Category: Web Traffic

Web Traffic is the topic of this category. Businesses that operate on the Web are similar to those that operate offline in one category. Traffic! Getting traffic – or potential buyers – to your product or service location is the most important thing a business person can do whether s/he be operating online or offline.

  • The Importance of SEO in Internet Marketing

    If you are already running an Internet marketing campaign or are about to embark on an Internet marketing campaign, one concept you cannot afford to skimp on is search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is one of the most popular buzz words in Internet marketing but unfortunately most Internet marketers simply do not know enough about SEO to make this strategy work for them. Even those who are knowledgeable about SEO may have difficulty executing their SEO strategies to produce the desired results.

    Advertising is a very important part of running any type of business, because you need to advertise in order to reach new customers and market your products or services. Whether you run your business online or not you probably already realize how important it is to advertise, but if you are running your business online you should understand there is a great deal of free advertising available in the form of optimal search engine rankings.

    Well known search engines such as Google rank websites according to complex algorithms which are designed to determine which websites are most relevant for particular search terms. Therefore taking the time and effort to optimize your website for relevant search terms may result in you being rewarded with high search engine rankings for those terms. This is important because most Internet users rely heavily on such rankings.

    It is not uncommon for Internet users to review only the first few results when they search for a particular term. This means if your website ranks high enough to appear on the first page of those search results you will likely enjoy increased website traffic. However, if your website does not make it to the first page or even the second page, it is unlikely you will receive a great deal of website traffic from visitors who use search engines.

    Now that you understand why search engine rankings are so important you might be wondering how to achieve these rankings. The easiest way to optimize your website is to hire a SEO specialist to do the work for you, because the world of SEO is complex and continually evolving that it would be difficult for most business owners who do not specialize in SEO to keep up with the changes in the industry. Therefore, business owners who attempt to optimize their website by themselves may have difficulty keeping up with competitors who hire a SEO consultant to optimize their website.

    The algorithms used by search engines can be rather complex and include a number of different factors. Some of the common factors in the equation include keyword density, META tags, titles, inbound links, website traffic and content.

    Keyword density refers to the number of times a particular keyword is used in the content of your website. The theory behind this concept is that website which use a keyword often are likely extremely relevant to that keyword, however, overuse of that keyword may result in penalties to the website if the search engine deemed the keywords are not being used appropriately.

    META tags are pieces of HTML code which some search engines use in evaluating the content of a website. Placing keywords in these tags can be beneficial in some search engines. However, care should be taken to avoid placing irrelevant keywords in these tags as this may result in your website being penalized.

    Inbound links are also used by some search engines to rank websites. Inbound links refer to links on other websites which point to your website. In evaluating the worth of these inbound links, some search engines consider the rank of the website providing the link to your website. This means you should ensure the website providing inbound links to your website are high ranking websites to receive the most benefit from these links.

    Finally, the content on your website can do a great deal to bolster your search engine rankings. Most SEO firms retain a staff of writers who are skilled at providing quality content which is also optimized for relevant keywords. If you hire a SEO firm who does not providing copywriting services you should invest in hiring a professional writer yourself. This will help to ensure the copy on your website is not only valuable to your visitors but also considered valuable to search engines.

  • The Fine Line between Internet Marketing and Spam

    Savvy business owners who take advantage of Internet marketing realize there is a fine line between marketing and spam and orchestrate their marketing campaigns to gain the maximum amount of exposure without running the risk of being viewed as spam. The definition of spam is open to interpretation but most people agree on the fact that spam is equivalent to junk mail you receive at your residence.

    In general spam is unsolicited emails which are part of an advertising campaign. The term spam can also apply to message board postings which are posted solely for advertising purposes. This article will examine the differences between effective Internet marketing and spam.

    First we will consider the use of message boards for the purpose of Internet marketing. Message boards are essentially online meeting places for Internet users who share a particular interest to exchange ideas, ask or answer questions or just socialize. These message boards allow users to register and post messages. Most message boards have a set of guidelines which the users must follow when posting comments of any kind. These guidelines may vary widely with some being very strict about acceptable content and others not being nearly as strict.

    It is important to follow these guidelines because failure to do so may result in the moderators deleting your account and other members not paying much attention to your posts.

    Message boards are ideal for Internet marketing because they can provide a business owner with access to a specialized target audience. If you are in the business for finding jobs for employees who wish to telecommute, you might join a message board dedicated to working from home to find members who may be interested in your products. Here you may learn a great deal about the concerns of your target audience.

    You can also take advantage of available permissions to post links to your website when appropriate and in accordance with message board guidelines. This is considered smart Internet marketing. However, if you opt to respond to each and every post with a link to your website, even when it is not relevant and do not offer comments of value to other members, they are likely to view your posts as spam which can be damaging because these members may opt to avoid your website even if they have a need for your services.

