1.      Search engine marketing

You might be wondering why some more humble competitors are doing better in search engine rankings than bigger companies with bigger marketing budgets.  The answer to this is search engine optimisation. But to be more quick about it, you might want to try search engine marketing.  This is the online equivalent of paid listing in the yellow pages.  They appear on the top right portion of the first pages of search results and get easily seen by an online buyer.

The most competitive keywords that your potential customers use to search for products will have to be determined and with the use of tools like Google keyword tools, you will know which of these will be the most cost effective for you to develop through search engine marketing.

2.            Search engine optimisation

Advertising on search engines may be faster in terms of arriving at first pages of search results, but doing it the natural way, or through search engine optimisation is known to drive a higher volume of traffic to websites.

SEO really takes time.  But although it may not be as quick as SEM in getting you noticed, having the knowledge and practice of doing it the right way will pay handsomely in the long run.  Like SEM, keywords are the heart and soul of an SEO campaign.  Developing appropriate keywords,  relevant contents, a great layout plus high calibre backlinks comprise the whole package.

3.            Content

Once you have successfully attracted people to your site, your web marketing efforts must go to keeping  them or making them interested in your offerings through your contents.  Producing relevant contents starts with thinking of the questions that your customers are likely to ask.  Writing the content to address these questions around your keywords will give you your search engine’s attention and should rank you high in product searches.

Contents should look at what is useful and interesting to your customers and provide value through information and education.

4.      Email marketing and social media

Email marketing as a web marketing tool, is a great way to share contents to people who are not usually visiting your site.  Emails are ubiquitous and email marketing will not limit your geographical reach.  The important thing is to offer the right kind of content to people who will find them significant and beneficial to their interests.

Social media like Facebook and Twitter have become so popular and influential that discerning online businesses have created a social media version of their sites in them.

With the right kind of help, all these mentioned web marketing strategies can work to provide your business an online presence that will make considerable impact to your bottom line.

Find a niche

While that might be easy to say, doing it is altogether a different matter. First, is to determine who you want to sell to.  Get a feel of your ideal customers. Do you want a more exclusive set, where competition might be smaller, or would you want to cater to a wider target where quantity can convert to really huge profits.

Second, you have to ensure that your business is up to the demands of the market.  There is no use in niche marketing when you are unable to deliver the promised goods.

Build a strategy

Building a business with a very specific focus is important when venturing online.  The staggering number of competition can be overwhelming and the market can easily get very small.  With a target niche and unique strategies, your business can stand out and reach markets where competition is not so cut-throat.  This is what niche marketing is all about.

First thing to do is to find the keywords that would be searched by your target audience that would be unique to your business.  You would need special tools for this so that you don’t end up with very competitive keywords but rather specific keywords that would directly point to your site. 

Choosing from Adwords

Rather than choosing broad keywords that top Adwords, look for those with relatively small competition and are easy to market.  It is easier to define a specialty around a keyword.  Look at areas that you are good at and find what you think is just the right size competition for you.  These keywords also generally attract fewer competition amongst advertisers and should be much cheaper to bid for.  You would actually realize bigger savings and lower expense ratios.

Trial and error niche marketing

As soon as you have settled on a niche and identified your keywords the next step is to develop a content strategy around the keywords and procure listings for them on search marketing services like Adwords.  You will now proceed with your niche marketing by trying on multiple variations on the ads through Adwords and tract their conversion results to see which are effective.

Analytics and costings

Niche marketing can be easily profitable, but it is important to always be measuring your performance.  Analytics software can tell you how people reach your site and which terms and keywords result in conversion.  You will have to deal with a lot of data but with patience and diligence you can make it work for you in a meaningful way.

Building a successful business with the help of the internet is a dream of every entrepreneur.  But does it really work and how does one go about developing an internet marketing strategy?

Recent figures from a survey conducted by Pew Internet on the online activities of adults show that using search engines to find information and reading and sending emails are still at the top of the most popular online activities in the U.S.

How searching and emailing has become habitual to most adults

These two activities have consistently topped the adult’s list of popular online activities since 2002, which was when Pew started this project.  The following table shows how they measured in 2002 over other popular online activities.

