Search Engine Marketing and Social Network marketing (8 tips for DIY SEO)

87% of all Internet Users use a Search Engine to Find Information!

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project 87% of all internet users use a search engine to find information online. Similarly, a majority of consumers (74%) rely on social networks to guide purchase decisions. “Either business gets social or it gets left behind.” (Gartner, July 2010). 86% of US online retailers have Facebook fan pages. (GOOD Magazine, March 2010). In fact, back in August 2009, according to Socialnomics, businesses will no longer search for customers and clients. Socialnomics predicted that in the near future, consumers will find businesses via social media. That near future is NOW.

Ok… so, what does this mean to you?

It means that 9 of your next 10 potential clients are online right now searching for information about what your business offers. The fact is that they are online right now looking for you. Are they going to find you or your competition? Where is your sign on the internet? Is your message even being heard? Where do you even start?

The Foundation of all Your Marketing is Your Website.

After all, we will be using your website as the cornerstone of everything that we do on the internet.  It needs to attract and maintain attention.

VISABILITY: It is important that your website not only be visually appealing, but also be attractive to search engines. You are not selling products or services to robots AND you are not receiving page views for a pretty site. You must ensure not only that your website can be indexed accurately by robots, but that it is ALSO contextually interesting to your human visitors. Search engine robots are the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) judges AND your human clients are the target market. How do you satisfy both?

In much the same way a human visitor looks at your site, a search engine indexes it based on the information presented. In contrast, however, a search engine does not ‘see’ your site in the same way as a human at all. (It only ‘sees’ text, navigation, and links). In order to improve your search engine ranking (and get more human visitors) you need to improve your ‘presentation’ to search engines first with content. Then, you need to consider the eye movements and the online buying behavior of the consumer. Most consultants understand internet technology or consumer behavior.  It’s extremely rare that you will find an internet marketing consultant that understands both.

Read also - What to expect and what to look for in an internet marketing consultant.

Most clients that approach me for the first time have what I call a ‘quick fix’ website. They have an Intuit®, Website Tonight®, Yahoo! Site Builder or other ‘easy start’ website. I have worked with all of these in the past and the result is always the same. A mess. They simply do not provide the tools or features that you need to be successful on the internet (and no… I don’t care that they have an ‘SEO’ button on the control panel. It’s lipstick on a frog. Period.)

Let’s look at the dynamics of this for a second. Every one of these website providers works with customers on a ‘fast food’ basis. They offer a quick, easy solution that you know deep inside is bad for you, but it does the ‘trick’ for now.  They provide the same EXACT solution, the same EXACT content and the same EXACT website to hundreds of thousands of other people all over the country, maybe even the world.  Ever heard of duplicate content? This is exactly what Google (and other search engine) strives to deter. Google has perfected search, now they just concentrate on weeding out spam.

I can go on and on about what is wrong with these ‘fast food’ websites, but I won’t. I will only tell you that if you wish to be successful on the internet (or with ANY online marketing in general) we need a solid foundation on which to build your internet presence. The advantage you will now have against your me-too marketing competition is that you have thought about your foundation first. No matter how many internet strategies they utilize in their marketing, they will never be able to maintain ground with quicksand as a foundation. You have field advantage.

You will have a complete Search Engine Optimized website built from the ground-up. This is the basis for all of your other internet marketing efforts. Nothing… and I mean nothing…. is built without a foundation!

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 I look forward to speaking with you soon.

-Cheryl Waller
Strategic Internet Marketing Consultant

Search Engine Marketing and funneling more traffic to your site is NOT about tricking the search engines, it is NOT about how much you can pay per click and it is NOT how many websites link to your website. At the end of the day, it is about how well you optimize your website and social networks for visitors as well as search engines. 

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