Think Big Blog

Online marketing, most of us believe, has one singular purpose - to get our website noticed in order to increase web traffic. That’s part of it; but certainly not all of it. Any online marketing company that sells you on a campaign to simply boost web traffic is missing a significant piece of the puzzle. Sure, we all want to better our search engine rankings and subsequently increase web traffic; but if we don’t draw the attention of the right kind of web traffic it does nothing to increase our sales. The bottom line is always to better business, increase sales and earn more money. Targeted web traffic results in a higher likelihood of conversions and the bridge between the two is the choice of keywords.

So think of online marketing as the building of a bridge between your customers and your website. Helping you build it - one rung at a time - is your website optimization firm; a company that knows a thing or two about positioning you appropriately in the online market.

Step 1. Put it all on the table. What is it that you do? What do you offer? What makes you different from other companies? Who are your customers and how do they traditionally find you? This is very much a case of knowing where you were before you can know where you’re going. If your customers are finding your competitors online and not you then chances are that they are positioned in a better location because of their choice of keywords. Know your audience and how they are searching for your type of products and service online.

Step 2. Define what you do and what you offer. This is all about the keywords and keyword phrases; finding the words and word combinations that are being used regularly by your customers. What are they plugging into an online search to find what you have to offer?

Continued in the next post…

While building web traffic may seem to be something that happens by a stroke of luck (someone spots your website, likes it, and spreads the word), there is much more to it than that. Sure, luck doesn’t hurt and a great buzz surrounding your website never hurts either. Word of mouth will continue to be one of the great ways that you can increase web traffic, create a following, and increase your sales. However, there are the nuts and bolts of website traffic that can’t be ignored and they are typically addressed by professionals who understand the steps that are integral to the process. Above and beyond anything - before the linking strategies and the content building and the attention from the search engines - there is the choosing of keywords based on extensive and pointed research.

Choosing the right keywords is absolutely essential to building web traffic because in the end it is the search engine users who will determine if you are worthy of higher rankings simply by virtue of visiting your site. And why will they visit your site? Because you have what they want and to prove it, your website showed up in the search engine results when they used particular keywords. In order to choose the right keywords you need to know what it is your audience wants, how they go about finding it, and what words and phrases they typically use - in terms of an online search - to find the products and services in which they have interest.

A website optimization firm will help you determine what your audience is searching for and how they are searching for it. They will also determine which of those keyword phrases are most competitive - how many times they are being used - and how you can have a piece of the pie.

Those who have built a business from the ground up share the entrepreneurial spirit with others in the same position; the motivation and passion that allowed them to initially head down such a road. They will have found - as so many do - that while there is a team of people at their disposal and perhaps those who are just as invested as they are in the success of the business, that in many ways they feel on their own. After all, starting your own business is something that is fiercely personal and it costs blood, sweat and tears as the saying goes. Unfortunately this means for many business owners that they wind up taking on way too much; they don’t know how to delegate or they feel uncomfortable and out of control in doing so. What this translates to, ironically, is many things can fall through the cracks because - like it or not - one person can’t do it all and this includes online marketing.

Of course, a company’s online presence is absolutely crucial to its success in this day and age. Those businesses without a website - and a successful one at that - are not capable of reaching the entirety of their audience and the potential for failure is high. It is therefore absolutely necessary that any company interested in success pay careful attention to their web presence and their ability to garner qualified web traffic; and doing so successfully often means turning to others for their professional guidance. This team mentality is so very important to the success of a website and a company as a whole.

Those looking to increase website traffic and build their online business must be brave enough to delegate such work to a qualified and professional website optimization firm that can lead the way in optimizing a site for success.

Online marketing has become the new buzz words of the Internet; something that a whole host of companies profess to know how to do and something that we have been trained to fear in terms of not having “enough” of it - a sure sign, according to those in the know, that our online business will fail. The truth is that online businesses count on a lot of factors to realize success. Having the fantastic website and the airtight business plan and the phenomenal products and services are - quite frankly - only pieces in a much larger puzzle. We do need online marketing insomuch as we need to be able to build the appropriate bridge for our customers to find our websites. This is, surprisingly, the one step that so many people leave out of their business plans. You can build it but it doesn’t mean that they will come.

