Web Marketing Without SEO is Lacking

The SEO edge

Search engine optimization (SEO) should be considered a critical element of any Web marketing strategy. This is important because there is so much which can be gained from SEO in terms of Web marketing and advertising. Failure to optimize your website for search engines can result in a considerable loss in terms of free advertising which is essentially gained from ranking well with search engines. This article will provide insight into what SEO is and will explain why Web marketing requires some SEO, at least in the most basic form.

A basic SEO strategy is one with which a given website is designed to obtain favorable search engine rankings on the SERPs (search engine result pages) of popular search engines. This can be achieved in a variety of different ways since effective SEO strategies combine a variety of different techniques to complete a well orchestrated SEO campaign which may also help to lay the groundwork for future effective campaigns.

Search engine rewards

There are several elements to consider when attempting to optimize your website for search engines, including keyword density, prominence, META tags, titles and inbound links. Keyword density is one of the most common SEO strategies and essentially involves using relevant keywords often in the content of a website to demonstrate the relevance of the particular keywords to the website. This is important because search engines are likely to reward websites containing optimal keyword densities with favorable search engine rankings in an effort to provide Web users with the most relevant websites for particular search terms.

The prominence, which determines how close the keywords are placed to the beginning of the website should also be considered when developing your SEO strategy. Unfortunately the common mistake some website owners make when employing this strategy is to believe that the first opportunity to incorporate keywords is in the first line of visible text on the webpage. This is not true because search engines crawl the code of a website as opposed to the visible content on the website.

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Therefore a website owner will have multiple opportunities to incorporate relevant keywords long before the actual visible content on the website. This might include the code for the title as well as the META tags. Business owners who realize the potential for incorporating keyword into the code gain an advantage over competitors who only incorporate keywords into the content on their website.

High ranking links

Another area of concern which is very important for those who are interested in SEO is inbound links. Inbound links are essentially links which reside on other websites and generate direct traffic to your website. These links are considered important because many search engines place a value on inbound links because they represent the degree to which one website recommends another website. However, when obtaining inbound links it is important to do so from other websites which rank well with search engines because many search engines consider the rank of the original website when determining the value of the inbound link on a website.

Now that we have looked at and talked about some of the main concepts of SEO, we will illustrate why it is important to optimize your website in the first place. SEO is so important because most Web users place a high value on the results of search engines and are thus are likely to visit only those high ranking websites when they search for a particular keyword.

Trust equals traffic

Web users trust search engines to serve the most relevant content first and are therefore not likely to visit websites which do not fall on the first or second page of search results. The significant of this is that websites which rank well essentially are receiving a great deal of free advertising from search engines that place their website in a key position. Website owners who do not invest time or money to make sure their sites are properly optimized miss out on a great deal of potential web traffic which deprive them of all the potential sales that may result.

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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