Website Fundamentals

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IBC

There are several things that make your website an effective marketing tool. Among the most important are search engine optimization (SEO) techniques, social media marketing (SMO) techniques, building testimonials, creating a simple and easy-to-use system, writing and promoting articles on a regular basis, maintaining communications with potential customers, building drip marketing campaigns for each product or service you sell, and more.

SEO: There are specific techniques that need to be used in the code on websites that make a site come up high in the rankings. It is not just a matter of keywords and other Meta data. It is also a matter of using the correct tags within your code, organizing your keywords on the page, making pages different (don’t use the same keywords for every page), using different content for each website (in case you are publishing news items in multiple places), finding new content for the site, and generally keeping the site fresh and changing. Some SEO techniques are so effective that the search engines have identified some techniques as a type of “SPAM” and sites are now being penalized for doing things like using the wrong keywords for an article, just so it comes up higher in the ratings. Search engines are now blacklisting sites that do this. Also, although the SEO techniques change frequently, the techniques to maintain high rankings are well documented regularly and experts in this field keep up with the changes.

SMO: While SEO is now more of a science, social media optimization (SMO) is an art. Releasing regular videos, podcasts, press releases, drip marketing campaigns, blogs and articles is the easy part of an effective SMO campaign. It is just a matter of consistency and logistics getting the SMO campaign out there. The hard part is coming up with a solid theme that attracts people to the campaign. Unlike traditional marketing, it is not a matter of benefits, but a matter of interest and branding. It is a matter of marketing yourself and your vision – your passion. Letting people know you personally and branding yourself and your company is an art that only a few currently understand. A well-done SMO campaign leads to viral marketing and it is truly an artistic endeavor requiring creativity and imagination as well as an understanding of what people are interested in.

Drip Marketing: Developing a weekly, monthly and quarterly push of new content, news and articles of interest takes a dedicated effort. One of the logistical tactics we highly recommend is getting all or most of the next set of content done in advance so that you can automate this effort. It is not just a matter of doing it just before the next send (drip) goes out, it is a matter of absolutely making sure you have something to send. There are services that provide content for your newsletters and website. There is no reason any more to have to write it yourself. And you don’t want to be scrambling at the last minute to find put something together. Consistency is the key to success.

Another very important consideration is Conversion!

Conversion: Another issue is having a way to capture and convert visitors when they do come to your site. Every page should have some kind of conversion, whether it is a sign up form for your newsletter, a membership sign up for your site, a buy now button, or a phone number for people to call you, readers should have a clear and easy understanding of what they should do next.

Putting it all together

When you combine all of these techniques into a solid marketing plan, you will have an effective website. It is very difficult bringing all of these things together into a single website, and it is even more difficult if you have multiple areas of focus, as each needs its own SEO, SMO, Drip, and conversion plan.

If you have found this article useful, please add a comment. And if you need any help on these items, please contact us through our website.