Does it feel like your website is just among the myriad of websites in the infinite sea of the web?
Feels like shouting in outer space, right?
Don’t leave it to chance when it comes to your online presence. You need to have an online marketing strategy in order to improve your website’s visibility.
This is where you need to have a system – may it be SEO, email marketing, online reputation management, content or web design. Combining all of these services into one strategy will surely get your website or blog ranking high in search engines like Google.
Believe it or not, Google is the lifeblood of every website. If you are not visible in Google’s first few pages it’s like you do not exist at all.
That said, allow me to list five tips in creating an effective online marketing strategy.
1. Usability Can Help Your Website Ranking
How fast your website loads is more important than ever with the advent of the post Panda and post Penguin era of Google.
However, ranking should not be the sole focus of improving usability. Remember, you are improving the speed and usability of your website because you respect the time and attention of your visitors.
Visitors are human beings. They are not just stats in your Google Analytics.
That is why you should take the time to carefully design your website.
2. Capture the Market with Email Marketing
Email marketing is a very effective tool if used properly. You can build an audience by sending email blasts about your business.
But what if your emails are largely being ignored or marked as spam?
One very effective technique to prevent this is to use a landing page. Give away free ebooks or reports for an email address. If people sign-up with their email addresses willingly, you’ll not be marked as spam and you’ll have a captive audience.
3. Social Media vs. Article Directories
If you have been around the SEO scene for a long time you’ve probably heard of article directories. Some of them are shady networks of ranked blogs. You can take a spun article and submit it to them. They then blast the spun articles out to their network of blogs giving you unlimited back-linking possibilities. But they are rendered practically useless with Google’s algorithm.
Social media is still better in promoting your business. If you have Facebook, take advantage of the pages feature and create a landing page for your website.
If you are active on Twitter, network with people who have the same interests and leave your website link in your profile.
It’s more effective, it’s legit and most of all it’s not cheating.
4. Search Engine Optimisation – Do Not Game the System
Have you noticed a lot of spam results in search engines lately?
It’s a result of blackhat SEO techniques. We all know that there are sites whose sole reason is to appeal to search engines. They’re called niche sites.
These sites are not illegal per se, but they reek of re-hashed and sometimes stolen content. Google’s not a perfect system, so sometimes they get through.
With this in mind, your edge is writing awesome and unique website copy.
5. Why You Need Killer Content
On the Internet, content is still King. But as they say, voice is Queen.
So write killer content and find your unique voice in the process.
Use very minimal on-page SEO techniques. Just do some basic keyword research and use proper title tags, summaries and strategically place bold and italics in your copy.
Provide your audience with value that they can bookmark and share with other people. This is really the secret to effectively marketing your business online.
