Key Ways to Make Your Website a Success

Your company website can stand out and attract visitors in three simple ways. It must draw visitors in, keep visitors on the website long enough to understand what you can offer and keep visitors coming back for more.

If you feel that your current website is under-performing and the subject of online marketing brings you out in a cold sweat then check out our simple guide below to help you understand what you need to do…

1) Entice visitors

Your website has around three seconds to catch your visitors' attention or they're likely to click away. In order to keep your visitors interested you need a website which has an original design and layout  and an enticing headline on every page.

• Take a look at your website - are you happy with your design? 
• Do you feel your headlines will compel your visitors to keep reading? 

If the answer to either of these questions is a no then it's time to make sure your website is reaching its potential.

Be honest about what your strengths are, if you have a great business brain but writing isn't your forte then contact a website copywriter to help you with the content on your website. Website copywriters are paid to write headlines that draw visitors in and make sales.

Also, contact a selection of web designers who have a good knowledge of marketing and communicating your message to your visitors. Ask them for ideas and a quote to see what they would do differently in terms of the overall look and feel of your site. It's never too late for a re-brand; if your site has been up for some time and isn't attracting visitors then you need to start to make changes.

Know more about creating your website from ground up in 10 steps and How To Choose Your Website Colors 

 

2) Hold your visitors' attention

You should constantly be monitoring how long your visitors stay on your website for. If the average visitor sticks around for thirty seconds or less then it probably means that they've taken a look your website and then clicked away.

You need to be aiming to keep the visitor on your website for at least a few minutes so that they can read three or four of your main website pages otherwise they won't have a true understanding of what you can offer them.

Informative and enticing website copy is one way to hold your visitors' attention. Your website copy needs to be written to appeal to your target audience. It needs to be interesting, compelling and persuasive and you need strong calls to action on your website pages so that your visitors can easily contact you or buy from you.

If you don't have a dedicated marketing department or someone who specialises in online marketing then consider contacting a website copywriter. Website copywriters specialise in writing persuasive and targeted content for the web to help businesses generate enquiries and make sales.

Know more about Eye Tracking, Statistical Analysis and Site Success and Web Page Eye Tracks and Hot Spots 

3) Keep visitors coming back

Not all of your visitors will buy your products or contact you to make an enquiry the first time they visit your website. The majority of online customers will either compare your service and products to your competitors or take some time to consider their purchase before making an investment.

You need to make sure that your website has enough compelling, informative and interesting content to make visitors return. Weekly updates to your website via blogs and articles can provide a human element to the business and they are also a great way to share company news and advertise promotions.

It can take time to write the content for these so if you don't have someone in house who can provide the copy for blog posts and articles then consider contacting a website copywriter. Experienced website copywriters can produce compelling blog posts and articles for a variety of businesses in different industries, some even offer discounts for multiple articles or blog posts.

Read more on Turning Internet Browsers into Customers and Website Conversions 

About the Author: Pure Ink Creative are experienced website copywriters who can transform your website into a profitable success. These three simple steps can completely alter the performance of your website and turn it into a money-making resource.

Search Engine and Website Optimization

SEO is an essential part of website optimization, involving the formatting of a web page so that search engine algorithms score it highly for the relevant keyword.

Each page should be optimized for only one keyword so that the page is listed in as high a position as possible for that keyword.

If you understand how search engines work you will be able to apply your knowledge of SEO to optimize your website and ensure, not only a listing, but a search engine listing worth having. So, exactly how does a search engine such as Google work?

The answer to that is that nobody knows - except some Google employees of course. However, by carrying out certain actions and analyzing the results, it is possible to come to certain conclusions as to what Google are looking for and using that information to your advantage. Keep in mind, however, that the number of variables Google is evaluating is believed to reach three figures, so you will only ever scratch the surface, but we know that some of these are given more weighting than others.

SEO variables come in groups, and your website optimization strategy should take as many of these into account as possible. These groups can be categorized into increasingly narrower sets, the broadest being on-page and off-page optimization. The variables with most weighting are currently believed to be:

1. ON-PAGE WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION

On-page optimization is, as the term suggests, carried out on the web page itself. This can either be on the visible part of the page, or in the underlying source html code. This optimization can be further classified into:

a) The Keywords. Each web page should be optimized for one keyword, and can contain a few sub-keywords for which the page might also be listed. These, however, are less important than they once were in view of Google's latent semantic indexing (LSI) algorithm. That is another subject! The choice of keyword is important, and there is software available (free and not so free) to help you choose the best keyword for your needs. Do not overuse keywords - instead use lots of related text and synonyms to tell the spiders what your page is about.