So what does online marketing mean and how does this help you build your business? In terms of getting people - and by people we mean qualified, targeted web traffic - to your site, online marketing is the means by which you make your site known and attract this traffic. In some cases this is a well constructed and equally well managed pay per click (PPC) campaign that allows your site to inhabit the prime locations on a search engine for a price. In other cases this is done through an organic search engine optimization (SEO) campaign that - when done well - will help you reach the prime locations of the search engines on your own, without the paid spot.

Results found through organic SEO campaigns are directly proportionate to the amount of work put into the campaign which is why so many rightfully turn to a professional online marketing and website optimization firm to take the reigns. More in the next post…

In the last post we talked about how traditional marketing and advertising is not only about getting the attention of the intended audience, it is about establishing and sometimes changing perception. You want those who could potentially be customers to have a positive image of you in their mind and you set forth your plan in an effort to grow brand loyalty. The same goes for online marketing where the competition is clear and the fight to get to the top of the search engine rankings wages on a daily basis. Perception - in the mind of a consumer - is reality; and should they type in a keyword phrase for something that you claim to be an expert in doing and they find you on page four, five, or twenty on the search engine rankings your credibility is going to be diminished in their eyes. Ranking is important; there’s no question.

As we said earlier the best way to manage an online campaign so that you are reaching your audience through targeted (and well researched keywords) is by working with a professional and experienced web site optimization firm that can strategy the best campaign and take you through the paces. There needs to be a certain amount of flexibility inherent in such a campaign as things change day to day online; the best online marketing campaigns are able to adjust and move on towards their quest to attract qualified web site traffic.

A reputable web site optimization firm will help you put together a search engine optimization plan that they will not only implement but manage on a day to day basis. This ongoing hands-on management can be the difference between mediocre results and true success in gaining a foothold in a particular industry and certainly in the online market.

In the last post we talked about how web traffic and smart web traffic are two different things. While it has always seemingly been the goal of web sites to generate more web site traffic the real work has been in trying to generate more appropriate web site traffic. What good is it to flood a web site with visitors who are not in the market for that site’s products and services? At the end of the day this doesn’t make the business any money. At the same time this is exactly what web sites are opening themselves up to when they simply launch a site and don’t spend any time or energy in online marketing. A web site optimization firm can help a web site not only put a strategy together that will help elevate their rankings on the search engines but will also help them reach out to an audience that has the potential to grow their business. Here’s how it’s done.

A web site optimization firm will help a company embark in online marketing in whatever capacity they are most comfortable. For instance, the company may want to engage in an SEO campaign - an organic search engine optimization campaign in which case there is not only the choosing of keywords but also the optimization of pages on the site and often a strategic linking campaign. Another company may wish to pursue web site traffic through pay-per-click or PPC in which they purchase their top spot on the search engines. In either case the magic rests with the keywords; the right keywords can deliver smart web traffic, the wrong keywords can deliver traffic that is only confused when they arrive because you don’t offer what they want.

Work with a strong and reputable web site optimization firm to identify those keywords that will give you a pinpoint accurate way to reach the appropriate people - to generate smart web traffic.

Imagine you had a great idea for a business - a strong idea that you know had the potential to make a lot of money - and you could not only easily identify the perfect audience for this business but they were all in one place. Perhaps your perfect customers are all in one town because you offer a product that is conducive to their particular lifestyle; it is a perfect complement. Then imagine that instead of opening your business right in the center of town where your acknowledged audience could easily find you and visit you often, you open up far from town in a place that is difficult to find. Does that make any sense at all? Of course not. Most people see the logic in this scenario but fail to recognize that they do something that makes just as little sense when they launch a web site without doing any online marketing. Who cares if you offer the greatest product in the world and you know exactly who your audience is and where to find them? They can’t find you. And in the end this is all that matters. There’s always big talk online about web traffic but the traffic that really matters is smart web traffic - the web site traffic that includes those to whom you can easily make a sale because you offer the perfect product for them.