As expected, figures from 2002 have grown considerably in 9 years.  From just 54% of Americans using search engines in 2002, the figure rose to 72% in the latest survey.  Email usage also posted relatively the same growth as search from 55% in 2002 to 70% in the latest survey.  This means, roughly six out of ten adults utilize these two core communication and online information gathering tools daily.

Targeting search engines in internet marketing

With Pew’s survey showing decisively how search is one of the two most popular online activities for adult users, it is only logical that your internet marketing plans should focus on it or be directed to taking advantage of these findings.

Pew has made it easy for internet marketers and online business to identify their target and to create goals with their internet studies and measurements. Take a look at the following table and see how different demographics use the internet.  With these tools, you can make projections and plan goals and strategies.

Email marketing as part of your internet marketing

Another useful table from the Pew studies is one where they show how different demographics engage in email activities. This table show how on a typical day, white Americans are more likely to use email than African-american and Hispanics (63% v. 48% v. 53%, respectively).

Such high figures make it almost certain that internet marketing when done right will provide online businesses the success that they have been dreaming of.

Taking the first steps

What is probably the key to a successful campaign is to overcome fear and take those first steps to develop a plan.  It is also important to understand that success is not realized overnight.  There will be a lot of work to be done, and a great deal to be learned. But with hard work and with help from the experts you can have the perfect internet marketing strategy to help you achieve your goals and objectives.

1.       Know your keywords

Your online customers will use certain keywords to find you or your business on the internet. Knowing what these words are, even the less competitive terms, will help you drive traffic to your site. SEO Services Director David Jenyns believes that “the secret to SEO marketing is understanding the demographics of your target market to help you predict their behaviour when using search engines, and being aware of what they are looking for.”

2.       Domain name is key

Users who see a keyword in your domain name will likely click on your link. Clients will likely be encouraged to visit your site when they see the exact word they typed on Google on your domain name. At the very least, it will increase your click through statistics.

3.       Logical URLs

SEO experts believe that static URLs will be indexed better, and thus be more likely to appear on search results.

www.yourdomain.com/products/topitems.html is much better than the randomly generated www.yourdomain.com/category=?1030, and search engines will most likely find it more often.

4.       Keyword-rich pages

Do not group all your products on one page. If you have several products, categorize and put each on separate pages and associate each page to specific keywords. Part of your SEO marketing ploy is giving the impression that you know your product lines, and this will probably earn you better ranking.

5.       Meta-data

Keywords should appear not only on your site content, but also on your meta-data.

Meta-data are keywords and phrases that you put on the backend codes of your site. Just remember these three types of tags: Title tags <t1>, H1 tags, and meta descriptions.

Title tags: usually not longer than 60 characters or three to five words, it appears at topmost part of the browser, or the title page.

<t1> Page title with keywords >/t1>

Header tags: or H1 tags, are the headlines of a page.

<h1> Headline with appropriate keywords >/h1>

Meta-description: a brief two or three sentence entry that the search engine indexes, which should also be filled with keywords.

<metaname=”description” content=”A descriptor paragraph which you can fill with keywords” />

Keywords should be copiously distributed on the meta-data, whenever relevant, but it should still make sense.

6.       Key phrases should be specific

Expand your keyword to create your key phrases, but keep it simple and focused. Do not capture everything about your page in your key phrase, as it will dilute the message and weaken your chances of being found on search engines. If you need more than 4-5 words, you probably need to create a new page.

7.       Internal links

Your pages should focus on one product, but it needs to mention a different product, use internal linking. This not only keeps your pages short and simple, but search engines actually rank you better if you have internal links within your site.

8.       XML sitemap

XML sitemaps is a listing of links within your site, which helps search engines “crawl” your website for relevant searches. Google and other search engines recognizes this SEO marketing technique and actually encourages this sitemap protocol.

Some company owners have jumped on the wagon of email marketing with less than satisfactory results. A few of them were worn out by exhausting ezines or special offers. Maintaining databases also can get tedious and tiring. Guarding against spam and keeping up with tricky email metrics will also challenge even the most enduring.

