Advertise online and offline (part-2)
BUILD A WEBSITE
One of the most important ways for a business to advertise in 2021 will be
through the Internet. Beyond a doubt, this medium is important. As
mentioned previously, people turn to the web regularly. They
look for directions online (on your website you should include local
directions.) They use the Internet to help them to find the best deals that
are available. You need to be included in their search or they will not find
you.
So, how can you use a website to advertise your business? Consider the
following tips and resources listed below.
19 BUILD A WEBSITE
Most small businesses that are not selling on the web directly still need a
website since customers routinely use the web to research businesses
before they actually start using them. Those businesses that do have the
ability to sell on the web will need a specially designed website to
accommodate this need, generally an e-commerce site.
In either case, a website should be included. This way, you can inform
your customers of who you are and you can educate them on what you
can offer to them. Then, you can use your website to promote your
business further.
20 GET YOUR WEBSITE LISTED IN SEARCH
ENGINES
The next step in the process is to get your business listed in the search
engines. There are several ways to do this, but the most fundamental is
simply submitting your website to these search engines manually. Google
and Yahoo are the largest, but others are just as important. There are
software tools that will automatically submit your website or you can wait
around for the search engine spiders to find your website on their own.
21 USE SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Search engine optimization or SEO is a type of advertising tool. When
you head to a search engine and type in words into the field to find
something, you expect the page that pops up to be full with the options
you have. Businesses work hard to be listed on that first page of the
search engine results. The higher that you rank on those pages, the more
likely it is that a customer or client is going to click on your website link
and visit.
Search engine optimization includes placing keywords (the words that
people enter into a search engine to find your business) into the content
on your website. You will need to learn what words people are using to
find businesses like yours.
22 KEYWORD-RICH TITLES
When it comes to your website, each title, whether for an article or for the
page itself, should have a keyword within it. If you are in the business of
pet toys, be sure that you include words like pet toys into these titles.
The page title will also appear hyperlinked in the search engines when
people search for those words and find your website. You will need to
learn some basic formatting to learn how to make this happen.
23 WRITE AN EFFECTIVE META TAG
The META Tag is the description placed below your title on the search
engine results page. It is critical to provide the best tag possible,
describing what the individual will find when they visit your website. Use
keywords here, too.
24 LOCAL.COM
Another way to promote your website is to focus on websites that
attract local visitors. Any business locally based wants to get in the hands
of their potential customers when they are online. By listing your website
at Local.com, for example, individuals will be able to find your local
business website faster, and without having to trudge through numerous
other sites to find it.
25 CRAIGSLIST
Check out Craigslist.com. It is not necessarily the best option for all
businesses, but it can be a great choice for many of them. This free
classification site does attract local visitors as well as national ones. By
placing an ad in the appropriate sections of Craigslist for the towns that
you service you can and will see a rise in the customers you get. You need
only to include your website address to make this work well for you.
25 GET A BLOG
Using a blog on your website is a combination of benefits for online
advertising. First, a blog will help with search engine optimization because
it allows you to add more information and pages to your site. This fresh
content is something that the search engines are looking for. In addition,
a blog allows your customers to sign up for it and they can then receive
regular communications from you through your blog. This is called an RSS
feed and it is something that all website owners should have in place as it
costs very little or sometimes nothing.
26 SET UP A NEWSLETTER
Yet another tool that will help you to build your website traffic and help
you to get customers coming back repeatedly is a simple newsletter.
When a client purchases something from your website or even just stops
by, they can sign up for your newsletter. Several times a year, or even
more frequently, you can send them a well-designed newsletter to their
email box that contains information on the company, tips, and tricks they
want to have and even provides them with incentives like sales to bring
them back to the company’s website. You are simply reminding them that
your website is there.
27 REGULAR EMAIL CAMPAIGNS
Some businesses will benefit from more than just one newsletter sent out
every few months. If you need your clients to come back time and time
again, consider a regular email campaign. This system is set up to be
automatic. Once your clients sign up to receive it (by simply adding their
name to your website sign up form) they will receive regular
communications from you regarding the business, sales, or even providing
them with information that they need. Always included is a link back to
the website.
28 ALERT EVERYONE THROUGH A PRESS
RELEASE
Yet another of the ways that you can promote your website is by simply
letting others know that it is up and ready to go. A press release is
something we have mentioned before, but after you have set up your
website, it is a good idea to send out a large press release blast to let
others know what your website or business is offering that is unique. Be
sure to include information on the business’s benefit to the customer.
29 RUN A CONTEST
Have you seen the numerous contests that website owners are running?