Those who engage in online marketing on their clients’ behalf - a web site optimization firm - understand smart web traffic; it’s what they are always working to generate. This is the point of the search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. Not only is it meant to generate interest by the search engines, it is meant to generate interest among a particular audience. More to come in the next post…

In the last post we explored the potential of businesses to not only stay afloat but differentiate themselves in a crowded online market; enough so that they are able to attract the web site traffic that will allow them to grow their business going forward. As we discussed, there is a two-fold plan that allows for the most success in this regard. The first, obviously, is to make sure that people are able to find your web site at all and this is done by making sure that the search engines are able to find your site. The first part of the plan, therefore, is engaging in online marketing - through search engine optimization (SEO) or pay-per-click (PPC) so that visitors will be able even be able to find you. Qualifying those visitors is best done through the strategic use of keywords - something that is done in both SEO and PPC. The keywords that you choose and are used in your online marketing should speak to your potential audience; should be able to pinpoint your target market because they are using the precise words that used to find exactly your products and service. The better researched the keywords the better chance for your success.

* Phase Two. Getting visitors to your site is only half the battle in online marketing. You need to give them something, once they get there, that makes your site worthy of them continuing to explore your products and services. This means that your site had better be user-friendly, attractive, interesting, and able to deliver the value that is expected by our visitors and potential customers. A web site optimization firm can help you implement and manage a SEO or a PPC campaign but you need to be able to deliver what your customers have come to your site to find.

If the online game was won simply by attracting more people to your site - even if they clicked on it and then almost instantly logged out - then the process of online marketing would be far more simple indeed. This, however, is not how it works because ultimately the point is to attract not only visitors - but qualified visitors - to your website; customers. These are the people who will grow your business - who will help you stand your ground online. But the question remains how to get them there. There is actually a two-fold phase in not only attracting web site traffic in a saturated market but retaining these visitors so that they may actually be converted into customers. This is always the ultimate goal. The first phase is positioning your site so that it may be discovered by your potential customers and this is done through comprehensive online marketing.

* Phase One. Web site owners that want to compete in a crowded market and make sure that their site is found by their potential audience need to make sure that it can be easily searched by the search engines. There are several ways to go about this - the choice of which is determined by what works best for the company. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process by which high rankings on the search engines is achieved organically. This is done by the implementation and management of a strategic SEO campaign that may include the selection of purposeful and relevant keywords, the infusion of those keywords into web site content, the application of a linking strategy, and more. Others may choose pay-per-click (PPC) that allows them to purchase a beneficial position on the search engines. Either plan requires diligence and a commitment to manage the process - to keep the page rankings high and people visiting the site. This is often done most effectively through the use of a web site optimization firm.

In the last post we talked about the importance in online marketing of putting together a solid plan and - beyond that - working that plan each and every day. There is management that is needed in order for an online marketing strategy to be successful, to generate more web site traffic and grow the company’s brand on another level. Those who understand how hands-on this process is hire a web site optimization firm to not only implement the strategy but manage the details.

We first discussed the management necessary in search engine optimization. There is the choosing of keywords, the creation and implementation of keyword rich content, the management of a comprehensive linking strategy, and much more. This is not a one and done process - something that is put into place and allowed to run its course. Management is absolutely critical to success and a web site optimization firm offers ongoing management that includes course correcting an SEO plan to adjust to changing trends, changes in the company, and more.

Pay-per-Click - If SEO is a public relations campaign, then PPC is an advertising campaign. Either way it must be managed. In this case, the web site owner - the advertiser - purchases a top spot in the sponsored ad section of the search engines in order to capitalize on the keywords that they think are most effective for their business. PPC management is an integral part of making sure this goes off without a hitch and is ultimately successful in delivering the site with increased web site traffic - and hopefully visitors that are in keeping with the company’s overall customer base.

Whether you choose SEO or PPC, management is essential to success. Turn to a web site optimization firm to help you realize your goals and grow your business online.