer. Putting together the web design solution that will work and deliver this tall order is the key to a successful web design business or any business for that matter.

You cannot beat marketing research in planning any selling tools and you do not have to be a marketing guru to start thinking marketing. Start by deciding which segment of the web design market you want to target. Is it the discount low cost segment or are you more into the corporate web design sector? Selling discount web design through a corporate sophisticated web site might put the potential low budget customers off. Conversely, corporate customers looking for an expensive, high end and sophisticated web design would expect their supplier to have a corporate web site.

Once you have established which segment of the web design market you are serving and decided on the ‘discount’ or corporate look, start looking at the web design elements and where these fit on your homepage. A good starting point to putting together an effective web page that works is research on the behaviour of web surfers. Try typing ‘heat map’ into Google and look for ‘Where should I place Google ads on my page?’ The web site offers some indication of the ‘hot spots’ on a web page i.e. the areas where web visitors are most likely to spend time looking. Use this as a first step in putting together your web design. Try placing your key product offers and contact details in the hottest spots of the heat map – showed as bright orange on the heat map.

Once our web site is online, no amount of reading can beat a good testing procedure for your web design. Get your web site online and start analysing what’s happening. Look at your basic stats like number of visits. Then start looking a bit deeper into your stats using some analytic tools to check the effectiveness of your web design. Google offers some free analytics tools that allow you to easily find out which links visitors are or are not clicking on your web page.

Look at important links that are key to generating leads, like your ‘request a quote button’. If these important links are being ignored, start tweaking the web design look and feel to make them more prominent and visible of on your web site. Use position (remember the heat map), bright colours and catchy words to draw the attention of your potential web design customers.

When it comes to the look and feel of your web design solution, remember that looking pretty is not enough. The web site must respond to key marketing issues like your market segment and web surfer behaviour. The next time you visit a web page, try and see if the look and feel achieves the objectives of the web site.

Myspace Versus Facebook…a Look At Two Giants In The Online Social Media Arena

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Myspace Versus Facebook…a Look At Two Giants In The Online Social Media Arena

MySpace is a popular social networking website offering an interactive, user submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos for people worldwide. MySpace has been one of the most wildly successful sites in recent years, amassing over 120 million profiles while transforming social networking online.

It has created a central community comprised of people across the globe. It is one of the most visited sites in the world and it’s introducing a huge number of people to content syndication through news feeds and it allows millions of people around the world to publish on the web for the first time.

MySpace is also used by people to display their talents and it’s about keeping in touch with friends and making new friends. It’s all about interactivity and the ability of people to participate actively in your MySpace community.

It is an amazing community building tool and is starting to become an amazing marketing tool by giving internet marketers the power to drive large numbers of potential clients to a Website. MySpace allows users to customize their user profile pages by entering HTML, no Javascript, into such areas as “About Me,” “I’d Like to Meet,” and “Interests.”

It has a Groups feature which allows a group of users to share a common page and message board. MySpaceTV is now in beta mode, and will probably be launched as a separate site in either 2008 or early 2009. The MySpace Polls is a feature that was brought back in 2008 to enable users to post polls on their profile and share them with other users.

MySpace is the world’s largest Social Networking website and maintains a dominant position as a media site, primarily aimed at youth, giving them the opportunity to express their feelings on a variety of topics.

Facebook, on the other hand, has the largest number of registered users among college-focused networking sites, according to Wikipedia. Facebook’s culture, appearance and principles have become the envy of the social networking business. It has moved in exactly the opposite direction, from MySpace, going for a more sophisticated and increasingly older audience.

Social media online is extending our real world networks so that we can carry on conversations internationally as well as locally. Facebook is a tool to keep in touch with friends and family around the globe and is the most popular social networking site in several English-speaking countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom.

Facebook is often compared to MySpace but there is one significant difference between the two sites and this is the visual appearance. Facebook is cleanly designed and has a sophisticated, upscale sense about it.

Facebook is a private company and doesn’t disclose sales figures but the Financial Times reported it made 150 million dollars worth of sales last year. Facebook is already supporting several languages and they successfully launched their Spanish speaking version recently.