If you’re in search of that e-mail marketing success, here are some tips to help you get the response that you’ve been aiming for:

1. Set up a mailing list

There are a lot of ways of setting up a mailing list. The important thing to remember is that there are legalities to collecting email addresses for marketing purposes.  When you buy a list, what you’re doing is mostly spamming.

Getting recipients who have ‘opted-in’ is the best way to get success with email marketing. They are the most likely to respond positively to your offerings even if they were less than enthusiastic to start with. The fastest way to build an ‘opt-in list is to provide prospective customers many opportunities to sign up to your newsletter.

2. Give them what they want

A successful email marketing depends a lot on how relevant your newsletters are to your customers’ needs.  Find out what they find interesting and useful and deliver on this with every issue.  The better and more relevant they find your content, the more they will consider you to be an expert and be more open to your products and services.

Do not make promises you can’t keep. Tricking people into opening a message with untruthful guarantees will just make them mad. Be true and deliver promised value in the subject line.

3. Strike a balance between content and promotion

Once you have an established email contact base, it is now time to plan for what you will offer them.  However, you should avoid the most common mistake of untutored email marketers of bombarding their list with offers left and right.  You might think the most direct way of increasing your sales is to broadcast promotions, but there is more value to giving good content in between promotion broadcasts.

A mix of promotional, informative and interesting messages will more likely make your recipients stay with you for longer periods than the overly promotional kind about products that they might not even be thinking of.

4. Be personable

It is a good practice to personalize your messages and to treat your customers as individual friends. You can establish a good relationship with your customers with short but thoughtful responses to even the most simple questions and comments.

Personalize, but be subtle so as not to scare your clients. Get inexpensive software that allows you to get to know your customers better. Make them feel special and valued; just don’t cross any privacy lines

A new study on SEO strategy finds that majority of online shoppers have never heard of search engine optimisation and are totally unaware that some of the links that they click are paid advertising. Most bargain hunters rely only on the first page of search results and never really bother going to the next few pages.

‘What you don’t know can hurt you’

This study called “What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You,” conducted and released by the Australian Institute gives fair warning that because of this widespread habit of online shoppers, only a small number of internet players will establish themselves as the controlling influence in the mainstream market.

The report further states that people are seemingly unaware or simply indifferent to the rising dominance of this small group of players. It is believed that further practice of successful SEO strategy would give these retailers all the advantage that they can enjoy for a long time.

How online shoppers think

Another survey with more than 1000 participants revealed that more than half of these online shoppers (about 46 per cent) openly admits to being guided or influenced strongly in their buying habits by how websites’ order appear on the search results.

A significant number, more than a third, of these shoppers did not know that some links displayed by search engines are paid advertising.  Additionally, only 15 per cent of respondents went beyond the first pages of the results of their most recent web searches. This proves rather convincingly that having the right SEO strategy can work for websites.

The need for SEO strategy that will not limit our choices

A prominent co-author of the report, Richard Denniss, repeated the warning that this trend could have the online market ending up being dominated by only a few big name brands and retailers.  The extent of which could duplicate the phenomenal Coles versus Woolsworth’s duopoly.

There should be a more conscientious effort to educate online buyers about how search engines function and what SEO strategy is all about.  Dr. Denniss further warns that unless search engine regulators come up with rules to allow for more online diversity, consumers could end up having the online equivalent of a shopping centre.  Many products to choose from but still limited to a small number of sellers.

Giving bargain hunters more options

Website owners who are not showing up in the first pages of search engines should also do their part and think of getting the right SEO strategy to help them offer online buyers the diversity that will benefit all concerned.

How to rank in Google

Landing in the first pages of a Google search result is not an easy thing to do.  Your site will have to be optimised first to enable Google to index your pages. Google has several criteria that allow it to rank sites according to relevance and importance.

The following should give you an idea of how to optimise your website to get listed in Google fast:

• Google must be able to access your server – Make sure that no “disallow” exists in your robots.txt file.  “Noindex” tags must also be removed from your pages. Remember also not to use bot blocking software or any type of cloaking scripts that may prevent Google bots from indexing your pages.