    E-newsletters and email advertising are one area of Internet marketing which is most likely to be viewed as spam if not done properly. Most Internet users to not appreciate unsolicited emails especially when these emails do not pertain to a subject that interests them. This is often the case when business owners buy email lists and send their advertisements to everyone on the list. This is not effective because you are not likely to reach a large population of your target audience.

    Additionally, recipients of the email may block your email address so future communications are automatically sent to a spam folder. Some recipients may even report you to their Internet service provider who may investigate the claim that you are a spammer. A better way to approach the concept of email marketing is to only send e-newsletters and advertisements to past customers who have specifically asked to receive such emails and potential customers who have requested additional information.

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  • Web Marketing & Your Business

    WM methods

    In mid-year 2020 the question no longer relates to whether or not you’re marketing your business online, but rather, how you’re marketing your business online. What do I mean by, how? In order to answer this question I will make the assumption that you’re not a Web marketer, but a business owner seeking information, which suggests you may be interested in learning about some of the many ways businesses can be marketed on the Web today.

    Hope I’m making the right assumption but, be that as it may, let’s take a look at a few of the specialized ways you can market your business on the Web:

    • Email & Newsletter Campaigns
    • Articles & Ebooks
    • Search Engine Optimized (SEO) Websites
    • Blogs
    • Trafic Exchanges
    • Message Boards & Forums
    • Social Media Networks
    • Hiring a Web Marketing Guru

    Emails & articles

    An Email Marketing Campaign[1] is a coordinated set of individual email messages that are deployed across a specific period of time with one specific purpose, such as download a white paper, sign up for a webinar, or make a purchase with a provided coupon. In some instances those emails come in the form of newsletters.

    An Article Directory[2] is a website with collections of articles written about different subjects. Sometimes article directories are referred to as content farms, which are websites created to produce mass content, where some are based on churnalism. An eBook is literature made available in digital form only, and is usually offered as a free gift containing information that is of interest to website visitors or email recipients in exchange for subscription to a particular email list.

    SEO and blogs

    SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process by which website and some modern-day blog owners create content that is specifically meant to attract search engine robots (algorithms) by inserting popular keywords and key-phrases throughout the articles and posts in a way that the content still makes sense to human readers.

    A Blog[3] “(a truncation of “weblog”) is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order, so that the most recent post appears first, at the top of the web page.”

    Traffic exchanges & forums

    Traffic Exchanges are a group of websites (portals) created specifically for members who agree to click on each others links and visit their websites and blogs – many containing product offers – for a period of time ranging from 15 seconds to 1 minute. In return of clicks and visits members are awarded points that help to defray the cost of credits required for visits to multiple sites.

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    “An Internet Forum[4], or Message Board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. Forums act as centralized locations for topical discussion. The Forum format is derived from BBS and Usenet. The most notable and significant Internet forums communities have converged around topics ranging from medicine to technology, and vocations and hobbies.”

    Social media & WM gurus

    Perhaps the most popular Social Media Network on the Web is Facebook based on membership numbers alone, but there are other Web destinations that serve the same purpose of interaction and sharing of ideas, opinions and other such information, the proverbial public square. Sites like Flickr, tumblr, Linked-In, Reddit, Pinterest, MySpace and Delicious, just to name a few, serve a particular social media demographic.

    Hiring a Web Marketing Guru (Web Services Consultant) may be the easiest way for the business who only casually utilize the Web to get his/her business marketed on the Web, even though this method tends to be more expensive in the short term.

    Value and benefits

    Of course, If you are not already marketing your business online it is probably about time to start, especially in view of the current environment (Covid-19 Pandemic) in which we’re all forced to the Web anyway. Although there are a few exceptions, just about every business can benefit from online marketing. There are just so many advantages to this type of marketing.

    First and foremost is the economic value. It is extremely affordable to market your business online, but other advantages to to doing so may reach the same level in value beginning with the ability to reach a large target audience, as well as the ability to reach potential customers globally and the option to customize marketing campaigns for different sectors of the target audience.

    The cost of creating and maintaining the website is insignificant in comparison to the number of potential clients you could reach through that site’s content. Additionally, the costs associated with posting links to your website are incidental. You could consider the cost of having access to the Web as part of the cost but you most likely require Web access for other reasons as well so it is a completely worthwhile venture.

    Reaching a large target audience is arguable the primary reason for marketing your business online. You may have to spent a great deal of time and energy doing market research and determine who your target audience is; but you may also have to spend time trying to figure out the best way to reach that audience. despited the time spent this is a very sound marketing principle, as oppose to advertising on local television, radio and print media where you audience may be very limited by comparison.

    keeping in mind that the Web is available 24 hours a day the potential for your products/services to be available any hour of day or night that is convenient to those who need them is definitely to your benefit as a business owner. Shopping for products and services in person can at times be very difficult, especially for individuals who work long hours or those who work unusual hours; and in a pandemic the difficulty is increased ten-fold. These individuals would not have the same problems obtaining their household needs from a business on the Web.