Statistically speaking as of January, 2008, according to TechRadar, Facebook has more than 60 million active users worldwide compared with MySpace’s over 120 million. On average 300,000 new registrant’s sign up to MySpace everyday versus Facebook’s 250,000. For Facebook the fastest growing demographic are those 25 years old and older while 85% of MySpace users are of voting age 18 or older.

No matter how you slice it, these are two very successful and very influential players in the Social Media online arena today and should be for a very long time to come. And there is no telling how big a resource they can become for Internet Marketers worldwide.

Search Engine Marketing: What to Look for in an SEO Consultant

admin    SEO Marketing     Consultant, Engine, Look, Marketing, Search

Search Engine Marketing: What to Look for in an SEO Consultant

When you want to add some search engine optimized content to your website it’s probably a good idea to hire a professional SEO consultant. A professional SEO consultant can help you decide what services you need in order to overhaul your existing website to make it more search engine optimized and to implement some search engine marketing. A consultant can also tell you what percentage of content you need to have on your site and what Meta tags to use.

If you have never used any search engine optimization on your site at all then you will definitely need to hire an experienced consultant to make sure that your site gets a complete search engine optimization makeover. Many consultants offer more services than just content so if you already have a professional copy writer you should ask that writer if he or she also does consultations or provides other services.

If you need to start looking for an SEO consultant here are some tips on selecting one. When you are considering a consultant ask to see previous examples of any SEO content that person has written but also ask to see websites that the person has written for. After all, the point of hiring someone is to get your website noticed, isn’t it? So you need to see some of the websites that the they worked on in order to know for sure that they can deliver high quality search enegine marketing services.

A good way to tell if a web site that the SEO consultant has worked on is really doing well in search engine rankings and drawing traffic is to look on the Alexa website. You can enter the name of the website or the website address and see the search engine ranking for that particular website over a period of months, weeks and days. If that site is doing well then they are experienced enough to provide quality SEO services but if the site is ranked very low or doesn’t get a lot of hits then you might want to look for another consultant.

Another way that you can tell if the consultant that you’re considering hiring is of high quality is by what his or her rates are. Someone who has high rates but a poor portfolio probably hasn’t been working very long and might not have the skills that you need to increase your web site traffic. If the consultant’s rates are very low then he or she might be trying to build up a portfolio of work which shows inexperience.

You should always be willing to pay a fair rate for SEO services just like you would be for any other professional services. Don’t expect to get great SEO services for next to nothing. This is your business and your business is important so it’s worth investing the money for quality work.

Web Design: a First Look

admin    Website Design     Design, First, Look

Web Design: a First Look

Web design can be very simple with the advanced web design tools to help you that are available today. I suggest starting off using Microsoft Frontpage for your first few web designs. It is without a doubt the best beginning HTML editor for web designers and developers to use. The problem with designing your first web page with it is that even a old version of the web design software is around one hundred and fifty dollars. You can however download a free thirty day trial from the Microsoft site. There is an alternative web design software that you can download for free which is very similar to the FrontPage software for designing your first website. The program is called NVU (pronounced n-view). The NVU web design software has a lot of the same features and is an open source web design program which means it is a free download. You can download the software from this link

http://www.hereiamlive.com/DL/Downloads/.

Making your first web design is easy, it is creating something well that can become difficult. You would have a hard time using just one of the aforementioned programs to design a good website. The images for the new web design would have to be altered and buttons would have to be created. Now an imaging software solution must be considered. The most obvious imaging solution for web design would be to PhotoShop; but again even on Ebay the product is sold for two or three hundred dollars. There is an open source alternative to this program as well, the Gimp Shop. This software will be more than enough for all the web design needs for the beginner and advanced web designers. The Gimp can be downloaded from the above link as well. For a more simple imaging solution you might take a look at Macromedia’s fireworks. I find it be the most effective when making buttons or overlaying text onto buttons for my web design. This software is anywhere from sixty to one hundred dollars on Ebay.

Now that you have the tools to start your new web design it’s time to learn how they work. The learning curve on the products I have suggested are the best out there, but that does not mean you will be able to sit down without any training and bust out a quality web design in a day. You will need some help. I suggest you visit our Hereiamlive Web Design Help Forum http://www.hereiamlive.com/forum/index.php

The Hereiamlive Web Design Help Forum has many articles on web design and the development of websites. The site hosts a variety of free training videos, and a questions and answers section where you can have your web design questions answered by a professional for free.