b) The Title. This 'title' is not visible on the page, but contained within the html 'Title' tag prior to the 'Body' section of the page html. It should contain the keyword, and is the title that appears at the head of the search engine listing for the page.

c) Meta Tags. In SEO, the Meta tags, again contained prior to the visible 'body' section, provide the search engine crawlers or spiders with information about your site. The only tags of use today are:

• The Description Meta tag. This describes the content of your site and is shown in full or part below the title in your search engine listing. Include your selling point and any toll-free number you might have.
• The Keyword Meta tag. Not generally used, but who knows - it costs nothing and does no harm.
• The Robots Meta tag should be used to block any page from spiders that you don't want visited, in case they dilute the overall site relevance. For example, duplicate sales pages. Use it blank even if you are not blocking anything.

d) Headings Page and paragraph headings should be in bold text within H (heading) html tags, H1 for page and H2 for paragraph headings. Use keywords because heading tags stress the importance of the text within them, especially if formatted bold.

e) Navigation Links

• Your navigation is best if made using keyword anchor text and with a small description of the page linked to just below it.
• Try to arrange your html so that the spider sees your body text first, followed by the links that will lead it away from your page. Most importance is placed on the first 100 words and the last paragraph, so don't let these words be your navigation links.
• Pay attention to your on-site linking strategy. There is a formula you can use to maximize the PageRank points for each or any individual page.

2. OFF-PAGE WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION

Off-page optimization is a massive subject, and would require a separate article to even scratch the surface. It includes techniques such as one-way back links, reciprocal linking, article marketing, directory submissions, interlinking your own sites and blogs, use of social bookmarking sites and social networking, Twitter and so on.

These SEO techniques can in many respects be more important than on-page SEO, and it is not uncommon to see a page with no content but adverts listed at position #1 on Google due solely to the number of other web pages linked to it.

SEO is an extensive subject, but you can improve your chances of getting a high listing if you take advantage of what is known. Information is available, some of it genuine and some opinion. Make sure you find the former and avoid the latter in your website optimization strategy.

About the Author: 
Peter Nisbet - These are the basics of SEO. For the details that determine succes or failure visit SEOcious where Pete also offers a free SEO course.

Make your Site Googleable

You can help make sure that your site turns up in search just when it should by taking advantage of these tips from Google's Search Quality Team.

1. Not sure if all your pages are being seen by Google?
   Search for your site's address after the command "site", like [site:fuchsiasoft.com].
   When you see your pages in the results, check your snippet content and page titles.
   Include information that matches the topic of a particular page.
   If anything is missing or you want more details, you can also use the Content Analysis tool in Webmaster Tools.
   
   
2. If you upload new pages or topics faster than Google crawls your site, make sure to submit a Google Sitemap and include a refresh rate.
   
   
3. Label your images appropriately. Users searching in Google Image Search will more easily find the image on your site.
   Don't miss out on potential traffic because of [001.jpg] instead of [NintendoWii.jpg].
   Image Search is one of the largest search properties out there, so you should take advantage of it.
   
   
4. Manage your SiteLinks. Your most valuable links may not be the ones that Google chooses as SiteLinks, so remember you can remove any that you don't think users will find useful.
   
   
5. Check for errors and keyword traffic in Webmaster Tools. See Google's diagnostics checklist.
   
   
6. Serve accurate HTTP status codes. If you've retired a page permanently, serve a 404. If you've simply relocated it, serve a 301.
   The more Google know about your old pages, the faster Google will find the next best page on your site for a given query.
   
   
7. Users and search engines like organic content. Make some of your own!
   
   
8. Read Google's recently released SEO Starter Guide.
   
   
9. Watch Google's Tutorials for Webmasters.
   
   
10. Find out what information Google has about your website in Webmaster Tools.
    
    
11. Get the latest updates from the Webmaster Central Blog.
    
    
12. Find answers to your questions in Google's Webmaster Help Center, or ask your questions in the Webmaster Help Group.

Original Source: http://adsense.blogspot.com/2008/12/light-up-your-site.html

Easy Online Marketing Strategies

If you are

• a small business owner
  

• and you are struggling to attract and retain clients
  

• you are spending a small fortune on advertising in newspapers, magazines, radio or even TV

then it’s time to consider some new ways of marketing your business.
I believe that the internet offers huge opportunity to small business, service professionals and large corporates alike.

The online world in many ways is no different to the offline marketing world. On and offline, it’s all about people. In fact, if you think about it, every dollar that is spent online must come from an individual choosing to spend their money with a particular website.

