Creating a visually pleasing web site is nice. Creating a content-rich web site using SEO technology and marketing it using modern advertising methods is better. This is where Search Engine Optimization comes into play. It is not enough to have a great site and hope that people will find it. This philosophy may have been acceptable in 1996 but with the amount of information available, products being sold, and services being offered on the World Wide Web, it is crucial that your web site have the proper exposure on Google and Yahoo. This means formulating an internet marketing strategy for success that leads to improved search engine ranking. This can be achieved with a combination of strategies that are listed below.

• Analyze the current web site and determine what needs to be added or modified.
• Determine what keywords and phrases people search for that relate to your company and that would lead them to your web site.
• Analyze your top 10 competitor's web sites and use that information to improve your web marketing strategy.
• Make adjustments based on analytical information provided by the initial analysis as well as using specific, traffic generating keywords from your competitor's analysis.

Pay Per Click (PPC)

Pay Per Click (PPC) is paid advertising on Google, Yahoo, and other major search engines. The way it works is simple. Advertisers bid on keywords or phrases. Depending on what the advertiser is willing to spend, their web site receives targeted placement on the search engine. The higher the bid, the better the placement. When a potential customer searches on Google for a product or service that your company offers, PPC advertisements are at the top or right side of the browser window. This type of advertising is often clicked on first due to its preferential placement over unpaid search engine results. Depending on the keyword, the cost could be from one cent per click or sometimes as much as a few dollars. The picture below has been color coded to show where the organic results (unpaid search results) and the paid advertising (Pay Per Click) are located. The green shading shows the organic search results and the red shows the Pay Per Click(PPC) results.

Depending upon how much your company has to budget for PPC per month, high ranking on Google can be almost instantaneous. The Pay Per Click system allows companies to bid on the amount of money they are willing to spend per click. The higher your bid, the higher your web site is placed when searching for a particular keyword or phrase.

Analytics

The simplest definition of Analytics is "the science of analysis". Wikipedia

Analyzing the data from your web site will allow us to adjust and modify, in real time, your web site which will increase its visibility on search engines like Google and Yahoo. Observing where customers go and how long they stay on a particular page can help market your web site more effectively. Finding out what works and what doesn't work will ultimately lead to a higher search engine ranking as well as more exposure thus leading to more leads and increased sales.

Monitoring how a potential customer arrives at your site will allow us to determine what marketing campaign, targeted keywords, search phrases are effective. There is no more wasting time and money hoping customers will come to your site because of particular keywords or Pay Per Click (PPC) ad campaigns. All information is reviewed daily, weekly, and monthly and changes are made to your campaign accordingly.

The methods you use to promote yourself, your products, or your services will be the deciding factor in how successful your online business is. You may think you can achieve online success simply by having a great looking website, but that’s just not the case. Having a website is a necessity if you’re going to have an online business, but you can’t just put up a website and wait for customers to start flooding in to buy whatever it is you’re selling.

Once your website is built and is live on the internet, the next step is to decide what types of online marketing tools you’re going to use to build your website into a thriving online business.

The unfortunate part of online marketing is that there are tons of scams and schemes disguised as good methods to use to market your business online. There also lots of “free” online marketing methods which, in the end, aren’t really free at all.

However, there is one free online marketing method that’s not a scam and really is free. More importantly, it’s a method that’s incredibly effective at bringing “ready-to-buy” prospects to your website. The online marketing method I’m talking about is social media marketing.

Social media marketing is the latest in a constant stream of free online marketing methods to come along since the beginning of the 21st century. Online business owners all over the internet are using different types of this very effective online marketing method to make themselves tons of profit and there’s no reason you can’t be doing the same thing. You just need to know the correct way to use social media marketing so you don’t make costly mistakes in your online marketing efforts.

But before you can begin to correctly use social media to market your products and services online, you need to have a basic understanding of what social media is and how, when used correctly, it can help you build a huge following of customers and returning customers to your online business.

Social media marketing in its most basic form means interacting with your potential customers in a way that makes them feel drawn to you and to what it is you have to offer. This positive interaction isn’t achieved by selling something. A successful, positive interaction with your potential customers involves offering them information they can use to solve the problems that matter to them. To facilitate this positive interaction you can use any of the available social media websites available on the internet. The four most popular social media sites on the internet right now are Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace.

Setting up a profile on any or all of these sites is easy and is the first step you’ll need to take if you choose to use social media as one of your online marketing tools. Once you’ve set up your account and/or your profile, you can begin posting things on your page that people who might buy your product or service will be interested in knowing. The possibilities here are endless.

As you continue to post valuable (and free) information to your page, people will find your page, and if you’re targeting the right group of people for the product or service you offer, people will find your page and will want to follow you so they can continue to learn from you. You, and the information you have, will eventually become invaluable to them and they’ll begin to get to know you, like you, and trust you.

 Once you’ve successfully gained the trust of your potential customers, you can then begin to offer them your products and services at a competitive rate and you’ll be well on your way to building a profitable online business.