Your are now armed with the tools and knowledge to create a professional web design. Your main challenge is to create a good web design is learning the more complex workings of your imaging software. After you master the image layering and some of the available specials effects your web designs will look vastly improved. Once you accomplish making a few professional web designs I would recommend learning Macromedia Flash to spice up your websites. Remember when using Flash you do not want to use too much as the search engines have a hard time picking up the Flash code. You always want to have a search engine friendly web design so sometimes less is more.

Well, hope this article helps with your web design needs.

Good Luck, and may all your first web design be a great one!

By: Corey Turcotte

www.hereiamlive.com

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Take A Look At Underused Social Media Marketing Tips For Attorneys

admin    Social Media     Attorneys, Look, Marketing, Media, Social, Take, Tips, Underused

Take A Look At Underused Social Media Marketing Tips For Attorneys

Social media marketing sites are greatly underused by attorneys. It can be used to get your firm and practice to the public and help increase the traffic to your site with some undervalued strategies.

They work because you get better search engine results which results in more traffic to your web presence. It offers an affordable way to connect you to potential clients and gives you the best exposure available. Make sure that what you do is useful to the people that are looking for it.

Use video to enhance your marketing strategy. YouTube is the most common one, and a quick discussion of legal matters pertaining to your practice can help make you be considered an expert in your field, which can help you get more views. They can be uploaded and impart wisdom, but must be under 10 minutes in length.

You can add these videos to your blog, as well. They can be written by you, or outsourced to freelancers to give you valuable content. Make sure that you are not solely advertising yourself, but actually have things that can be useful. By giving your site content, people will return and then consider you for legal needs.

Podcasts are also very undervalued, and can explain basic tips for legal matters people need, such as wills if that is your focus. This can allow people to take them on mobile devices, and adding a link to your website can give you good exposure to the people that use them. They can offer an additional way for your videos and audio to reach potential clients, and as long as you offer valuable information, people will want to see them.

Facebook and Myspace can also be a great way to use multimedia, and they are for more then social engagements. Many people forget that the can be effective tools for marketing, but on Facebook a general information page sponsored by your firm may actually get you more fans and viewers then a fan page for your firm alone. This can be an added value to your business and can tap you into a virtually untapped market.

When you add the videos and audio, remember to put them onto your business cards as a site that links to you. Advertising with social media marketing can put a face to you firm and make you more accessible to many as their lawyer since they will already feel like they know you.

Related Social Media Tips Articles

4 Things to Look for in a Link Building Service

admin    Buy Inbound Links     Building, Link, Look, service, Things

4 Things to Look for in a Link Building Service

One of the best things a business or individual can do to
promote a web site is contact a link building service. Needless
to say, high-quality, relevant links are very valuable, and a
solid link building campaign has the potential to have a high
return on investment. Because of the importance of links in
today’s search algorithms, businesses and individuals should not
take choosing a link building service lightly. The following are
a few tips to help sort out the good link building firms from
the bad.

1. Webmasters seeking a link building service should look for
expertise first. The link builder should have a grasp of
advanced link building algorithms (such as VIPS and TrustRank).
Reading through the link building service’s web site with the
utmost care is a must. Quite simply, the link building service
should demonstrate knowledge and understanding of SEO,
marketing, search engine algorithms, and appropriate business
practices. Experts in the field of link building will
undoubtedly make their expertise known on their web site.

Additionally, it is advisable to look at the link building
service’s web site as a whole. Is the design professional and
user friendly? It may seem like a waste of time investigating
the web site design of the company, but it can be a very telling
representation of what type of link building service owns that
site. Experts in any field take the highest pride in their work.
An expert link building service would want to present itself in
the most positive light. Since the web site is indeed the portal
from the link building service to the customer, its design and
usability are quintessential. If a link building service is
haphazard with their web site design, they will certainly be
more likely to haphazardly build links.

2. When searching for a link building service, one should look
for examples of proven success. A solid link building service
will make past successes available for all to see. When coming
across the proven success statements on the web site, be sure to
follow up on the claims of the link building service. If the
service claims to be ranked number one in Google for “widgets,”
be sure to follow it up. Search “widgets” in Google and see if
the service is truly number one. If it is, then that link
building service might be a good choice.

3. The reputation of the link building service should be taken
into account. People in the SEO industry understand high quality
link building, versus low quality. A recommendation from peers
should be considered to be very valuable, because colleagues can
often be the best judges and offer the most objective opinions.
The SEO industry is relatively small, and most SEOs are familiar
with others’ work. A link building service that is well known in
the industry is certainly worth consideration.

4. Any link building service should be honest about how links
are obtained. There are straight foreword ways of building links
(observing search engine guidelines) and there are ways that are
considered to be “black Hat” (not observing search engine
guidelines). Depending on preference, one should consider how
the link builder would obtain links. If your web site has a
reputation to protect, then hiring a “black hat” SEO could be a
gamble. Additionally, search engine algorithms are always
improving in order to shield themselves from black hat SEO
tactics. That being said, a link obtained dishonestly could end
up hurting the web site rather than helping.

Essentially, the best link building service will proudly display
past successes and offer all pertinent information about its
link building service. A top-notch link builder will have
expertise on the subject, and wonderful presentation
(professional web site design). The link building service will
make past successes available, and inform the client about how
links will be obtained. The link building service should also
have a good reputation within the SEO industry. The best firms
will demonstrate knowledge, understanding, and initiative in
link building practices. Searching for a high-quality link
building service can be tedious, but if carried out correctly,
the rewards will far surpass the effort.

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A Look At The Best Amongst 101 Online Marketing Tips For The Newbie To Make Money Online

admin    Website Marketing     Amongst, Best, Look, Marketing, Money, Newbie, Online, Tips

A Look At The Best Amongst 101 Online Marketing Tips For The Newbie To Make Money Online

In present times, you will find more and more people eyeing on new ideas to make money online. However, very few of them turn out to be truly successful in this venture. Well, to turn out to be really successful in this venture, just check out the best amongst 101 online marketing tips for the newbie to make money online. So, here we go…

•Why not opt for the job of a customer representative. You can sign up with the services of customer representatives for helping customer with the services they need pertaining to their products. The official websites of the company have these kind of job listed under the “career” link or tab.

•If you run or own your blog or website associated with a specific niche, make sure to contact relevant companies. Ensure familiarizing them with the web properties and provide advertisement placement. Some companies may put forward the proposal of paying you a significant amount if you allow them to advertise on your site.

•Try providing referral help. If you are a member of a program or an affiliate ensure obtaining for relevant help from the owner. In other words, you may contact the owner to check if you have sound knowledge about the program or not. If not, don’t feel shy to ask for help.

I agree that making money online can turn out to be a challenging venture, particularly those new into this sphere. However, if you start promoting a product or a service and obtain sound knowledge on it, you are sure to generate sufficient amount.If you ask me to put forward my personal opinion through which a newbie can make money then I would suggest you to go for internet marketing. Online marketing incurs in connecting a product or service to potential clients. Affiliate marketing is an ideal way through which you can earn good profits online. There are tens and thousands of affiliates who earn as much as US00-10000 on a routine basis.

The only thing that lies on your part is to join an affiliate program for free followed by using different skills for promoting your products. Whenever a user purchases anything, you earn a commission almost instantaneously. However, keep in mind that prior to promoting anything; you need to conduct a thorough research work. What I mean to say is that the more campaigns you will have at your hand, the more money you can make.

Don’t think that making money online is a simple job…you need to work, devote ample time followed by putting in adequate efforts if you want to attain success in this venture. In other words, there is not shortcut to success! Don’t think of earning quick cash, have patience and see the results for your own self. If possible, prefer maintaining a safe distance from companies that make fake promises to help you make money online. Who knows at the nick of the hour, you can come to know that they are nothing but scams!

Follow the best amongst 101 online marketing tips for the newbie to make money online and see how it helps you!

What You Should Look for in an SEO Company

admin    SEO Marketing     Company, Look, Should

What You Should Look for in an SEO Company

Because of the growing success of SEO in internet marketing, web development companies today are now incorporating their own SEO campaigns to further increase their capability in providing quality websites for their clients; quality in terms of ROI (Return of Investment).

As part of the many strategies of internet marketing, SEO has become one of the most popular means of promoting a website through use of search engines. Search engines, as we all know, are the only gateway for us, users, to find the information around the web; most information coming from popular websites, others coming from those we didn’t even know exist. This is why SEO makes it its top priority to get a website to get the top rank on popular search engines such as Yahoo! and Google.

Many businesses today, such as yours, are about to make use of the services that an SEO company provides. But before entering in such agreement, there are things that you should know about SEO and the process that these SEO guys take to make their efforts successful. Here is a list of what SEO companies do and how they can provide you with quality services.

Ranking Assurances

It’s important for an SEO company to make assurances on the rank they can provide you with. If you ask them about that and you couldn’t get straight answers, then you might as well look elsewhere, because these guys can’t assure you with a successful SEO campaign. Ask questions and references if necessary. Don’t worry, they won’t charge you for that.

Check out what the SEO Philippines can provide you for your SEO campaign and efforts.

Website Redone

SEO campaign involves a lot of changes in the structure of a website. There are several things that an SEO company looks at on a website before starting their campaign, and among the things to consider include the number of graphics or flash objects embedded on the site and complexity of navigation. If you have lots of embedded objects and your navigation includes pull-down menus and hierarchical trees that do not make use of CSS, then you’re in for a lot of problems. These features prevent search engine spiders in crawling your website, and if this happens, your SEO efforts will take a lot longer. Worse comes to worst, you may have to make a major overhaul of your website to make it more SEO friendly. Keyword rich content are what search engines spiders were looking for. It’s like a buffet of live insects for these spiders to crawl on to and spin their webs.

Link Building

Among the many strategies involved in SEO campaigns, link building is the most important. It shares about half of the success of an SEO campaign. An SEO company should provide you a step by step approach on every process of link building they are making. It’s important for you to make sure that every link that they put on your website is relevant to the theme of your website, because link farming is a major offense in SEO and is considered as Black Hat SEO (an offense punishable by banishment). The SEO company should provide a detailed link analysis and tell you where your competition stands and what steps they would take to get links from topical sites, directories and social networks. It’s difficult to determine the number of links required, but the firm should provide competitive link research and analysis.

Check out what the SEO Philippines can provide you for your SEO campaign and efforts.

Constant Reporting

If you’re to hire an SEO company, it’s important that they can provide you with a weekly or monthly report on the progress of their SEO efforts. It’s also important that you’re filled in on what processes are they using in their SEO efforts. But you must also understand that these things take some time; weeks, months, and even years. So don’t expect getting the number one rank in a month. The most important thing is that you understand the reports and that strategies are being applied and adjusted. SEO takes time to materialize, but once it gets to the top, then that is the time that you’ll feel the presence of success.

Pricing and Services

SEO companies should provide a clear listing of the cost of each service that they will provide you on their efforts. Some SEO companies tend to forget this part. And by the time they collect your bills, you’ll be surprised of how many service costs they’ve added. So make sure that these services are properly outlined and organized.

Some companies provide only SEO, but some also provide other services such as PPC, web analytics, multi-variate testing, e-mail marketing, social media optimization (blogs, videos and podcasts), linking and more. If you want a firm that does all more than just SEO, then ask them if they can do all those sort of things for you.

Check out what the SEO Philippines can provide you for your SEO campaign and efforts.

Qualifications

Take your time and make a study about the team you’re hiring for your SEO campaign, because these guys will be working with you until the very end. It’s also advisable to check on their references, or on their previous clients. Make sure you get some information of what efforts they did on their campaign. Testimonials from clients are great ways to find out about your potential vendor. Much like when selecting a doctor, plumber or gardener, word of mouth is powerful. Their list of successful rankings should have traffic for relatively common terms.

Check out what the SEO Philippines can provide you for your SEO campaign and efforts.

Now these are only guidelines on what to look for when hiring a company to do SEO for you. But the success of an SEO campaign doesn’t rely only on the firm, but on you too. Getting in touch with your hired firm is among the many ways where you can guarantee the success of your SEO campaign. Providing them the information they need such as full access on your website is a plus.

Putting a lot of pressure on your SEO team is not very advisable because these things take some time before feeling its effects. Some processes such as reconstructing the structure of your website takes a lot of time. Looking for relevant link partners and building up communities also take a lot of time. Keyword research also takes time to finish. So don’t pressure them onto seeing some good results in 2 weeks time, because these things take months to feel its effect.

For SEO campaigns and assistance, visit the SEO Philippines company at www.myoptimind.com for more details.

Website Marketing Fundamentals and Your Look and Feel Upgrade

admin    Website Marketing     Feel, Fundamentals, Look, Marketing, Upgrade, Website

Website Marketing Fundamentals and Your Look and Feel Upgrade

If you are in business or are a professional, you probably have a website or are thinking about creating one. A website can be a powerful marketing tool if used correctly.

Your first consideration is to have your website fit in and be a part of you marketing strategy. You and your company have a strategy whether it is informal, formal, written or simply by “default;” that is, reactive rather than strategic.

Clearly if your website does not match up to your marketing strategy and plan there will be a disconnect.

If your website is “disconnected” from your marketing plan you will join the millions of business owners and professionals that have static websites that are more like newspaper or magazine ads.

This old school approach is becoming very old school. Those companies and individuals that are leveraging web technologies for marketing are gaining strong competitive advantages even in regional and local markets.

But as the saying goes, without a map or plan you can end up anywhere and anywhere is not smart business, especially in marketing.

What do you want your site to do? Maybe sell a product, relay information, generate an inquiry, set an appointment, request more info; the possibilities are endless.

That is why you need to decide first what you want your site to do and it should be a solid business decision, in fact one of your most important business decisions.

After you determine you goals, you should assess how appropriate is your site in meeting those goals. Who is your target market? What are your target market’s demographics and interests?

In web sales and marketing terms you want to look for the conversion or next step from your target audience. If your product or service is low consideration such as a product sold directly through e-commerce, then your conversion would be a direct sale.

If your product or service is high consideration, such a kitchen remodel or roof, your conversion may be a phone call, inquiry, email, appointment or in-person visit.

If you have no site, determine your budget first and then your timeline. If you have a site that needs to be updated and upgraded, also determine your budget and timeline.

Unfortunately many older websites cannot be upgraded or made search engine friendly and you may have to start again.

Before doing anything, look carefully at the keywords and keyword phrases that your viewers will use to find you. Make sure these keywords are ‘loaded’ on your site, especially your homepage.

Viewers find your site through keywords and keyword phrases; if these keywords are not on your site how will they find you?

You can pay for ads and pay-per-clicks, the big advantage being you can target your audience. Don’t forget that more and more search engine algorithms are tending toward fresh original content also known as organic search engine results.

The good news is that your “organic” content is permanent, or at least until you remove it. Unlike a paid ad that goes away when you stop paying for it, organic content lives on indefinitely making it an excellent value for your marketing dollar.

An important fact to remember is that if you don’t update your site regularly the search engines stop making spider and crawler house calls to your site. If your goal is to attract the search engines then you must update your content regularly.

Use promotional interviews, promotional articles, quotes, blogs, links, backlinks and anything else you can to create content and make the search engines take notice. It’s all about your content.

Make sure your site, especially your homepage, is full of your logo and brand. If you have neither, develop them. Remember that many expensive logos and brands don’t work and you don’t have to spend a fortune to get a good one.

If your site is new, you need to optimize it for search engine accessibility. This is known as search engine optimization or SEO. If your site has been up for some time and has lots of content, SEO will be less effective but still may be of value.

Search Engine Marketing or SEM is a more comprehensive marketing strategy plan than SEO. SEM usually implies paid marketing but increasingly free marketing has become very effective depending on the market or space your company is in.

Don’t forget your site’s look and feel which should match your company’s look and feel. If you sell luxury boats you don’t want your site looking like you are CraigsList.

Conversely, if you sell discounted goods from China you don’t want your site to look and feel like Macy’s website.

Clearly some content is better than other content and remember that your content should parallel your marketing plan. But don’t forget that even minimal content is now better than no content.

“There may be talk of recession and consumers may be less susceptible to advertising than they used to be, but consumers are still human,” says Julia Hyde of Creative Search Media in Scotts Valley, California, “and the science of psychology will still make them spend their hard earned money. The goal is to persuade them to spend it with you.”

The bad news is technology is allowing your competitors the same access to web marketing as you have.

The good news for you is hopefully they haven’t heard about it yet.

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