Do you think it would be fun to offer one but you are worried about the
costs? Offering a small gift certificate or even free service from your
business is often enough incentive to get people to sign up. However,
what you get in return is well worth it. For example, a popular option is to
have people sign up to receive communications through an RSS Feed or
through email. Once they do, they enter into a contest to receive a gift
card. You are getting all of those email addresses, which in turn will help
you to advertise your business to those new prospects.
30 GET IT PRINTED
One of the mistakes that many people make when it comes to advertising
their business is to keep the online and offline worlds of advertising
separate. This is a problem and it can hold back your sales. Start by
including your website in your printed literature and on your business
card. This will alert people that they can find out more about your
business services by simply turning to the website. Be sure your website
is on any of your printed invoices, receipts, and other documentation you
may hand over to your clients. You want them to come back.
Later in this book, we mention several other methods for promoting your
a business website, including more helpful tools for search engine
optimization
SOCIAL MARKETING AS
ADVERTISEMENT
Social marketing is one of the keys to online success. You have your
business website up, but now that it is, you need to get people to it. You
can do this through social marketing.
Many people do not realize just how important it is to be social in today’s
marketing world. In fact, in 2018, you will likely see more
websites develop that are designed to provide business owners with
numerous additional ways to market their business socially, rather than
through paid advertisements.
Social networking is the process of interacting with others one on one, or
at least informally. It is the opposite of paying for commercial
advertisement where you will sell your product through a catchy television
ad. Rather, you are promoting your business by promoting yourself, by
simply interacting with customers one on one.
While it is hard to imagine doing this on your own, many websites help to
make it easier for businesses to interact on the web. The tools mentioned
in this chapter are websites you can join (mostly without cost) and begin
building your business.
Most of these websites have the same goal. You will sign up for them,
build a following by finding others to interact with, and then socially build a
relationship with them. You are providing both a personal experience and
advertising your business through them. Since most have this same style,
the details of using these sites are only included.
Most of these will be all-important places to be for 2021
31 LINKEDIN
LinkedIn.com allows you to find others on the website that you know and
then allows you to connect with others in a business atmosphere. It has
less of a basis on social aspects than other sites, but it allows you to
become recommended by others, which can help you to increase
customers.
32 FACEBOOK
Facebook.com is not just a website for teens. It is an excellent medium
for finding others interested in what you have to offer. There are more
than 600 million searches and more than 30 billion page views each
month on Facebook. Your business can be part of that in 2021
33 MYSPACE
A more socially based website, MySpace will continue to be important,
especially to online businesses, in 2021. Here, you build the same base of
individuals and generate interest in your business through the community.
Link back to your website to get people to visit.
34 VISIBLE PATH
Another website that you might not have heard of just yet, but that you
should be part of is VisiblePath.com. It will help some businesses to
determine who their real network is, by looking at emails and calendars
specifically. It is likely to explode in 2021.
35 SLOW
SoFlow.com is yet another business and professional-based website for
social networking. Here, you will find numerous opportunities to find
business partners to work with. It is a bit harder to use, especially at first
but has proven to help some businesses to get off the ground on the web.
36 ORKUT
This Google-run social networking website has worked for some, while not
well for others. The goal here is to build a relationship within the
communities on the site. You will want to try to find out if it is likely to
work for your business. However, it may be less beneficial to offline
businesses.
37 TWITTER
Twitter.com is a microblogging website because you send out very short
messages to your followers. Building followers is easy enough to do.
However, it does take time to make Twitter work for you. In short, you
will chat with other users about their messages and send out your own.
You can often include links back to your blog posts or website as a way to
get clients to your site. For example, if you are selling real estate in New
York City, you can search for those who are looking for such opportunities
and then friend them. All others who are your friends can see your
messages about a great deal.
38 DIGG.COM
Digg.com has dropped a bit in popularity within the last part of 2009, but
it is still an outstanding tool for those who are looking to build their
business from the ground up. It works simply. You sign up for the site and
then submit newsworthy blog posts from your website or blog to the site.
Other members Digg them or mark them as a good read. This helps to get
even further people interested in them while driving more and more traffic
to your website.
39 YOUTUBE.COM
How can YouTube.com, the popular video site really help you to promote
your website or your business? It is a form of social marketing. You will
post a video on the site that is directly or indirectly related to your
business. For example, as a plumber, you may want to show a video
about how to quiet that leaky faucet. Then, clients can get right back to
your website where they can purchase the tools they need to accomplish
the job. The key with YouTube.com is that it has such a high ranking in
the search engines and is easily going to help boost your search engine
ranking by linking to and from your website.