    If you are a business owner who is reading this article and you do not already have a strong online presence, you need to immediately start learning more about the world of Web marketing. This is so important because if your competitors are marketing online, you may find they are gaining a steady advantage and are becoming more appealing to potential customers. Before too many of your potential customers become loyal customers of the competition you need to start figuring out how you can market your business online and keep pace with the competition.

     
     

    References:

    • “Email Campaign.” Campaign Monitor. https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/glossary/email-campaign/. Accessed 19 Jun. 2020.
    • “Article Directory.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_directory. Accessed 19 Jun. 2020.
    • “Blogs.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog
    • “Message Boards & Forums.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_forums. Accessed 19 Jun. 2020.

     
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  • Hiring a Web Marketing Consultant

    Pay for success

    If you are thinking about getting into the world of Web marketing but lack necessary experience or formal training in this type of promotion, it is definitely worthwhile to consider hiring a consultant to help you establish yourself and/or business online and guide you through the many tasks involved in Web marketing. Hiring a consultant is important because s/he can do a great deal to ensure that your marketing effort is a success.

    You may pay more for their services than you would to handle your Web marketing activities on your own but the results you will get from his/her involvement would likely be significantly better. Hiring a consultant to help you jumpstart a Web marketing campaign is a worthwhile investment even if you have some experience in this vocation, because if you are competing in a niche that proves to be one of the more competitive you’re really going to need professional help to accomplish marketing goals, if not objectives.

    Hiring options

    The key to hiring a consultant to help you navigate any Web marketing campaigns you want to start is to make sure you hire the right consultant because, if you haven’t already, you will find there are many different options available to you since Web marketing has become a huge and very specialized industry; and not all consultants are created equal. You may also find that some consultants can create significantly better results than other consultants, but this is true in just about any industry in which you do business.

    There are however a few characteristics to look for when looking to hire a qualified Web marketing consultant and, surprisingly, cost is not among the most important considerations. Experience and past performance are much more important and since you can compare costs among consultants who are similarly qualified, using cost as a primary method of evaluation is not recommended.

    The experience factor

    Experience may be one of the top two qualifications to consider when selecting a consultant to assist you in a Web marketing campaign. In fact it is critical because consultants who have a great deal of experience is expected to have an excellent to superior knowledge of which techniques are most effective and those that are not as effective or simply get poor results. This can save you a lot of time and money due because the need to experiment in order to determine what works will be greatly reduced or eliminated, unlike the case with a consultant of less experience.

    More experienced consultants will also be more skilled in dealing with clients and will likely answer your questions more quickly and keep you better informed about the progress of your Web marketing campaign(s). These are all important factors which must be considered and since you are paying for this service you’re probably going to be very interested in receiving progress reports and staying up to date on everything that is going on with your Web marketing campaign(s).

    The resume

    Searching for and finding a consultant in the Web marketing industry with an excellent resume and great reputation is most important because consultants who have had a great deal of success in the past will likely have a great deal of success while assisting you as well. Needless to say, past performance is considered one of the best indications of future performance.

    This does not to say that new consultants are necessarily going to perform poorly, but there is some risk involved in selecting a consultant who does not have a great deal of experience or who has not performed well in the past. You can feel much more confident putting your Web marketing campaign(s) in the hands of a consultant who typically generates the type of results you are looking for; results that will be more in line with the goals and objectives you wish to accomplish.

    Pricing
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    Once you have evaluated consultants on the basis of experience and past performance, it is time to start thinking about price. Considering price early in the process of seeking a consultant may cause you to be influenced by price over performance. Some consultants may be incredibly affordable but if they are not capable of producing the desired results, it may end up being a complete waste of money.

    However, once you have narrowed your list of potential consultants down to a few qualified candidates, it is definitely time to start comparing prices. Once you are confident each of the candidates on your list is well qualified, choosing the least expensive candidate from among them is an easy decision. However it is important to note all of the fees involved to ensure you are making an accurate cost comparison.

  • Evaluating the Response to Your Internet Marketing

    Starting an Internet marketing campaign is only the first step in the battle. Sure it is a good idea to start an Internet marketing campaign if members of your target audience are likely to use the Internet to research or purchase the products you sell or the services you offer but these marketing efforts may turn out to be a complete waste of time if you are not diligent about evaluating the response to your Internet marketing. This means that each time you implement a change to your marketing strategy you should evaluate the results of that change to determine whether or not it generated a greater profit for you. This is important because it can help you determine what is working and what is not working for you.

