When you are adding words to your website, whether in a blog post, an article, your home page, product descriptions etc, you are creating “content”. You will often hear me talk about “keyword rich content” – what I mean is, use the keywords you want to get listed in the search engines for as many times as appropriate – but don’t use them so much that your readers will be irritated.
If you use this as a guide you will insure long term success. Here are some basics about letting the search engines know what keywords are important on the particular article (product description, blog post etc):
Use Title Tags and Alt Tags on your images and links – include your keywords (if it makes sense) but don’t use the same title and alt tags over and over again on the same page. (I’ll talk more about title and alt tags in a future post)
As the search engine computers get programmed for more and more accurate analysis of the millions of pages they are indexing and listing, it will become more and more important to “do the right thing” on your website and not just use your keywords a gazillion times.
Inbound links from relative, authoritative (meaning the search engines see those sites as consistently offering valued information) are becoming critical. The way to get these inbound links is to provide content on your website that makes people that have relevant (complimentary) websites (blogs, review sites etc) want to link to you.
Another way to get these quality inbound links is to provide the tools for people to share them on “authoritative” websites. My earlier post about the Facebook “like” button is one way to do this, but there are others I will discuss in future posts.
Here is an article that supports the warnings I’ve been trying to get out to you all – the only businesses that will “win” on Facebook are the ones prepared to spend a lot of money (http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2010/10/stores_find_friends_on_faceboo.html ). By telling your website visitors to “follow you on Facebook” you are giving them away to your larger, better funded competitors. Even if these big box stores are not your direct competitors they ARE competing for the disposable income you want spent on YOUR products! I’m not saying don’t be on Facebook or have a link to your “page” on Facebook, at this point you almost have to, but change the rules! You can use Facebook instead of continuing to let Facebook use you. It’s not too late people – tell your friends to quit following you on Facebook and call you or text you instead! Better yet, learn how to blog and open a dialogue on your own website with your customers. Use Facebook to bring people to your website. With today’s technology if you can make a post on Facebook you can blog on your own website I promise.
I’m not saying don’t have a Facebook page, at this point you almost “have to”. What I’m saying is be smart about it – use it to get people to your own website and keep them there. Turn your own website into a social hub. Create an environment on your own website where customers can “meet” each other and share products – give them the tools to post links on Facebook back to your website – do not do what Best Buy is doing and put all of your products on Facebook … there is no free lunch! Facebook will make you pay for the traffic you get for your products one way or another – either by charging you a percentage of your sales or by selling advertising to your competitors…
SEM is yet another acronym being tossed around the Internet by companies like Coburn Enterprises. What it stands for is Search Engine Marketing. So… what is Search Engine Marketing?
Our definition of SEM is the planned and effective use of all of the tools this incredible marketing machine we call “the web” to help your potential customers, clients, fans and followers find you among billions of websites, blogs, ads and articles they have to choose from.
By implementing SEO (Search Engine Optimization), appropriate link building, rich content and coordinating PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns (when it’s wise to do so) you can increase your exposure and therefore your results from your web presence.
Search Engine Marketing professionals spend their time keeping up with the latest trends in how search engines rank, rate and list websites and help you make the most effective use of the vast sea of potential choices out there based on your particular market and how they shop or search for the information or products you have to offer.
Learn about our SEM Services here: SiteBuilderNow SEO Dominance Packages
You may also want to see how others define Search Engine Marketing at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_marketing