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Introduction to Web Marketing (SEO) - How to Rank Your Web Site

Written by: Barry Nagassar

Article Overview: Start learning how to increase targeted web traffic with the purpose of increasing overall sales. The purpose of this article is to provide some foundational explanations and keys to help entrepreneurs and small business owners alike begin their web marketing and search engine optimization initiatives.

Introduction to Web Marketing (SEO) - How to Rank Your Web Site

Are you looking to increase market share online for your web site? Do you have a web site but seem to be unable to attract visitors and sales? Are you aware that you can apply a number of crucial changes to your web site yourself to capture more relevant traffic and sales? For many entrepreneurs and small business owners the internet is a confusing entity that is both daunting in size yet holds a wealth of potential. If you own a web site and have any form of online market then you should strongly consider investing into your web marketing (SEO).

Call it what you wish, web marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), internet marketing, it doesn't matter. The bottom line is your bottom line--you want to convert more online sales by attracting more relevant visitors. What's keeping you from increasing your online business? The internet has provided a new method of not only selling more product/service, but also a means to exceed placements of larger competition.

Never before has Joe and Jane Inc. been able to compete with larger companies and corporations so readily. The web has removed barriers to entry and geographic positioning capabilities that used to restrict the exposure of new businesses/competitors. What's even more exciting is the niche player. If you have a very specific product/service with only few competitors, if any, becoming the industry leader online is a reality that should be recognized. Attaining top search engine results, (every time I use the word 'rank', 'results', and 'traffic' I mean improvements/increases in natural search listings in search engines,) is easier to achieve than you think! How can you accomplish this on your own to your web site today?

If you have the skills to change web site code (all you need is notepad) then you already have the necessary skills to influence the search engines with correct web marketing techniques. SEO or web marketing can be broken down into two very broad categories: on-page optimization and off-page optimization. There are fundamental web marketing techniques that many individuals can apply without the need of a consultant. If you have the time, here are CRUCIAL aspects to apply, introduce, and highlight in your web site to help it rank higher.

Crucial On-Page Optimization Techniques:

Supposed web marketers (SEOs) try to peddle off the need to understand 'keywords'. I'm sure you've heard it before, 'what are your keywords?' Although this is a valid question, finding out what your market is searching, you do not build web sites around keywords but around your market specific content. You know your market better than anybody else (if not then hire someone to help) so write UNIQUE, RELEVANT, and USEFUL content for your readers/customers. That is key number one, the golden rule to web marketing: CONTENT!

You can get broad ideas of where/what your market searches through keyword analysis, but changing your content and product focus based on some third party keyword research results is not a sure way to success. Your knowledge and your own keyword information is worth its weight in gold (more info on creating your own keyword lists from your own web site located in my blog (search ‘hittail’ or ‘longtail’)).

The second most important aspect of SEO that you can apply yourself is: clear headings and unique title tags for each page. Title tags are these ones that look like this at the top of your code: < title >Your Title< /title >. Each title for each page be unique and include your brand and a power description of the page. Keep this description less than 64 characters long; avoid use of small words like ‘the’, ‘and’, ‘or’, etc.

If you have error free code that is rich in content and contains unique title and header tags you have accomplished the majority of what needs to be done on your web site. Although there are a number of smaller aspects that can be done, some more important than others, these three items I’ve mentioned are so crucial that increased rankings are assured when applied. In small niche markets missing heavy competition, content, title tags < title >< /title >, and some header tags i.e., < h1 >< /h1 > , may be all you need to rank and increase traffic.

Off-Page Optimization Suggestions:

Perhaps the hardest part of web marketing is web promotion. You can’t rank without great unique content, but you also can’t increase rankings without other web sites linking to yours. Relevant and on-topic web links that point (link) to your web site are necessary to improve rank. The more relevant and popular a particular web site is that links to you the more valuable that link is. Here are some keys to remember when conducting web promotion campaigns (or when hiring consultants to help):

- Submitting to web directories galore is unnecessary and useless (there are a small handful of targeted directories that may be beneficial but that list does not exceed 100).
- Submitting to ezine directories (with articles) has limited impact on your ranks but can be done once or twice to help smaller web sites.
- Paid links (where you pay someone for a link to your web site) appear to remain a valuable means of getting links when done appropriately and safely.
- The only way (99% of the time) to hurt your own web site is to link to BAD places. Incoming links cannot hurt you (since you can’t dictate who links to you).
- Forum links, press releases, blog comments, are very limited in their usefulness to help your increase rankings. (Press releases are primarily to inform the press about your product, not to get links.)
- The best way to get web links is to find out where your market ‘hangs out’ online and try to promote your content (something useful to your potential clients/customers) to them. This takes time and planning to accomplish and becomes more crucial in more competitive industries.
- Start checking out ‘social bookmarking’ web sites and learn how you can use these communities to acquire some one-way links.
- ‘Three way’ or reciprocal link exchanges are becoming worthless. If you think there is a useful resource online to link to just link to it.
- If you have a choice use 'anchor text' that consists of keywords like products or brand.

These are only a few strategies to avoid or adopt when conducting and planning web promotion campaigns.

In closing, if you can apply the on-page optimization techniques mentioned above, and take into consideration some of the recommendations for web promotion (keeping in mind many of the examples I mentioned above still work for tiny markets but become useless in larger/competitive markets) then the expectations for more visitors to your web site should be high.

SEO, web marketing, SEM, whatever you want to call it, is a crucial component of any viable web business. You should consider it as a necessary part of your existing marketing plan and should also reap the same attention in planning and budgeting as mainstream approaches. There is a wealth of information, (some good, some bad), online so maintaining your business sense and scrutiny when selecting consultants, taking advice, or implementing change, still remains. Otherwise, take some time and start reaping the benefits of higher targeted rankings and increased sales.

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Article Tags: market share, marketing search engine optimization SEO, marketing techniques, product service, relevant traffic, search engine, search engines, SEO, small business owners



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