McKenzie-Thorpe

If you are an internet marketing novice, you are probably facing the seemingly impossible and somewhat daunting task of trying to get your site listed on the first page of the search engines. You probably have no idea how to improve your ranking. For the purposes of this discussion, we will outline the procedures you should follow to climb steadily to the top of the search engines, while still making sure that you attract qualified traffic that will actually be receptive to the products or services that your website offers.

The first thing you need to understand is that your search engine ranking will not improve overnight. There are quite a few charlatans in cyberspace who work as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) consultants. They will charge you an arm and a leg for their services, sometimes as much as £1,000 per month or more. They often make dubious claims that they can get you ranked on the first page of the search engines within a few months, and if not, they will kindly refund your money.

However, there is a catch. Once you pay the initial deposit and the SEO company begins working on your website, they will often optimize your website in such a manner so that you will be able to quickly rise to the top of the rankings for a keyword that is either not significant or will not attract any real traffic to your website.

For example, if your website provides car insurance quotes, any SEO consultant knows that it will be impossible to expediently get your website ranked on the first page of Google for a highly competitive phrase such as CAR INSURANCE QUOTES. So, instead, they will pick a variation of that phrase, such as CAR INSURANCE QUOTES FAST, for which there is no competition, and you will quickly rise to the top. The only problem is no one will ever actually use that precise phrase when searching for auto insurance quotes, so even though the SEO company delivered on its promise to improve your ranking, you will still not get any visitors to your website because you will be ranked high for a keyword that no one will ever use when searching for auto insurance quotes.

So, you need to use a different approach if you want to not only improve your ranking, but also attract qualified traffic to your website. The first thing you need to do is optimize your website for the keywords or phrases that people actually use when searching for products or services related to what you offer. For example, if you sell vitamins, you would want to improve your ranking for the phrases BUY VITAMINS or BUY VITAMINS ONLINE. To optimize your website for your chosen keywords, you should either hire a web designer that has experience optimizing websites, or you should purchase search engine optimization software that will show you how to tweak your website and how to change your HTML code so that your site is properly optimized. You should also try to have a decent amount of free content on your website that relates to the keywords or phrases for which you want to be ranked higher.

The next step is to submit your site to the search engines, if you have not already done so. It seems silly to mention this considering that we are talking about search engines anyway, but some people actually forget to submit their website to the engines, or only submit their site to a couple of search engines and then quit. There are hundreds of legitimate search engines and directories in cyberspace, and you should submit to all them. I recommend that you look for search engine submission companies on Google and pick one that charges a small monthly fee to submit your site to the search engines once per month.

The last step, and probably the most important component of getting ranked higher on the search engines, is increasing your link popularity. The more websites that are linking to your site, the higher your ranking will be. To increase your link popularity, you will need to submit your website to link exchange directories so that you can swap links with other websites (they will link to you if you agree to link to them). Also, you can write articles and submit them to article submission directories. At the bottom of each article you write, you are allowed to include a link to your website. As the articles you write are put into circulation and are published on other websites, your link popularity will increase.

If you employ each of the strategies outlined in this article, you should be able to improve your search engine ranking while at the same time garnering the kind of traffic that you want. No website can improve its ranking overnight, but if you are persistent, your efforts will be rewarded in the long run.

Promoting your internet business can be a tough task. The costs of traditional advertising are prohibitive. It can cost as much as £20,000 to run a print advertisement in a prominent publication. It can cost much more than that to produce and run a TV commercial, especially if the commercial airs during peak viewing hours. Online marketing is a problem too, because it is extremely difficult and takes a long time to climb to the top of the search engine rankings.

Ever wonder why some marketing tactics work for some businesses but not others? Maybe you heard about a business that paints their company website’s URL on the top of their delivery trucks and increased online sales by 25 134515681n a single quarter. However, when you try the same tactic, your sales remain flat.

The reason most marketing tactics fail is that they are not part of a comprehensive marketing strategy. A comprehensive marketing strategy helps you to choose which tactics will work for your business and keep the sales coming in like clockwork no matter what the economy.

Defining Marketing Strategy

Imagine you are on a hunting trip. You find yourself standing in the middle of a field with your rifle in your hand. Without a marketing strategy, you’ll be shooting at every leaf that the wind picks up.

Your marketing strategy will help you to decide whether you should be shooting at rabbits or elephants. Not only will your marketing strategy help you to define your target, it will help you hit that target when you raise your rifle to your shoulder and take aim.

This analogy is rich with meaning. If you’re hunting Polar Bears, then Times Square in New York City is not going to provide a lot of opportunity for you to bag your desired trophy.

In addition to picking the right spot to hunt, you need to pick your weapon based upon the animal you’re hunting. The same ammunition that effectively kills a rabbit or squirrel is just going to annoy a rhinoceros. Conversely, the ammunition that drops a rhino is going to obliterate smaller game.

If you have never shot a rifle before, the you should know that the sight on a rifle will determine whether you hit your target. If the sight is out of alignment, even though you have the target lined up with your sight, you will not hit the target. You will, instead, end up shooting above, below or to either the left or right of your target. Even if your shooting mechanics are flawless, a rifle with a sight that is out of alignment will prevent you from hitting your target.

When your marketing strategy combines the rifle with the properly aligned sight, you will find your shooting accuracy will improve dramatically.

Four Steps of Creating Powerful Marketing Strategies

STEP ONE - Research, research research

This is where you find out what you do not know. The more you know, the better your marketing strategy will be.

Leave no stone unturned as you define:

* Your customers
Age, income, education, marital statues, religious preferences, comfort level with technology, where they live, where they work, what they drive.

You just cannot know enough about your customers.

* Your competitors
Who are they? Are they only in your industry? What is their USP (Unique Selling Proposition)? Why do their customers choose them?

You may be surprised to discover your competition is not another business after all. Consider the car wash chain that discovered their biggest competitor was their own customer! Instead of looking to annihilate the other car wash facilities, this chain began focusing their marketing efforts on educating their customers on the benefits to bringing their car to them instead of washing their cars at home. Sales increased significantly once this chain realized where to point their marketing strategy. Another often overlooked “competitor” is the ever present “Do nothing”. Doing nothing is always an option. Frequently, it’s the service professional’s strongest competitor. Never underestimate the power of doing nothing.

STEP TWO - Determine the problems your customer has and the solutions you offer.

Everyone has problems. Marketing is merely the act of bringing your solutions before the people who need it most and are ready, willing and able to pay for it.

Once you know everything about your customer, you already know the solutions he or she is seeking.

STEP THREE - Determine the emotional triggers that will ignite your sales.

The act of buying is a complex and emotional decision. The reason your customer is making a purchase is not always readily apparent. While you may be selling candles, your customers may be buying:

Emergency lighting
Aroma therapy
Ambiance

Find out why your customers are buying and you will be on your way to marketing success.

STEP FOUR - Creating a strategy that results in breakthrough performance for your marketing efforts

Now it is time to take the information gathered in the first three steps to create a precise marketing strategy for your business or product.

Following these four steps is the foundation for creating a precise marketing strategy that will break through to your best clients and customers.