Internet Marketing 101 - Tips on How to Market Your Business

Think Internet marketing is only for optimizers? Think again. While we do obviously recommend hiring a specialist for search engine optimization services, there are still many steps you can take to market your website yourself. The following tips will help you get the most from your website.

Basic On-Site SEO Tip

Two months ago, we helped a real estate client by doing two things: Adding Real Estate Schema to their property level listings and trained their in-house marketing assistant on basic SEO tactics. The client is thrilled with the results, a definite increase in leads and traffic over previous years.

If your site is dynamic and ever-changing keeping up on your basic on-page SEO can have a big impact, if you have someone in-house who is savvy with time to spare – call Mannix Marketing for a one-on-one SEO consulting, there is a lot you can do on your own, if you feel comfortable writing and have the time.

Check for the Basics

Does your site contain all the basics? Hours, phone number and address… all pertinent contact information. Is it easy to navigate? Allow secure purchases? Is it secure – do you see HTTPS:// in the address bar? For the tourist industry, does it allow a secure purchase of gift certificates? Invite comments or reviews? (You can learn a lot from a contact us page.) If you are a restaurant, do you have your menus, special events, directions, banquet menus online? Do you visually sell the restaurant? Allow online sign up for email specials? What about takeout menus? An email sign up would be perfect for this if it is a big part of your business. Does the site list a dress code? How to make a reservation? And don’t forget added benefits for you: links to other area businesses, employment opportunities, printable employment applications. Good Internet marketing will impress your market audience and provide you with a website that does more than look pretty.

Quick and Easy Keyword Research

The first step to any Internet marketing campaign is the keywords. How will potential customers find you in the search engines? Work with different keyword combinations to determine the keywords you want to be found under. Make sure you balance broader keyword combinations with more specific keyword combinations. The average person searching on the Internet may start with a broad query, but they quickly narrow it down as they see returned results and learn more about what they are searching for. For example, someone searching for digital cameras may start with “Digital Cameras”… after clicking a couple choices, they may then search on “Nikon digital cameras”… after clicking a couple more choices, they may search on Nikon Coolpix cameras, then narrow it even further to Nikon Coolpix 4800 Digital Camera. The more specific they become, the more likely they are to purchase.

My favorite way to find new keywords quickly without the fuss is the Google Spacebar Keyword Research Tip: type in your keyword in Google then hit the spacebar, more keyword suggestions will come up, hit the spacebar and a letter like

SEO A – gives me suggestions for seo audit, seo analyzer, seo articles etc… all sorts of ideas for what I might want to be found under. Or visit sites like: Google Keyword Planner or SpyFu

Best Competitive Research Tip Ever and a Tool You Can Use

A basic component of any marketing strategy is to know your competition. This is especially true in Internet marketing. Do an online search for the keywords you want to be found under. Who is your competition? What is their pricing structure? What keywords do they target? Appraise their site against your own. Is their site better than yours? Why? What do they do better on their site that you may be able to improve upon on your site? Is their site more informative? Is it easier to navigate? We also like SpyFu for competitive research, we can tell what keywords your competitors rank for, what their paid search spend is and what they are bidding on… and how you measure up.

Now here is the real tip …. do they have a newsletter you can sign up for? – you can sign up for an Evernote account, and sign up for the enewsletter with that email address, then every one of their enewsletters will be saved in your Evernote account – this is great for research. You can go back years and see what they promote at different times of year (heard this tip from LinkLove).

Write This

Are you the “expert” in your industry? If so, share your knowledge on your site. Write feature articles on your website. Volunteer to write articles for others in your industry on sites with the goal of educating your prospective customer. This is a great way for you to not only improve traffic to your website, but improve brand recognition for your company. Fresh content and quality content will improve traffic to your site.

Build Loyalty and Top of Mind Awareness through This “Old Fashioned Technique”

Your customer base may know who you are, but do they think of you FIRST when they need your type of product? If not… keep your business in the minds of anyone who has been to your site or business through email marketing. I know you think no one wants junk email… they don’t. They want relevant information and great tips and will welcome your emails if they are fun, creative and informative. Offer a sign-up on your site so they can be the first to find out about your new products. Offer “weekly tips”, or send out monthly coupons. Make sure you only send email to those you’ve requested it through your site. And, make sure the email has a BENEFIT for the customer… not just free publicity for you.

Use and Learn this Program.

Google Analytics is our favorite program. Don’t just look at hits – look at unique visitors, referrers, exit and entry pages, time spent on site, and keyword combinations used to arrive at your site and goals. Not sure how to set up goals or events, we can help. Any site that can measure a conversion (a sign-up, a purchase, an action) should truly analyze traffic patterns, keywords and pay per click programs with a good tool. Not sure how to track conversions, ask Mannix Marketing, we have lots of options for you!

Use These Tags

Add Alt Tags to all your image, not spammy alt tags with hidden keywords but real descriptions of every image on your website that is not purely decorative.