SEO Services, Internet Marketing and Content Marketing. These are words that almost every small online business has heard of.
But what do these words mean and how can they help you succeed in business on the internet?
There are many aspects of a successful online business but they can all be put under the heading, Internet Marketing.
At the heart of Internet Marketing is the question, “How do I take my product and service and put it before the people most likely to be interested?
The Answer is combining your Internet marketing with search engine optimisation. Expert SEO Services that can improve your search position.
Most people find what they are looking for online through search engines.
That means that all of your web marketing strategies need to include an answer to the question, “How will I get my product or service before search engine users?”
Internet Marketing and SEO bring together all the elements of your online business and marketing to create a presence in Search Engine results and across the web.
There’s really only one way to grow the sales on your website, and that’s by driving targeted traffic to it. Without traffic, your business has nothing: No customers, no orders, no profits.
So what do you do?
Note: This Article is not meant to be comprehensive. I simply want to rescue people from the clutter that is, “Internet Marketing” and make it easy for you to stay on track with your small business website.
There are four basic elements to optimizing your online business for sales, success and conversion.
- Engaging Content that converts visitors into loyal fans
- A technically efficient and fast website (Learning to conduct and SEO Audit)
- Outreach or Social Media that makes contact with potential customers or clients
- Building Links and Networks across your industry
We Might Call These Elements the Four Pillars of Web Marketing
OK, so the image below is not really a Matrix. It’s just a few colourful boxes. But the word Matrix just makes it sound so much more hip than ‘Pillars’, don’t you think?
Let’s Start with…
Content Creation
Content Creation includes:
- Your Website
- The text and,
- The images, video and other rich media on each page
- It may also include off site content like Facebook Pages, Google Local Business Listings, etc.
Some of this content you only create once, like your about us page or a product description. Other content, such as news items, press releases, blog posts and articles, you are writing more often. Not only that, but each piece you write should be unique – and never boring.
Put all that together and you have content. It’s all the guff your site visitors are going to see when they turn up to your website.
Do this and you will be optimising your content for maximum results in Google.
Here’s a cheat sheet.
Website Performance
Website Performance is a ranking factor in search engines and includes:
- Site speed and page loading times
- Usability
- Site link structure and navigation
- Standardised and readable Code
Google measures site speed as a ranking factor. Part of your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) therefore is to make your site load quickly.
This is important to search engines because it is important to site visitors. Most visitors will leave after 3 seconds if the page hasn’t loaded. if Visitors can’t use your site easily, they go elsewhere.
An important part of that is making your site easy to get around. Sitemaps and other navigation tools help Google find your content and good menu’s and logical flow help visitors.
If Google can’t read your code or your visitors can’t find the light switch, they both leave. Taking a site audit from a Professional SEO Company is a good investment here.
A small change to these critical on page SEO factors can have a dramatic effect on your search engine ranking.
Keeping a fast site can improve your rankings. Here is an audit you can use to check page speed.
Social Media Engagement
The third aspect of Internet Marketing and SEO involves your Outreach – the way you play with others and includes
- The appearance of your content on major social media networks
- Conversation with potential users off site
- Maintaining the loyalty of existing users
- Interacting with what others are saying about you
If your content is you talking to an audience with a microphone, then social media is you doing coffee in order to keep them at the table. Tweet This
Social signals are a ranking factor in Google and are therefore part of your SEO and Internet Marketing Strategy.
If you are not sure how to make the best use of all the Social Networks out there, talk to someone who can help you develop an internet marketing tactic for your social media outreach and connections.
Social Media is an opportunity to gain influence and authority in your niche. Google recognising Authority and will reward you for it.
Link and Industry Networks
Search engines like it when you hang out with important people. You can do that by:
- Connecting socially with others in your niche
- Attracting links back to your site through shared content
- Writing and working with people in a parallel industry
- Offering your content to relevant sites and influencers
What does that all mean? basically, it means joining in the conversations with industry influencers who might later on link to your content, just as you have linked to theirs.
Google recognises industry authority. One way you can maximise your SEO and marketing effort is to be seen with these people. Mention them and link to them (sparingly). Follow them in social media.
Ask them to include your work on their site. Got the picture?
Google views links from authority sites as a vote for your content.
Here are some tips on building a back link profile.
Conclusion
These four elements: Content Creation, Site Technology, Social Media and Networking all work together to achieve the best SEO Results: Search Engine Optimization.
They are the four pillars a small business wants to focus its Internet Marketing efforts on in order to be seen by Google and appreciated by Google’s (and the other search engines, I suppose….) search users.
Make this Web Marketing Matrix the staple diet of your daily marketing and SEO efforts, and remember,
SEO is not a cost. It’s an investment in the future of your online business. Tweet This
If you haven’t downloaded our Web Marketing Matrix Checklist, Grab it now. It’s Free.
I want Instant SEO Results. Can I have them, Please?
Yes, wouldn’t that be nice. No, you can’t have them. Sometimes you take on a task and the SEO results can begin to show up straight away. This is sometimes the case with Local Search in Google.
It may also be true if you already have a solid foundation of website content aimed at a particular audience already place.
Most of the time, solid and permanent improvement takes around three months before you begin to see some of the rewards of your SEO effort.
If you want to have a successful relationship with your SEO Services Agency, be transparent with them about your expectations, your budget and the work you have already done.
Likewise, you should be able to ask your SEO Company anything and you should expect honest, clear answers and you should be able to speak to them directly during normal business hours.
See a subject we haven’t covered? Contact Us and let us know what you would like us to write about.
Hey, maybe you could write it for us!
Thanks for the great advice, as we’re trying really hard to grow our small healthcare compliance firm. It seems that there is just so much information online about Internet marketing, too overwhelming at times, that it’s nice to read a simple, straightforward post with some good advice. I have no experience with Internet marketing, so I was flying blind for some time, but hoping to gain some clarity in getting our website to rank better. What I find amazing – and challenging – are all the .edu and .gov website that are ranked so high in the search engine results. It seems like it’s going to be a tall order in trying to pass these websites up, but I guess time will tell.
Heather, it is possible to beat almost any page in Google, but it does require some elbow grease and patience. If you want some follow up for your web marketing goals or would like some support, give me a shout.
very true ”seo is not a cost its an investment” its the best way to attract the target customer through internet.
Excellent article on SEO and web marketing. No doubt SEO and internet marketing has become the pillar of any business online. As huge companies Amazon and other online retailers rely on Organic SEO services these days and they know the benefit of organic search traffic so they are grabbing.
Everyone needs to know that SEO is not a get set go game, and I like your points and conclusions. We have to work on defined principles and wait for the results without panicking for early results.