Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
I have discussed how Pay Per Click advertising can get you to the top of the search engines and put your site in front of millions of web surfers looking for your products and services, I also discussed how expensive this can be. Imagine if you could get to the top of the search engine for free. Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is the method of modifying the pages on your website to improve your position in the search engines. When you perform a search on Google for example you will see on the results page a list of results in the centre of the page as well as a number of results running down the right hand column. The results on the right are from paid advertising sources (Pay Per Click) however the results in the middle are there at no cost.
All the major search engines have what are known as web crawlers, these are highly sophisticated programs that crawl across the internet jumping through hyperlinks and recording the text on web pages. They collect all this information and determine how relevant a particular page is to a given search, this is no mean feat given that there are over 8 billion pages on the World Wide Web.
The art of SEO is learning and manipulating the factors that the search engine companies use to rank the relevancy of a web page against a particular search term. The search engines use highly complex algorithms to determine their rankings and ensure that only good quality on topic sites are being displayed in their results. Try to spam the search engines and you may find that they drop you all together from their search results, permanently.
Search engine optimisation is such a broad subject that we cannot really discuss it in any significant detail within this guide. If you would like to find out more about SEO then be sure to read or 14 point guide or checkout some of the links at the foot of this page.
Email Marketing Campaigns
Email is a great way to get your message to as many people as possible with a minimum of cost. You can easily send visual emails to 100’s or 1000’s of email addresses and monitor the response in real time. It is important to remember however that there are laws in this country and overseas that protect consumers from inappropriate use of their contact details. You should only ever email individuals who have opted in to receive such mail otherwise you could be considered as a spammer and may even face legal action for sending out unsolicited emails. Due to the volume of emails that are distributed by businesses this form of advertising is not as effective as what it used to be however the relatively low costs will often still provide a good return on investment.
Conclusion
A proven formula to developing a successful online marketing campaign is to not rely on one source for your traffic, the internet is a very dynamic medium and things can change pretty quickly. As more and more businesses start selling online you will need to hone your competitive edge to remain ahead. You should also have a clear and concise system to monitor the response from your advertising campaigns, use this to dictate how you invest your money and get rid of ads that are costing you money as quickly as possible. As a new company you are likely to receive a number of calls from companies that are trying to get you to spend money advertising on their websites. Do not be pressurised into making a decision rather explore your options and try to arrange a trial period before signing any long term agreements.
Useful links
You may find the following links useful in answering any further questions you may have about website marketing.
Google Adwords - Create Pay Per Click advertising campaigns on the Google Network
Overture - A company owned by Yahoo that can deliver targeted PPC ad campaigns to large search network.
High Rankings - A very useful resource for information on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Be sure to view the forum for recent discussions on SEO practices and industry news.
SEO Chat - Provides access to a range of useful SEO tools to optimise your website.
