by Admin on February 7, 2012
Why Build a Keyword Strategy?
Today, most people looking to buy a product or service begin the process by using a search engine to find vendors and product information. How do they do this? By using keywords and keyword phrases. You need to make sure that your website is ranking high in the search engines for the keywords that people are using to find companies like yours.
Some things to remember:
- You have to be on the first or second page of search results or it’s almost like not being there at all.
- Shorter search phrases are searched for more often and usually more difficult to rank for than longer phrases. For example, more searches occur for “shoes” than for “tennis shoes” and both of those are searched more frequently than “red tennis shoes”. However, if you are selling red tennis shoes, you would probably get better qualified visits (leads) by ranking for “red tennis shoes” as opposed to either “tennis shoes” or “shoes”.
How to Create a Keyword Strategy
1. Create a list of 3-5 keywords relevant to your business.
Think like someone searching for your product.
2. Choose keywords based on difficulty and relevance.
Some very general words such as “marketing” or “business” are very competitive, making it difficult to rank well for them. If you are a small- or medium-sized business, you probably want to choose less competitive keywords, more specifically related to your business (these are commonly referred to as long tail keywords).
You should find a balance between relevance and difficulty. Choose about 5 keywords that match your business well.
Note that these keywords do not have to be perfect at first. You can try out different ones to see which work best for you.
3. Design and optimize your website around your keywords.
Now that you’ve chosen your keywords, you should incorporate them into your website. We will talk more about this tomorrow.
For more information on Keyword Strategies as well as internet marketing, download our “Essential Step-by-Step Guide to Internet Marketing”.
by blogmistress on November 7, 2011
What can New Orleans web design tell us about marketing? Recently, we traveled to New Orleans for both business and pleasure, and found many examples, some good, some bad of website design/internet marketing and how businesses are using (or in some cases not) the internet to connect with their customers.
First, some background: According to a story by NOLA.com:
- Forbes Magazine recently named New Orleans the best city for information and technology jobs and New Orleans’ number of business start-ups per capita was 30 percent higher than the national average in 2010.
- New Orleans is experiencing more investment in more diverse industries than we ever have in the history of the city.
- The doldrums are there, but successful entrepreneurs are swimming against the current, It just gives a good example of what can be done.
Obviously, New Orleans has had to recover from some major setbacks but the city is thriving. However, in the area of website design for internet marketing, there is still much work to be done. One of the biggest needs we saw for improvement was in mobile marketing and search engine optimization. In what is called the “city that care forgot,” local businesses cannot afford to be forgotten or never found in the first place!
The same principles apply whether you are in New Orleans or anywhere else, in order to succeed online you must:
- Get found – that means that you must be found where people are looking for you. More and more, these days, that means mobile and tablets. This also means social media. If you are not visible where people are looking, you are invisible.
- Convert – once you are found, you need to have a strategy that converts you visitors into leads for your business.
- Analyze – look at your results and see what works and what doesn’t work. What calls to action are the most effective and what brings the most qualified visitors to your site?
I look forward to hearing more good news about the wonderful city of New Orleans and its thriving entrepreneurial business community. What are the opportunities for growth using internet marketing in your city?
by blogmistress on October 24, 2011
Your website strategy should include a strong foundation. Like building a house, you have to start at the beginning. If you were building a house, you wouldn’t just start putting up walls without having a plan and the same is true for a website.
Let’s take the analogy further. When you are building a house, you start with a plan. Where will the house be located? How will the house be situated on the lot? What kind of foundation is required? Where will the walls be? How will each room be used? What will be the best placement for each room. What about hallways? You don’t want hallways that lead to nowhere! Once you have the blueprint, the layout settled, then you can start planning on the finishing touches. What kind of materials will be used for counter tops, cabinets, flooring, etc. What colors and finishes will you put on the walls?
If you don’t spend the right amount of time and effort on the foundation and structure of your house, it will not matter what the finishing touches are because the house won’t be sound. The same is true for a website. Do you have the right hosting for your site? You must decide what pages will be necessary, what the function of each page is. Where will the pages go and how will you navigate between pages? What content will be necessary to make the pages functional? Once you get the structure right and spend the right amount of time and effort getting the foundation in place, then you can add the finishing touches, knowing that your website is strong and functional as well as pleasing to the eye.
by blogmistress on October 20, 2011
Is your website a static brochure or is it a lead generating machine? When people think about designing a website, or redesigning a website, they sometimes overlook the most obvious question which is, “Why?” Why do you want a website or a redesign? Often we hear that the reason is to get a “fresher look” or to incorporate new products or services. Sometimes, business owners want a redesign so they can make edits themselves. However, once they are able to make edits and add content, many times, the website still remains static and changes are seldom made.
What is missing here is the development of goals and strategies for your website. It is much easier to work on generating leads for your website when you have a plan in place. A lead generating plan for your website should start with some basics:
- What kind of content can I create on an ongoing basis that will attract visitors (and search engines) to my website?
- How will I research keywords that are necessary to include in my content?
- When people visit my website, what compelling calls to action can I offer that will encourage them to convert from a visitor into a lead?
- What different offers can I create for people who are in different places in the buying cycle?
- Once someone has converted to a lead for my business, how am I going to nurture that lead into a sale?
- How am I going to analyze my strategy in order to see what is effective and where I need to make adjustments?
All of these questions can help you start creating a strategy for turning your website into a lead generating machine.
Need help? Contact us and we can help you get started!
by blogmistress on October 17, 2011
When you look at a page on your website, can you tell within 4 seconds what the purpose of the page is? Can you tell what problems it solves? Last week we discussed 6 things every webpage should have. The very first thing listed was a goal. How can you determine what the goal of your page is?
- Does the page solve a problem or create a problem? What problem does it solve?
- Does the page address your target market? What kind of information is your target market looking for? Can they find it on your site?
- Is the content on your page current? Is it updated to reflect the current problems of your target market?
- Is your call to action appropriate for your goal? Is it easy to find or are there barriers on the page that keep your target audience from seeing the purpose.
We should always be think in terms of what our target market needs, what their problems are and, of course, how our product or service solves that problem. Remember, when people find your site online, it is because they were looking for you. They were looking for an answer. When we provide answers to what our target market is looking for, our websites are more effective for our customers and our business as well.
What are the goals of your website?
