Many SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses) hire staff to handle their online marketing by developing successful strategies to drive more traffic to the company’s website. Many of them use the same marketing strategies because they have been proven to be effective and successful at gaining targeted audiences to increase sales and inquiries. These effective steps include:
- Recognizing Google’s Importance – In the world of Internet searches, Google is king. Over four out of five search queries are performed on Google. Because of that, it is important to direct all search engine optimization strategies along with online marketing campaigns toward Google in an effort to receive the highest ranking.
- Effective Keyword Selection – Any content that is placed anywhere on the company’s websites, blogging sites, back link pages, and guest posts need to use effective keywords. Google and other search engines provide free tools for locating short and long-tail keywords that are typed in by the online users in their search engine queries, when they seek the services or products the company provides. A long-tail keyword is typically much less competitive than a short one or two word keyword.
- Publishing Strong Content – Not only are the potential customers more likely to purchase services and products from a website that publishes credible content, search engines find the content more credible too. By publishing strong content that is highly relevant to the website, the search engine will rank the blogging site or web pages much higher.
- The Benefits of Being Generous – The company blogging sites and website should offer more than just specific information, or just provide a direct way to make a purchase. By providing generous information, with links to associated sites, the company will be rewarded by both the consumer and search engine crawlers that will rank the site higher.
- The Power of Social Media – Even though social media networks are in their infancy, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Plus and Twitter can offer phenomenal results when used effectively. Social media marketing (SMM) is becoming one of the leading ways that companies produce successful online marketing strategies. In addition to being a powerful tool for creating a stronger company brand and its ability to launch a new product, the social networking service is free to use.
- Installing a Call to Action – Successful online marketing strategies are focused on a variety of ways of enhancing the user experience. By always providing some type of value that will easily solve the visitor’s problem, the company can enhance its brand and exchange contact information. Many times, visitors are not in a position to purchase right away. However, by installing a call to action to gain information, it is easy to generate a lead for future sales.
- Better Web Design – A poorly designed website often trips up most companies. A quality web design should use all the power of a strong CMS (content management system) platform, such as WordPress. The power of WordPress is derived from its use of add-ons, plug-ins, and WordPress premium themes that are designed to maximize search engine optimization (SEO) by extending quality content across multiple platforms, including social media.
- Tracking Success – With all the available analytical and tracking tools available to companies doing business online, it is important to stay on top of the numbers. Many of these tools can help determine what traffic is visiting the site, and the actions they take while there. It is easy to track visitor actions to make the appropriate corrections to create a more successful website experience.
The Story of the SavetheBreakfastSandwich.com Website
The Starbucks Breakfast Sandwich In January of 2008, I was gainfully employed with one of the many technology corporations based in Redmond, WA (No it wasn't Microsoft). It was Concur Technologies, [...]
SEO Checklist – Focusing on Social Media
As some of you know I teach a beginner to advanced SEO Workshop. One of the most asked for items in my talk is the SEO Checklist I have developed just [...]
Building a Social Media Community
The staff at Jenn Mathews Consulting use a system for social media marketing called the A.L.I.V.E. system. A majority of our clients have created their Facebook page and Twitter account, but [...]