    Evaluating the response of your Internet marketing campaign(s) can be done in a number of different ways. Customer surveys and embedded HTML code are two of the most popular methods of evaluating the effectiveness of an Internet marketing campaign. Customer surveys can be as simple or as complex as you like depending on the amount of feedback you would like to receive.

    However, one of the most effective ways to find out how well your different marketing tactics are working is to include a question asking the consumer where they first learned about your products or services. This is important because if you find a great deal of your customers are learning about your products or services through a particular venue, it is a good indication this method of advertising is working quite well for you.

    Embedding code into your advertisements for the purpose of receiving feedback is also a popular method of evaluating the response to your Internet marketing strategies. Advertisements can be coded so the business owner receives feedback each time an Internet user clicks through a particular advertisement. This is useful for letting the business owner know which of his advertisements are attracting the most attention.

    If the business owner is using two different designs for his advertisements he may discover one design is attracting more attention than others and may make the decision to convert all of the advertisements to a more effective style. Similarly a business owner who is running the same advertisement on several different websites may discover he is receiving more traffic from one website than others. He may also discover some websites are not attracting much attention at all. This would give the business owner an indication of which advertisements to cancel and which ones to keep running.

    Finally, the response to an Internet marketing campaign can be evaluated by carefully reviewing website traffic statistics after implementing changes to the marketing strategy. This information is useful because an unusual spike in the amount of website traffic immediately after implementing a stage of the marketing campaign can provide positive feedback that the change was well received by potential customers.

    While this method of evaluating the response to an Internet marketing campaign can be effective it is important to note implementing multiple changes at once will make it difficult to determine which changes were the most effective. Therefore if you plan to use website traffic as feedback for how well your marketing strategy is working it is important to only implement one major change at a time so they can each be evaluated separately.

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  • Web Presence Vis-a-Vis Web Marketing

    Business

    Will you join me in a little exercise? Take a moment and consider how you would answer this question: Are you already marketing on the Web? If you really think about it, just about any business owner who utilizes the Web for any purpose will likely find that, whether or not s/he intentionally organized a Web marketing campaign, s/he may already be marketing products and services on the Web. This article will examine some subtle ways business owners may already be marketing their businesses on the Web even if they did not set out to.

    Let’s begin with your website as it is most probable that if you own and operate a business in today’s world you probably have a website for your business; and if so you are, therefore, already marketing your products or services online just by virtue of the fact that you have a website online.

    This is true because the mere fact of having a live website means there is the potential for curious Web surfers to access that site. And although you may not be actively engaged in promotional activities, you may still find that it creates interest in your products despite the lack of sustained marketing efforts on your part. Such activity without effort is known as passive marketing.

    SEO

    Another area of participation without promotional intent is commonly known as message boards, and if you participate in such an online venue and put a link in your signature that leads back to your website, you would be considered by most to be marketing that website online. Savvy business owners realize the importance of participation in industry-related message boards to create an interest in their products and services, thereby establishing themselves as knowledgeable about, or expert in, their industry by offering a link to their own website, even if it is in the signature line of information they provide in their posts.

    In fact, even business owners who do not realize it, may already be inadvertently enjoying the benefits of Web marketing as a result of message board participation simply just by doing something they enjoy as a form of leisurely activity.

    You’ve heard of, and probably are knowledgeable in, the use of keywords in the sense that when you include keywords in the content of your website that are relevant to your business you will likely answer yes to the question, do you use keywords? And in view of that answer you also are, therefore, already marketing on the Web by optimizing your website for such keywords. Search engine optimization (SEO) have an affect on websites whether or not website owners are even cognizant about the concept of keyword density and how it can help to optimize a site for the benefit of search engines.

    Business owners will likely use certain words – often depending on the type of products and services they offer – simply because it is natural and logical to do so. This tendency, however, can result in search engines boosting their website rankings for the particular keywords used. The concept of SEO is much more involved and complex than employing the frequent use of keywords, though; but business owners can gain some benefit just by naturally applying relevant keywords to their website.

    Feedback

    Do you solicit feedback from your customers online? This is yet another example of how business owners may accidentally be marketing their business on the Web. Most business owners realize the importance of soliciting feedback from customers for business purposes, and business owners who offer products online might solicit feedback in the form of online surveys. Although the business owners may be doing this simply for business purposes, the fact that it is done online, puts it into the category of Web marketing.

    We have discussed several ways in which business owners may already be marketing online but, what about business owners who do want to have an increased online presence? If you are a business owner who may already be marketing online accidentally and wish to launch full scale Web marketing campaigns, you can do so by hiring a consultant with experience in Web marketing to assist you in creating an effective and worthwhile campaign which is optimized for your target audience. Best of luck!