What is internet marketing? Internet marketing is an umbrella term that ties together creative and technical aspects of the internet, including design, development, advertising, and sales. Internet marketing does not simply entail building or promoting a website, nor does it mean placing a banner ad on another website or experimenting with a pay-per-click campaign. Effective internet marketing requires a comprehensive strategy that synergizes a company’s business model and sales goals with its website function and appearance, focusing on its target market through the proper choice of advertising type, media, and design. In a nutshell, internet marketing is an online marketing plan that is put in action.

So where do I start? Well, the foundation of any internet marketing strategy is SEO, which stands for “Search Engine Optimization” (or a “Search Engine Optimizer”.) Simply put, the task of a SEO is to blend the creative and technical aspects of a website in order to make it as visible to search engines as possible. An optimized website is achieved in the following four ways:

1. “Friendly” URLs. Can the search engines “read” your pages, or do you have session IDs, and a bunch of code that reads like mumbo jumbo? …If you can’t easily read it, neither can the search engines or your potential customers.

2. Title and meta tags. These “tags” let the search engines know what your site is about. Some tags are relevant and some are not; the title and description tags are the two most important.

3. Site content. If content is king, then keyword optimized content is the supreme ruler! Search engines send out what they call “spiders”. These spiders “crawl” around websites “slurping” up content. The more relevant, unique, keyword rich content you have the more a search engine can “index” this content which in turn helps your website users (and the search engines) figure out what your website is about, as well as helps your site rank for those specific keywords.

4. Inbound links. Think of an incoming link to your site as a vote. Every time someone links to you, then are in effect saying that they like you and that your site has value. Inbound links is one of the factors the search engines use to see how much weight to give your site in their ranking.

Here are the 7 most common mistakes most businesses make with their presence on the internet:

Mistake #1: They are not considering or keeping tabs on their internet marketing efforts or those of their competition. It is critically important to know where you are, where you want to be and develop a plan to get there. To see if you are on course, monthly measurements can be taken to provide website results as you go. Of course, keeping tabs on competitors is always helpful as the more informed you are the more you can adapt to your marketplace, if necessary.

Mistake #2: They are waiting until after the website is completed to think about SEO/promotional efforts. Ideally, a website will be designed from the ground up to keep visitors’ and the search engines’ attention, in other words—optimized! Having a search engine optimizer on staff along side your developer saves you time, money and effort. However, all isn’t lost if your site wasn’t optimized from the beginning; getting started regardless of where you are in the website development or redesign process is the important part.

Mistake #3: They think of the website as completed. The completion of a website is just the beginning of an internet marketing plan. The success to any business, online or off, is found in their marketing plan.

Mistake #4: They think of promotion in overly simplistic terms. This usually means that they want to be number one in the search engine results, or that they want to increase traffic. While these are both goals of a search engine optimizer, these goals are not an end to themselves. The goal of being number one in search results is lofty, as most everyone that has a website wants to be number one. While it is possible to rank well, possibly even number one for certain terms, the conversation needs to be had between the website owner and the SEO as far as keywords that they want to rank for and what it may possibly take to get there. As far as traffic is concerned, the main question to ask, is “do you really want to increase traffic, or do you want to increase conversions”? Any good search engine optimizer can drive traffic to your site, but what most website owners are really looking for is targeted traffic that is interested in their product or service and actually converts to a sale or some sort of desired result, whatever that result may be.

Mistake #5: They think of their website as their internet marketing.

This mistake is most commonly made with bricks and mortar businesses. Many think that a website is the end all be all to their online presence; nothing could be further from the truth. A website is more than just a virtual business card, it is a powerful tool that can increase sales, open (and keep) communication with customers, and help supplement and even refine your offline marketing. At the end of the day, the development and creation of a website should be just the first layer of your online presence and promotion.

Mistake #6: They think SEO/internet marketing isn’t necessary—if they built it they will come. Imagine that you own a business in Las Vegas that caters to tourists. Imagine that part of your marketing plan is to create a billboard that will announce to the world that you are now open for business. Now think of that billboard smack in the middle of the Las Vegas strip. Now think of that same billboard smack in the middle of the Nevada desert. Which one is more effective, the one that lots of highly targeted people see or the one that no one sees? …The rest of your business is based on preparation and planning, your website should be no different.

Mistake #7: Thinking that SEO/internet marketing is an event and not a process. SEO/internet marketing is not a one time event, it’s an ongoing process that grows and changes with your website in order to keep your website competitive. Moving up in the search engine ranking takes time, evaluation and often times experimentation with different elements within a website. The reason being is that search engine use complex algorithms for determining which sites go where. No one fully understands this algorithm, but what is understood is that there are certain factors that influence the algorithm, and in turn, a site’s ranking. To see sustainable results, an internet marketing plan needs to be in place along with consistent effort applied through a variety of mediums coupled with time.

So what now? The first step in implementing an internet marketing plan is to create one! Contact us and we’ll set up a phone consultation to determine where your website is as far as ranking, traffic, inbound links, etc.; your target goals for where you want your site to be and an action plan of what it will take to get there. We’ll take into consideration your time frame and budget and map out a clear plan that sets expectations as well as milestones so that progress can be charted and examined.

Services

Benefits to you:

• Higher search ranking for keywords relevant to your business

• Increased website traffic

• Improved lead generation

• Increased online presence both in search engine results and in relevant online directories and other resources

• Greater ability to track website performance

• Responsiveness to your needs and concerns

Services offered:

We begin each project with a research / analysis phase that allows me to better understand your business and your market. Based on this information, I create a strategy and action plan for achieving the results you’re after. Implementation could involve any of the following tasks:

• SEO

• Link Generation

• Pay-Per-Click Management (or other online advertising management)

• Unique Content Creation

• Online PR (press release creation/distribution, blogging, social networking)

• Affiliate Marketing

Other miscellaneous tasks might include:

• Training

• Documentation

• Consulting

Here are some further explanations of the tasks above:

Research / Analysis:

• Manual Site Review

• Keyword Research & Mapping

• Link Analysis

• Navigation & Usability Testing

• Browser Compatibility Testing

• Content Analysis

• Competitive Market Analysis

• Recommendations & Action Plan

Search Engine Optimization:

• Insert keywords into existing website copy

• Insert keywords into existing link text and alt text

• Create optimized page titles and meta tags using assigned keywords

• Working hand-in-hand with website developer(s) to optimize URLs and existing content

Link Generation:

• Research websites to identify “good link partners” for client site

• Correspond with website owner for link exchange

• Submit website for listing in directories

• Create and submit press releases online

Online PR:

• Create press releases for online distribution

• Contact relevant bloggers and introduce the site (negotiating link exchanges and possible blog mentions)

• Use social networking sites to promote website

Copywriting:

• Create new copy for web pages

• Edit existing text

• Create ad text for pay-per-click ads in Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing

Training / Documentation:

• Create training materials for staff

• Create handouts / training manuals

• Create documentation for specific processes such as link generation, website management, etc.