Creating an effective website that brings you new customers and makes you money will be more likely to happen if you successfully build relationships. This means building a genuine relationship with visitors to your website so that they come to like and trust you enough to give you their money!

This is relationship marketing. Next step is leveraging yourself as an expert so that clients come chasing you. Online Marketing provides the opportunity to simplify both of these strategies.

Selling as was used in the past is gone. Every day we are overwhelmed with marketing and sales messages and it’s impossible to take it all in - even if we wanted to - and I’m sure you, like me, don’t particularly want to be sold to.

What you want is to have clients choose to want to buy your products and/or services, because they have come to see you as an expert AND they have formed a relationship with you built on trust, knowledge and authenticity!

Having an Effective Website and/or Blog and using your web presence to attract and build a database allows you to form the beginnings of a relationship with prospects. Allowing your prospects to get to know, like and trust you through an Email Newsletter over time gives you the opportunity to leverage yourself as an expert and convert prospects into clients.

No hard selling allowed or required.

These are simple Online Marketing strategies you can implement almost immediately to begin leveraging yourself as an expert in your industry and begin fostering an ongoing relationship with prospects.

Original Source:
http://blogbybelinda.com/pull-marketing-relationship-marketing-easy-marketing.htm

Tips for Marketing

Customer discounts/incentives
When people fall upon hard times it is important we justify the cost of any purchase, offering special incentives or discounts can really help customers choose to purchase.
If a customer is undecided between two different products it might just be the discount you give them which could swing them one way or another.
Ensure you use the SG ‘credit crunch’ discount code on your site and look out for the Proactol one coming this week.

Push the price benefits over other options
One of the biggest concerns will be the price of the product, it is important that you show why choosing your recommendation will be a cost effective solution.
Compare against other products in the market place or other options. For example: by taking Proactol you will eat less saving you thousands from your shopping bills.

Increasing perceived value
It is even more important than ever that you push the extra value services; ideally you really want to promoted time based bonuses, order today and get $50 off. You should also really market the bonuses like “free shipping”. These could make a real difference when people come to order.

Selling everyday items
It is very important that your surfers do not look at the item as a luxury, often in difficult times people will stop purchasing more luxury items and stick to the necessities.
It is very important that you pass the message across that this is an everyday item which they cannot do without; this is not the purchase of a lifetime but just something else to add to their basket.

It’s quality and will not need replacing / Will last the test of time
Finally it is important that customers feel they are purchasing something of quality, after all this needs to last longer than before as we all have less disposable income. It is important you portray the message that this product is better value for money as it will last twice as long as other products in the market.

Come in under the radar
Building a brand is a roll-out process, not a drop everywhere in the world at one time.
Do you know what the best selling imported beer is in the United States? It's Corona. Who would expect a beer from Mexico to be popular? The fact is it's a terrific beer.
But they didn't just come to the U.S. and put it everywhere. They went to the cities with a Mexican population -- Los Angeles, Chicago, New York -- and then they put it in restaurants and stores there. The key to brand-building is to have something good that you roll-out in a very intelligent way. Maybe even invisibly for a while because you want to be under the radar screen of competitors.

Know your customer
There are still too many CEOs who identify marketing with selling and advertising. But marketing has evolved to be not only product centered but customer centered. We are saying you've got to understand and choose the customers you want to serve. Don't just go after everyone. Define the target market carefully through segmentation and then really position yourself as different and as superior to that target market. Don't go into that target market if you're not superior.
We are trying to make the case that it's much more important for a company to be customer-centric than product-centric. The same customer you have for product X, may be available for product Y and Z and so on. And you won't know that if you have separate product managers, each only concerned with selling his or her product.

Own your branding
We are not in a state of competition anymore; we're in a state of hyper-competition. So people are desperately looking for handles -- functional features, emotional appeals -- that will draw people to their product. We should think of owning a word or a phrase that helps to build customer retention and loyalty.
Look at how we buy the Mercedes because it's the best engineered car. We buy a BMW because it's the best driving performance. We buy the Volvo because it's the safest automobile. A lot of these companies lose that edge too, but they don't lose the impression.

Stay ahead of the competition
The worst thing is that if something works, your competitors are going to clone it and before you know it anything that you had as a differentiator is imitated by the others. So you're in the business of constant innovation. Constantly asking yourself, 'Three years from now, what will our differentiator be?'
Markets change, so marketing has to change.

Make it an experience
Once in a while we find someone having a whole new approach to a mature market.
Starbucks is a very good example where coffee is coffee but they decided to sell it differently, put a higher price, make it good-tasting and make it an experience rather than just some coffee. In fact, I've heard that if Starbucks closed its shops, a lot of people would go crazy. They are in such a habit of going to the Starbucks before work, taking the coffee, and they'd become desperate otherwise.
There's a big movement to say, 'we're not just adding services to our business and our product, we're actually trying to design an experience.'
You'll see that language being used. We're in the experience design business.

