My Top 12 Web Site Marketing Strategies

by: Herman Drost
If you don't create a successful strategy for marketing your website, you can't build a profitable online business. It'stherefore imperative to drive thousands of visitors to your website, then convert them to paying customers.How do you accomplish this?Use several marketing strategiesDon't put all your eggs into one basket by only employing onemarketing strategy. You could see evidence of this during thelatest Google update in which many commercial web sites whichonce had top rankings, dropped out of existence, thus instantlylosing sales.By creating more than one strategy to market your web site, youcan soon see which one works the best by attracting the mostvisitors.Market with consistencySet up a clear daily, weekly, monthly and yearly marketing planfor your web site and stick to it. It is the lifeblood of yourbusiness.Test marketingContinually test all your web site marketing strategies to seewhich one works the best. Eliminate those that are notprofitable.12 successful marketing strategies:Search engine optimizationHere are the locations where you should include your mostimportant keywords or keyword phrases:1. Meta tags (invisible)Title tagDescription tagKeyword tagAlt tag2. Page content (visible)Weave your best keywords throughout the content of your pages.Focus on the first 250 words on your page and only use one tothree keyword phrases per page of content. Include keywords inyour H1 tag (main title) and H2, H3 tags (subheadings) as well asthe hyperlinks in your site or and in outgoing links.Search engines and directories3. Submit to major search engines - Google is currently the mainsearch engine to get listed in. If you get listed there, you will alsoget listed in AOL, Netscape, and Yahoo and it's still free. This maychange in the near future as the competition heats up. Other free listings also include directories such as ODP. Do a search on Google to seek out your niche directories ie for sunglasses, look for sunglass directories.Here are the other search engines to submit to:http://www.searchenginewatch.com/links/article.php/21562214. Pay per click (PPC) search engines - if you wish to generatetraffic to your web site immediately, set up a Google Adwords orOverture campaign.http://payperclicksearchengines.comEmail Marketing5. Create a newsletter - most folks don't buy from youimmediately but need to be contacted several times to put them inthe buying mood. Place a subscription box on every page of yourweb site. Send out your newsletter every two weeks to keep intouch with your subscribers. Be sure to include original content(not rehashed content) along with new products you wish tointroduce to them.6. Email Course or tutorial - set up an autoresponder that willdeliver quality information over a period of seven days. Thismeans you have multiple chances of contacting your visitor andpromote your product or service at the same time.7. Ezine Ads - create an ad for your product and find ezines thatcater to your target market. Write several ads and track themuntil you find one that pulls well.8. Signature file - include this all your online and offlinecorrespondence. Set up your email client so that it does thisautomatically each time you send out an email. Include your name,who you are, what your business is about, a way to subscribe toyour newsletter, your web site address and your email.Link strategies9. Write articles - ezine publishers are always looking fororiginal content. You can include a link back to your web site inyour signature file. If several ezine publishers (that may havethousands of subscribers) publish your article, you can gethundreds of links pointing back to your web site.10. Reciprocal linking - get links from other sites thatcompliment yours. ie if you just offer web design and someoneelse offers search engine optimization you could exchange linkswith each other, thus adding to the quality of each of yoursites.11. Forums - offer your help to other forum participants thenleave a link back to your site in your signature file. Popularforums are spidered regularly by the search engines, thus givingyour site a link boost.12. Offline marketingNot all your customers are online. Market offline by includingyour web site information on all stationary ie letterhead, andbusiness cards. Place ads in newspapers, trade publications, sendout postcards, fliers and get involved in local organizationssuch as the Chamber of Commerce. You can even set up your ownlocal club or be a guest speaker for others.Continuously evaluate, test and refine your web site marketingstrategies so that you can apply them to any product. Theseare the keys to building a successful online business.