Internet Marketing Strategies – The Biggies

If you are going to have any kind of web presence for your business, it is important to dedicate some time to developing an Internet marketing strategy. The key to online success, whether you actually conduct business via a web page or if you are just using the Internet to communicate with your customers on Facebook, Twitter or other social media networking sites, is to have a solid marketing goal and plan. You will get more out of all your efforts on the Internet if you establish early on what you want to get out of it, how you want to do it and what you will need to know to get the job done right.

There are three main strategies that are essential to the success of any Internet marketing campaign, regardless of your market or industry. If you can focus on these primary areas, the “biggies” as as I call them, you will see improvements in the quality and quantity of traffic that you attract to your pages, as well as gains in customer interaction and conversions.

Biggie #1 – Keywords

Today’s Internet marketers need to be aware of the importance that keywords play in all areas of web development. Keywords are necessary to increase the relevance of your pages within the search engines, helping to boost your rank in Google, Yahoo and other top search sites.

Unfortunately, many marketers don’t appreciate the value of keywords as a means of increasing traffic through improved relevance, rank and reach. As a result, many web pages are unable to work at their full potential due to a lack of keywords, and other web pages get banned from the search engines due to overuse in an attempt to manipulate the system. Balance is required in order to achieve success in this area, as well as an understanding of keywords, key phrases and how they should be used in a web page.

Move beyond the use of a handful of single word keywords and focus instead on developing what are known as “long-tail keywords” which use a string of 3-4 keywords in a phrase that will help search engine users find your web page. It is nearly impossible to get a front page listing for a single keyword, however when done properly, you can achieve a front page listing for a well-crafted long-tail keyword that is relevant to your topic or niche.

Biggie #2 – Social Media

Social media marketing will not only help to improve your ability to connect with consumers, but it can also be a huge boost to the SEO of your web pages. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare – whatever social media network applies best to your particular business – should become a priority to your marketing efforts.

Optimize your social media pages, profiles, bio areas and anything else that will help to drive content to your website or encourage visitors to contact you at your place of business. Create a user-friendly experience that will allow you to build your brand, prove your knowledge and experience within the industry and establish a means of communicating with your target demographic.

Use your social media account to announce special events, sales or new offerings. Take advantage of each network’s unique offerings to build a solid rapport with your fans, followers and customers. The most important rule of social media marketing is to be consistent. Social media marketing is a hands-on project that requires you to make daily posts, reply to comments or questions and visit the page daily to ensure that no opportunity is missed.

Biggie #3 – Quality

Above all, quality should be the main focus in everything that you do. Your content should be well-written, your design elements and navigation should be designed with the user in mind and your multimedia objects, such as photos, videos, audio files and more, should all be held to high standard.

Many marketers make the mistake of just throwing a few primary keywords into a basic article, blog post or product description, when writing original, relevant content specifically for that page would yield much better results. Don’t waste your time focusing on how many keywords you can get into a single page. Instead, focus your energy on creating quality offerings that your readers and customers will enjoy.

If you would like to receive a free consultation and professional evaluation of your current SEO and marketing efforts, contact New Bedford Internet at 508-415-8646.