| I always feel a bit embarrassed when I have | | | | your home page.c) You also use some of the |
| to explain the concepts behind Internet | | | | other keywords that you have found that are |
| Marketing to people who know nothing about | | | | relevant, in other places on your home page |
| it. . The problem is that if you have been | | | | and in the rest of your website.d) Making |
| immersed in the concepts for a long time, you | | | | sure that all your website pages have unique |
| do not always realise that they might sound | | | | titles and other meta tags (descriptions and |
| strange and new to people who have not been | | | | keywords)e) Making sure that you have |
| exposed to them before | | | | numerous links internal on your site linking |
| | | | to all the other pages inside your website |
| It is not really possible to cover everything | | | | |
| related to Internet Marketing in an article | | | | 3. Internet Marketing |
| like this - but let's see if we can cover the | | | | |
| most important concepts: | | | | These are the activities that you perform OFF |
| | | | your website to make it perform well on the |
| 1. Your website. | | | | Internet. |
| | | | |
| Obviously you need to have a website in order | | | | The most important Internet Marketing |
| to promote your business. Then you need to | | | | activity is to get websites to link to you. |
| promote your website on the Internet, so that | | | | These are called 'backlinks'. You can use |
| it gains enough exposure to start attracting | | | | the title, description and keywords that you |
| traffic and thereby promoting your business! | | | | have selected for your home page (see under |
| This sounds strange, doesn't it? The problem | | | | 'SEO', above) and start building links using |
| is that there are literally millions, if not | | | | these. |
| billions of websites out there and you are | | | | |
| competing against them for exposure! | | | | You can build links by doing the following:a) |
| | | | Submit your website to good quality, SEO |
| But back to your website. There are only four | | | | friendly directories. (NOT search engines. It |
| important things that you need to keep in | | | | is a useless activity to submit your site to |
| mind for your website:a) It must be easy for | | | | search engines). You can find a list of |
| your visitors to navigate, with all links and | | | | search engine friendly directories here: |
| menus clearly marked.b) It must be easy for | | | | Write 8 to 15 good articles about your |
| your visitors to contact you - display your | | | | industry. Submit these to highly ranked |
| contact details prominentely on your sitec) | | | | article directories, such as: (search for |
| It must not be ugly. It also does not need to | | | | these article directories in your favorite |
| be excessively pretty! Spending too much | | | | search engine): |
| money on the look and feel design is probably | | | | |
| a waste of money. Why? Because most people | | | | - Ezinearticles |
| look beyond the pretty graphics and pictures | | | | |
| to find the information that they were really | | | | - Goarticles |
| looking for. Over-engineering your website | | | | |
| from a branding and design perspective might | | | | - Articledashboard |
| just aversely impact its usability (point a) | | | | |
| and the ease with which your visitors can | | | | - Isnare |
| contact you (point b) and the ease in which | | | | |
| you can update your website content yourself | | | | - - Articlesfactory |
| (point d).d) You must be able to update your | | | | |
| website content regularly! The reason for | | | | Also sign up and submit your articles to a |
| this is that search engines love new content | | | | number of smaller article directories - there |
| and you will definitely attract more visitors | | | | are about 200 to 300 of these. It is |
| if you regularly add new content to your | | | | worthwhile to sign up for an article |
| site. | | | | distribution service like Article Marketer ( |
| | | | or use an automated tool such as Article Post |
| 2. SEO | | | | Robot to submit your articles. Also try and |
| | | | vary the content of each article slightly so |
| SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and | | | | that each of these articles are unique. This |
| can be summarized as the activities that you | | | | will make them stand out more and prevent |
| would perform ON your website to make it | | | | Google from thinking that they are merely |
| perform well in the Search Engines. | | | | duplicate copies of each other and therefore |
| | | | 'not important'.c) Build more links by |
| These includea) performing keyword research | | | | searching for link directories maintained by |
| to find out which keywords people are using | | | | websites in your industry (although not |
| to find your type of product and service. You | | | | direct competitors!)d) Place your website |
| then choose the 2-3 keywords that are used | | | | link in your signature and take part in |
| most often, but does not have a lot of | | | | discussion forums. |
| competition (the competition is the number of | | | | |
| competing websites that come up if you do a | | | | These are the very basics of marketing your |
| search with that keyword).b) After you've | | | | website on the Internet. There are many more |
| selected your prime keywords, you use these | | | | topics to cover, such as banner advertising, |
| in your website's Title tag, the Description | | | | pay-per-click advertising, email marketing, |
| tag as well as the Keywords tag. You then | | | | blogging, video marketing and much more - but |
| also use these keywords in the headings on | | | | these are the topics for another article! |
| your home page, as well as in the content on | | | | |