FOCUS ON SEO
We mentioned earlier the importance of search engine optimization or
SEO. However, SEO is more than just throwing in words that you think are
important to your website’s content. It should be something you do for
every aspect of your website, from the blog posts that you write to the
messages you send out through Twitter.
However, the foundation of your search engine optimization should be at
your website. Setting up your website with great SEO will help it to rank
well in the search engines, which is critical to any business in 2021, as
more people turn to the web to learn about products and services before
they buy them.
This chapter includes more tips and tricks to help you to set up
outstanding SEO on your website. Each of these elements is critical to
your website’s success.
40 HEADERS
As a part of advertising your website, you need to include keywords in
various areas of your website, including the headers (usually labeled as
H1, H2, and H3). These are the page headlines and subheadings within
the text. Google pays attention to these. Be sure to include keywords
within them.
41 KEYWORD PLACEMENT
When you start to write any blog post or other type of content for your
website, it is important to include keywords in the right placement.
Specifically, position that keyword in the first paragraph of the page. It is
best to place it within the first sentence of that paragraph, specifically.
42 KEYWORD DENSITY
Another tool for search engine optimization success is keyword density, or
how frequently you include keywords in the test of your page. You want to
strive to get enough in without too much. Google does not look favorably
on websites not ranked well. Try for a density that is under 2 percent for
the best results
43 HYPERLINKS
Within each of the pages you include, include hyperlinks to other pages of
your website. When you create these hyperlinks, be sure to use keywords
to help you to do so. This way, you are putting more emphasis on those
keywords and phrases.
44 WEBPAGES
Webpages are an important element to search engine optimization. The
best websites, even for a small business, only need to have a few pages
to be effective, though. However, one thing you can do to boost your
search engine optimization is to dedicate one page to each of the top
keywords related to your website. By dedicating these target keywords
properly, you will have the tools necessary to build ranking in Google and
other search engines.
45 FOCUS ON THOSE KEYWORDS
Hold on, what keywords, you may be asking. The key is to have keywords
that are relevant to your website, but it is unlikely that you know every
word that people are typing into the search engines to find a business like
your own. However, you can research it and do so without paying for it.
You can use Google’s keyword tools or use one of the other free services
for this. The bottom line is that you should research keywords and not
assume you know what phrases are in use.
46 GET LINKS IN
Next, focus on building your website up in the search engine rankings by
showing those websites that you are in fact an important resource. One of
the ways that these search engines see this is by looking at the websites
that point into your website. These websites have links on them that link
to your website. Work on getting these in using a few of the methods
mentioned here.
47 LINK YOUR SOCIAL NETWORK SITES
First off, place a link to your website from each of the social networking
sites that you belong to. For example, if you joined LinkedIn, be sure your
website is listed on that website. This is an easy way to get links pointing
back into your website.
48 LINK HOW-TO ARTICLES
Are you writing how-to articles for websites like eHow.com? Join free and
then submit helpful, factual articles to them. These short articles allow
you to place a link on them that will bring customers back to your
website. Ehow.com and other sites like them generally allow you to do
this and these websites have a large number of visitors each month.
49 HUBPAGES (FORMER SQUIDOO.COM)
Check out former Squidoo.com. This is yet another powerful tool for the
average business in 2018. To build website traffic, create a one page
Squidoo lens, which is simply a long article. Then, link that lens to your
business site. In return, you get to benefit from the link on this popular
website pointing to your website.
50 HUBPAGES COUNT TOO
Next, focus on doing the exact same thing with Hubpages.com, another
large site with plenty of traffic that you will benefit from.
51 NETWORK FOR LINKS
Beyond a doubt, these websites will help you to get traffic pointing into
your website. However, they are not going to help you to build quality
backlinks that the search engines really prize. To do this, you need to
network with other businesses to get your website listed on them. Contact
the administrator of sites that fit closely with yours and ask for the backlink.
Here are a few more websites where you can create backlinks in a
simpler fashion as those mentioned earlier:
52 EZINEARTICLES.COM
Write an informational article and link back to your website
53 OTHER ARTICLE DIRECTORIES
Find other types of article directories similar to EzineArticles.com to write
articles that link back to your website.
54 FORUMS YOU VISIT
Use forum posts that you write on forums that you visit to link back to
your website.
55ANY PLACE ELSE
If there are any other websites that you frequent, you may want to find
out if there is an opportunity to include a link back to your site on their
page. Ask if you are not sure.
56 DO NOT FORGET EMAIL
Each of your email messages should have a link in it that brings people
back to your website. If not, include this in the automatic signature you
are allowed to use on the site.
No comments: