In this day and age, you can’t just put an ad in the newspaper or on TV and hope they’ll be effective. You also need to be sure you have an airtight internet marketing strategy in place. In some ways, it’s never been easier to reach your target audience. There are a lot of free, or at least cheap, ways to advertise your business in a targeted manner. However, in other ways, it’s never been more difficult. The competition for those target audiences has increased as more and more businesses are moving their ads to the internet.
Here are some ways to improve your internet marketing strategy and help you stand out from the crowd:
1. Your Website :
It’s more important than ever that your website is not only mobile responsive, but optimized for use on mobile devices. In fact, search engines penalize websites that aren’t mobile friendly, meaning they show up lower on the list of search results.
This means you need to focus on usability over beauty. While a good looking website is also important, you may need to sacrifice some of your site’s aesthetic appeal for easy navigation. This is sound advice for a site that is only being viewed on a desktop as well. It doesn’t matter how many people you get to your site. If it’s hard to navigate, people are more likely to leave your site in search of one that is more user friendly.
It’s also important to optimize your website for organic search results. Search engine “spiders” analyze content on your website, and rank it based on its content. The more highly ranked your site is, the more likely it will appear on the first page of search results (which is ideal since most people don’t venture to the second page of search results).
2. Google AdWords (Pay-Per-Click) :
Sometimes organic search results just aren’t enough, especially if you are in a competitive field. If this is the case, Google AdWords can help. In AdWords, you can measure everything in a campaign which means you know exactly where your money is going. Plus, you only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad which makes Google AdWords great for smaller businesses.
AdWords can be time consuming, however. You need to monitor your account to see which keywords are yielding results, or if any searches that are irrelevant to your product or service are making your ads show up. It’s important to do this so you’re not wasting money on clicks that won’t lead to a conversion, especially in highly competitive fields where keywords can be expensive.
3. Search Engine Optimization :
When you search for something on Google, the most relevant websites show up at the top of the search results page. SEO used to just be based in keywords (keyword relevancy, keyword density, etc.), but keywords are easily manipulated. Now SEO optimized sites also need a website that loads quickly and is mobile friendly and responsive. You need quality backlinks to your site from other respectable sources, and you also need high quality content on your own website.
4. Content Marketing :
Having unique and valuable content on your website is important for a lot of reasons. Not the least of which is that content is a Google ranking factor. Quality content also helps build your brand and show that you are a reputable source for things concerning your field, which makes you seem knowledgeable and trustworthy to consumers.
Content marketing is important; however it can also be time consuming. Your content needs to be accurate, well researched, and have no spelling or grammatical errors. This means you need to edit and then edit again. Don’t just rely on spell check. Write your content one day, then edit it the next. Or, better yet, have someone else edit it. No matter how much you know about a subject, if there are grammatical errors your content instantly becomes less trustworthy.
Internet marketing strategies are constantly changing. While these factors are all important to internet marketing, the most important thing is to stay up-to-date with trends and be sure you are always implementing the best internet marketing practices.
This article was written by Beanstalk Web Solutions, a St. Louis Internet Marketing Company.