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What is Internet Marketing?
“If you build it, they will come,”
may have been true for Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams,
but I can almost guarantee it won’t be true for your
website! Just as “building” your local business
wasn’t enough to keep you going, you must now
advertise and promote your website.
Our most frequently asked question has to be, “Now
that I have a website, how do people find it?” That’s
a good question!
Internet marketing
aims to increase your website's positioning (referred to
as "visibility") within the search results of
the major search engines (like Google,
Yahoo!, MSN and others) so that higher numbers of
Internet users visit your website—the cumulative
result of which is known as "traffic.” Internet
marketing strategies include both natural search engine
optimization (so that your website will appear at or near
the top of the natural search listings) AND paid
placement, such as pay per click advertising (so that your
website will appear within the “sponsored
listing” sections on search results pages), and
XML inclusion (so that unique landing pages can be
submitted and included within the indexes of various
engines that accept XML feeds).
Comprehensive Internet
marketing also includes conversion enhancement
strategies, which ensure that more of your visitors take
the actions you want them to take once they arrive at your
site, as well as Web analytics, which allow you to measure
and improve upon the results generated from your marketing
campaign.
Why is Internet Marketing Important?
Search engines are the most widely used vehicles for
generating traffic to websites. In fact, research confirms
that over 90% of Internet users utilize search engines to
find products, services or information. Research also
clearly demonstrates that if your website isn't found
within the top 10 to 30 search results (the first three
pages), no one will find it. And if they don't find it,
not only won't they become customers, they will probably
find your competitors instead.
It's Not Easy
Search engine marketing is a complex art and science that
combines the intricacies of human behavior, linguistic
preferences, marketing techniques, analytics, website
usability and technology to drive qualified visitors to
your website and convert them into customers. An
integrated, thorough SEM campaign, that thoughtfully and
effectively utilizes these disciplines, provides the best
results.
Then, Just When You Think You've Got
It, Everything Changes
Top search engine rankings are ever-moving targets. Each
of the major U.S. search properties uses a proprietary
methodology, algorithm or formula to determine a website's
relevance to keyword queries. Each of these methodologies
is constantly evolving, changing and becoming more
sophisticated — creating new ranking challenges for
your website on a regular basis.
NATURAL SEARCH STRATEGIES
“Natural” search results
are those listings that appear between the sponsored
listings. They are called “natural”
because, supposedly, they cannot be bought. They are the
results the search engines return naturally. The idea is
that website after website competes to be number one and,
after the magic of a given search engine’s
proprietary algorithm is performed, what is left is the
best of the best websites. Presto! Or, are even these
listings really just all smoke and mirrors?
PAID PLACEMENT STRATEGIES
Paid placement strategies include pay-per-click,
e-mail marketing, banner
advertising, affliate programs and
optimized press releases. As each of these are discussed
individually in this series, we will not discuss them at
length here. Simply click on the method in which you are
interested or click below to continue reading in the
series and each one will be discussed. |