February
Attract A Following For Your Business
Comments Off Posted in: Marketing, Advertising, SEO & SEM DiscussionLet’s face it, it is nice to be noticed. So what do you do when you feel like your website is not getting the attention it deserves? Here are some tricks outside of the normal marketing plan to attract some much needed recognition.
Make It Look Good
It may seem shallow, but users like sites to be visually appealling. Business is – at least to an extent – about appearances. A well-built and professional looking site reflects positively on your company. If your site looks good, then you look good.
This does not just refer to how the sight physically looks; it also refers to how the site functions. An easy to navigate site allows visitors to quickly find what they are looking for and creates a good experience. Never underestimate the selling power of “ease of use”.
If you can’t build the site yourself, then you may need to hire the services of a professional. It may be more costly, but the payoff will probably be worth the expense. This is especially true if most of your business’ sales will be generated via the site.
Cater to the Engines
The compelling thing to know about search engine results is that users seldom ever make it past the first page, so it helps immensely to be near the top. Search engines work by scanning sites and ranking them according to how well they match the requested search typed in by the user.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is essentially building and marketing your site so it is more likely to appear at the higher echelons of the rankings. There are a number of criteria that search engines use to rank sites. These include things like the incorporation of keywords and phrases and how many links to your site appear on other sites.
There are many useful articles available on the internet in regards to how to improve your page rank, so it couldn’t hurt to read up on how to get some love from the search engines. It may take some time for your site to climb up the page ranks, but rest assured that better page rank means better business.
Blog Your Heart Out
A great way to pull in new visitors and make them into repeats is to start a blog or incorporate articles into your site. The internet is all about free information, so give the people what they want. The blog can be about pretty much anything that is relevant to members of your consumer base. The trick is that you have to add new content often enough to keep them coming back for more.
It also helps to become an active blogger on other sites. It may seem counterintuitive to do something for free, but the exposure on an established site can draw readers to your site for more interesting reads. If you don’t have time to blog on other sites, then you can always join the forums and entice users with your useful tidbits of information.
Be Social
The purpose of social networks is to connect people with things in common, such as mutual friends or shared interests. What this translates to for your small business’ site is an entire pool of potential customers that have presorted themselves into target market groups. Creating a Facebook, LinkedIn, and/or Twitter account for you and your company can help you to connect with these groups. If you can connect with these potential customers, there is the likelihood that they will help to spread the word about your site of their own accord.
There are two major things to be wary of when engaging in social networking. The first being that it is a public forum, so you have to be watch what you say and post on your personal account. You can always change the privacy settings to limit who sees your personal posts. The second is that people can spread bad reviews as quickly as they can good. These downsides are negligible compared to the possibilities presented by networking, but it pays to be aware of what you are getting yourself into.