• Google must find your web pages meaningful – One-page websites are almost certain to be ignored by Google.  The same is true with pure Flash sites.  Google just doesn’t believe that these sites contain enough useful information.  The more valuable content you can give web searchers the more likely your site will attain high rankings.

• Google recognises good backlinks – Backlinks are other sites pointing to or referencing your website.  The more backlinks you have, the more often Google’s bot will visit your website. This means you get higher chances of landing on first pages of Google searches.

Google indexing system

An optimised website will not quickly appear on Google’s first pages due to a number of factors

Technical - After you have optimised your website, it will take some time before Google’s indexing bots will notice your site and visit it.  When it does come, it might not immediately crawl through all the pages in your site.  Not all your web pages, therefore, will be indexed instantly.

Google also needs time to parse indexed pages then assign them to search words or phrases.  Rating the quality of your site and comparing them with those of other sites will also require additional time.  Having quality backlinks considerably hastens these processes.

Algorithm – Google’s new algorithm tests the quality and functionality of your pages.  Older websites have better chances of being found worthy of top rankings. Those with more backlinks, likewise, earn more attention from them.  So be sure to establish as many quality backlinks as you can.

Keywords – To rank high on the more competitive keywords takes a lot of time.  For faster results, try developing less competitive but more relevant keywords or phrases. When you have successfully reached top 10 rankings on the less competitive keywords, you may then start competing for those popular one-word keywords.

Successful Google Ranking outcome

It is unfortunate that even the most efficient and correct SEO optimisation efforts will not bring instant results.  To get listed in Google fast will require you to fully optimise your site to meet the criteria discussed above. Furthermore, your website must have fully useful content and high quality backlinks.

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The Speed Factor

Website usability is one of the things that Google take very seriously.  They have now developed a new algorithm that makes speed one of the factors that influence site ranking. No website that loads too long will now land in the first few pages of a Google search.  If your site takes more than six seconds to load properly, then measures must be taken to identify the reasons and fix them quickly.

Most often than not, your images are what are causing the delay.  Try reducing the number or size of your images and see how much faster your pages will load.  These days, speed is considered by many experts to be the most important SEO ranking factor because of Google’s new algorithm.

The Keyword Placement Factor

To maximize the effect of your keywords, they have to appear in several important areas of your site.  Most important of these are the meta title, the meta description, the main heading or H1 tag and in the anchor text links.  Anchor text links are the links that visitors can click on to take them to other pages of your site.

Take note that you need to develop the proper keyword phrases, and not use the most common keywords, in order for your site to climb the search engine indexes and reach relevant traffic.

The Consistency Factor

Another factor often overlooked is consistency. Some argue that this just might be the most important SEO ranking factor, because without consistency in quality and quantity of your content, backlinks and keyword placements, then your SEO campaign will produce very small results.

Search engines continuously evaluate your content to see whether they are relevant and useful while users read them to see if the website contains what they are looking for. If good content is not found consistently, the site will not find its place in the first pages of search results.

The Age Factor

The age factor takes into account the trust associated with a particular website.  The greater the age of the site, the more trusted it seems to be.  A new site will not have many backlinks yet, which means that not many sites look to that website as an authority.  A build up of high quality backlinks over the years makes your site a trustworthy site.

The age of your site might not be a factor that you can do anything about, but if you do things properly, then pretty soon, the age will become less of a problem.

Slow and Steady SEO Campaign

The factors that influence SEO are many and depend on a large part on the particular niche and needs of a website.  A good SEO expert, therefore, must not assume that the most important SEO ranking factor for one website will be the same for other sites.

A slow and steady campaign is still best to win the race.

“It is not unusual for webmasters to end up frustrated with their SEO campaigns.  They find that their efforts at SEO Optimisation fall short of the expected results.  How does one turn around an underperforming SEO campaign?“
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Let us look at the possible reasons for ineffective SEO Campaigns:

1. Setting incorrect goals

Highly competitive one-word keywords are not likely to put a site on the first pages of a Google search.  For an SEO campaign to be effective, a more targeted key phrase must be developed.

A site undergoing SEO Optimisation must target keywords that are not so aggressively competitive. The higher your website ranks for specifically targeted keywords with less competition, the more chances that it will rise in ranking for the more competitive keywords.

