Thursday, January 13, 2011

Consider Other Things Besides SEO

Writing by Nick Stamoulis

If you have a website and you have been taking any sort of marketing approach you probably have realized that it takes much more than just having some keywords on a website to make it successful. The definition of online marketing and search engine optimization is ever changing and your approach should be robust and full of new streams and pathways coming into your website.

Marketing a website in today’s market place is more than just search engine rankings; it is the ability to communicate with your audience and listen to online chatter while providing a new and unique approach to a business that might be in a saturated market.

Here are some other areas you should be thinking about if you are already conducting monthly search engine optimization:

Pay Per Click (PPC)
Pay per click advertising shouldn’t scare you one bit. Many people feel that this is a very expensive route to take and it can be but it doesn’t have to if you educate yourself a little bit. There are many different strategies that can and should be taken if you are looking to cut costs. For example if you are a local business make sure your ads are only running locally. Don’t use the same ad copy throughout your campaign and keep things relevant and unique to the keyword you are targeting for that specific ad.

Social Media Marketing
What can I say? An online business with no social media presence is like driving a car with a flat tire. Social media is not a fad or a fly by night it is a reality. The reality is that if you are looking for your audience you have to be in the social media space in some way, shape or form. Social media marketing has made a very clear overlap with search engine optimization over the years. Many of the efforts that need to be taken with social media can often times generate a direct link that not only brings steady streams of traffic over to your website but also ads to your link building efforts. Not everyone is always going to find your website through search rankings.

Email Marketing

Building up your email newsletter list should also be a top priority in your online marketing strategy. Build a nice robust list of email recipients that are opt in is truly the way to go with email marketing. Is it harder than just buying a list? Sure it is but over time those emails are good quality recipients that are waiting to hear from you. Think about a variety of different ways you can acquire those email addresses like co registrations, partnerships or free website downloads. The goal is to make your email communication strategic and scheduled. Don’t just try shooting from the hip every now and then regarding your email communication but rather put a schedule together of how you can do it the right way. Consistency is key.

Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a great way to spread your online message but like everything else it needs a carefully thought out plan to be executed correctly. Before you put together an affiliate campaign you really have to think about your brand. Some of the biggest affiliate marketing campaigns out there are usually backed by a business that has a strong brand following in their respective community. Have you built up your brand yet? Just launching a website and setting up an affiliate campaign won’t work like you want it to. If you take the time to build up your brand prior to executing your affiliate marketing campaign you will build a much more loyal and strong virtual sales team.

Blogging

Blogging is definitely a stem from social media marketing but a daily blog post on a company blog can bring in a great deal of traffic over time. Writing blog posts with a little bit of strategy in place as far as keywords and search engine optimization go can and will bring in some very quality traffic to your site over time.

It is important to realize that search marketing has many different angles and all those angles need to be approached if a website is really going to be successful online.


View the original article here

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