Make your advantages easy to understand
For instance, Computer Resources International AS originally sold consulting, for which they used proprietary software. Only when they started selling the software first, and then customization and consulting as extras did their business take off. Buying software was easier to understand than the more intangible consulting.
LifeUSA insurance, and many other businesses, focus on speed in every aspect of their business. They make fun of the slower industry standards and provide a simple advantage clients understand. Other ways to set yourself apart are through great service or association with worthy causes.

Don't try to be everything to everyone
Just as customers screen you, you should decide who you want to serve.
Printing Resources originally took any printing business that walked in the door. When they realized which kinds of customers they worked with best, they were able to cut down their marketing costs and make more money.
Some computer consulting firms only work with one customer per industry so they will have no conflicts of interest. You can bet they select customers carefully, and that customers are flattered by the partnership approach.
Consider creating a checklist of who shouldn't hire you! It will help you focus, and may impress the right customers if you share it with them.

Work for referrals
Word of mouth is the least expensive, most effective way to get new business.
Barry Farber has new customers write on the back of their business cards why they bought. These become mini-testimonials.
Bob Brassard calls at least one client a day just to keep in touch. This builds the relationship by showing he doesn't just care about them when he wants something, allows him to update files, and generates referrals.
One upscale dentist put up a Web page. He got about six extra referrals a month because his clients thought it was "cool" that their dentist had a Web page.

Use online marketing
You don't have to have a Web site like Eastern Mortgage Services to do business online.
You can send personalized e-mail like Michael Swartz of DNA Software.
You can pay only for the leads generated for you by advertising on many sites.
You can research potential clients for better presentations.
You can gather customer input inexpensively as Ritchey Design does. Or you can post free ads in discussion groups.

Don't sell, help people buy
When you truly put the client's interests above your own, you will become a consultant, a team member, and a partner for your client. When you've earned trusted advisor status, doing business is no problem.
For instance, computer consultant, Amadaeus Consulting Group, helps its customers make more money by using computers to help their clients sell more. Of course, the extra business comes around as the client grows.
A small accountant's client felt they needed a "Big 5" firm to handle their audit because they wanted to go public. Instead of resisting, the accountant helped the client select a Big 5 firm, thus maintaining and extending the relationship with the client.
Conrad International added warehousing services near overseas clients so they could afford to buy in bulk for a lower price.
When you put the customer first, you earn long-term loyalty that is more profitable than a larger quick sale.

Partner with other companies reaching your market
This might be neighborhood merchants cooperating on a sidewalk sale, or Digital Equipment partnering with Infinite Technologies to better serve the Bank of New York. Or it could be you partnering with a charity to create a fund raising event that brings attention to both of you, like Service Merchandise and Goodwill did.

Shift the risk to yourself and you will profit
A believable guarantee makes it safe for prospects to give you a try. Very few people will exploit a generous guarantee compared to the extra business it generates.
YoyoDine is one of many companies that guarantee you results from their online advertising. Even Kaiser, the big HMO, found a money-back guarantee to be successful.

Be personal
To build relationships you have to build a personal connection.
A handwritten invitation pulled great for Frank Candy, president of the American Speakers Bureau and for restaurateur Murray Raphael.
Internet consultant Dan Janal gives clients links from his page.
One nursing home created a waiting list through great referrals by greeting visiting relatives by name and filling them in on their loved ones at the start of each visit.

Create free publicity
Construction Computer Applications Newsletter had a hard time finding reviewers for computer programs of interest to readers. The reviewers not only got publicity from their reviews, but the firm gave them referrals.
A large CPA firm specializes in citrus growers. Every year they do a survey of their clients' costs of operations. The survey data helps their clients benchmark their operations, positions the CPAs as the experts, and gets the CPA firm publicized in trade articles.
Inquiry Handling Services gets regular publicity from newsletters and articles, as well as a book they wrote for their industry.
And Luxury Limo received major coverage about a special rate created to allow three "regular" women to share the commute in a limo at about the cost of carpooling.

Integrate your marketing
This means that everything you do should convey the same message and represent what you stand for. Putnam Investments manages $150 billion in assets.
All their literature, and even their office, conveys the same message.
Viva Knight, a script consultant, rents mailing lists from the same magazine he advertises in. If he also wrote articles for the same magazine, it would add to the integrated approach.

Original Source:
MoreNiche.com
PoolOnline.com
Cnn.com