It is no different from training for a long distance marathon run.  You first have to perform better with shorter distances before you should attempt the longer distances.

2.  You took SEO lightly

SEO Campaigns need even more attention after installation.  They should be taken seriously especially after you have already invested time and money on it.  Take the time to see what works and make the necessary changes to improve your site based on the initial results of your SEO optimisation efforts.  Make use of tools to save time and to accurately assess your success.

3. You concentrated on unimportant items

The length of title tag, the color of your background, the size of the font, and the number of pages – these things are important items to be optimised, but should not be the focus of your SEO optimisation.  You also do not need to follow search engine optimisation trending religiously.  What you need are optimised web pages, good content, and great backlinks.  SEO campaigns should get these three basics right before it deals with the less important details.

4. You developed the wrong keywords

Unfortunately, this is where most webmasters make the most mistakes.  Choosing the wrong keywords will immediately render an SEO campaign ineffective.  Time and money will assuredly be put to waste.

Keywords with the most number of searches are not ideal SEO target.   The most obvious keywords will usually not deliver the number of buying visitors that you want.  No matter how many hits your site gets, if they do not convert to sales, then your SEO campaign is still a failure.

5. You are not getting the right backlinks

A backlink is equivalent to another site endorsing your expertise or the content of your site.  With enough quality backlinks, it is easy to get in the first pages of search engines.  Good, relevant backlinks are vital to achieving high ranking on the most popular search engines.

Most automated link building schemes do not work.  You may even end up on Google’s bad side.  Using professional and tested backlink analysis tools is the best possible way to attain the desired number and quality of backlinks.

SEO optimisation is the key to the success of your website.  Doing things right and carefully focusing on the necessary elements will ensure a brilliant and productive SEO campaign for your website!

Contact us today to get your website Search Engine Optimised. +61 2 9011 5678   www.netex.com.au Sydney SEO Company.

A new year brings with it new opportunities to make adjustments and improvements on your sales tactics and strategies.    If targets were not reached, or objectives not met in the last year, then it is time for some changes that should put you back on the right track.

With that in mind, we have compiled a to-do list to help you achieve sales figures to equal or even surpass your topmost competitor’s performance.

# 1 – Understand your market

Performance measured is performance improved.  The importance of having information to tell you how you are doing in your niche cannot be overemphasized.  A research into your industry will reveal who the market leaders are and how you compare with them.  You need to know how big a slice of the pie you were able to get. Having the big picture will give you better information to base your projections and goals on.

# 2 – Identify your customers’ needs

Customer or market research is a vital tool to any business operation.  Answering a particular need or want of a customer is what will make you realize a sale.  For this reason, you need to make sure you are on top of what your customers are looking for in a product.  Give solutions to their problems and you will find yourself a buyer.

Ways to do this include surveys, feedback system, forums and discussions research and analysis.  If you want quick and professional results, you could always hire internet marketing or SEO professionals to do this work for you.

#3 – Know your products and services

Touching base with millions of targeted customers has now become easy with the internet.  The staggering number of consumers going online everyday opens up infinite possibilities for business enterprises these days.  Many have discovered than without an online presence, it can get mighty difficult to keep up with their competitors.

Knowing your products or services means you can optimise your site with relevant keywords used by consumers in their searches. The key to driving the right people to your site is through Search Engine Optimisation.   With SEO, not only will you increase your visibility to make you accessible and noticeable to your targeted audience, you also stand a better chance of converting these visitors to buying consumers.

# 4 – Develop a plan now

All great successes start with a well-developed plan.  Without a plan, wrong decisions are easy to make.  And they can quickly cost you time and money.  But with help from a professional SEO company, you can be sure to get cost efficient results quickly and effectively.

Using the right SEO company

If a customer found you through a search on Google, wouldn’t you like to know how you could also make other searches land in your pages?  Finding your focus keywords or phrases is not easy without the right tools and guidance.  Hiring an SEO expert is the best investment you could make in improving your 2011 bottomline.

Netex Solutions is a top rank SEO Web Design and Internet Marketing company that can create or transform a website into an income generating site for you.  For a free website report visit www.netex.com.au.