Create a Website that Gets Results

Now more than ever, it is important to effectively market your business. The hard part is that there has been more change in marketing in the past three years than in the past 30.  

Think about it:

• How much mail do you throw away?
• When was the last time you listened to a radio commercial?
• Do you TiVo® away television commercials?
• Are you one of the many whose yellow pages went straight to the recycling bin?

85% percent of people now go to the internet first to find products and services they need. How many of those people are looking for you? Are they finding you?

Internet Marketing is really just a plain old marketing that is done in a virtual world, instead of on land. Our techniques of marketing your website are very similar to what you would do to market your business in the real world.

Think of Your Website as a Regular Store...

The right storefront can really improve your business. But as you know, it is important to market your business outside of your store. That is why we have an extensive on and off page internet marketing program that really works to get your name out there, and your rankings up.

On-Page marketing is like building a store that sells.

• Picking your location is the first step. You want your store on a busy street and easy to find. Your web address, or domain name, is also the first step of getting found on the internet. It needs to be short, simple, and include words that people would use in a search to find you.
• Make sure your store is easy to get to. Your site should load quickly in the viewer’s browser. Avoid big images, and excessive flash. “Splash pages” are landing pages that are mostly pictures and require the site visitor to either take action or wait them out to get to the home page. Splash pages are considered outdated and can frustrate the visitor. They can even deter the search engines from letting your site get found.
• Have plenty of parking. You need the right amount of bandwidth to support visitors and applications as you grow. Make sure your site is built so that you can easily add to it as your business increases.
• Have relevant window displays. People should know what you sell or do within seconds of entering your site. You should have a call to action, or three, that is clearly defined and easy to understand.
• Change out your merchandise. Adding blogs or educational pages to your site is a great way to encourage your customers- and the search engines- to come see what’s new.
• Don’t forget your sign. A sign can make or break your business. We strategically write things called “Page Titles” and “Meta Descriptions” which are what show up in the search engine results page (SERP) and encourage people to click on you to enter your site.

Off-Page marketing is very similar to advertising in the real world.

• Directory and Submissions: The future of directories like the Yellowpages are now - you guessed it- online directories. The most time consuming part of our Internet Marketing Programs are manually (not automated) submitting your website’s pages into these directories. Once your pages are indexed in several directories, the search engines start to see your site as one with activity, and worthy of importance.
• Articles and Press Releases: Isn’t media attention great? You can post the same types of things out in cyberspace and get attention from users and search engines.
• Blogs: Think of your blog as a column in the newspaper. Dear Abby writes about advice and etiquette every week. Blogs on your site add fresh content and attract visitors. Blogs off of your site give you another point of presence and a chance to point people into the direction of your site.
• Forums: Are similar to blogs, but many people participate and post questions and answers. Using forums can establish credibility and be a billboard displaying your brand and how you conduct business.
• Social Networking: Getting out there and meeting people is the original and most effective form of marketing. This can be done online now, with social media sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Because these sites get so much traffic, a presence on them is a very effective way to drive traffic to your website, and stay in front of all of your contacts.
• Video Optimization and Submissions: Videos are very valuable in getting your message across. A picture is worth a thousand words - how many words are a video worth? Creative and optimized videos can be utilized to drive traffic and create 'buzz' about your company. 

Contact one of our internet marketing professionals to learn how these can work for your business.