Affordable Website Solutions

Website Marketing

Whether you have an existing website or are getting a new website you will need to market your website in order for it to archive its full potential. The importance of website marketing can not be overstated. Would you launch a new service or open a new shop without telling anybody. It might seem seem obvious but the biggest reason for websites to fail is the failure to promote the site to the correct target market.

Just like any other business the Internet only works if people can find you. To this end you need to promote your website both online and offline. You will then need to decided who your target market is and employ the appropriate services to promote your website to that market.

An example of the power of advertising is one of our clients who started a coordinated marketing campaign using both online and offline marketing and saw a 300% increase in online orders in six months. So take the time to read this document and give your website a chance to perform at its best.

 

Website Optimisation

Every website package from 3 Legs Ltd includes website optimisation. Website Optimisation is about making a website search engine friendly so that it is able to be indexed correctly by the search engines. As we build a website our designers and programmers are careful to ensure that there is nothing that prevents the search engines from indexing the website. We also go further than this we ensure that every page of the website has the following:

Page Title
The page title is the text that appears in the top of the browser window for each web page that you visit. This is also the text that the search engines will display when showing that page in the search results. The page title should included the main keywords and key phrases that the page is to be listed under.

Meta Keywords (where required)
This is a simple list of keywords and phrases that the given web page should be indexed under. These should be listed in order of importance.

Meta Description (where required)
This is a hidden description of the content of the web page. It should be relevant to the content of the page and include the main keywords and key phrases that you wish to have that page indexed under.

H1 Tag
The main heading on the web page should be in a H1 tag. This should contain the main keyword or key phrases that the page is to be listed under.

Body Text
The first paragraph or two within a given web page is one of the most important areas when a web page is indexed. This should be relevant to the keywords and key phrases that you wish the page to be listed under. You should try to include the main keyword or key phrases several times within this text.

On the website itself we also ensure there are the following:

  • Text links from the main homepage of the website
  • A site map
  • Meta Keywords and Description
  • A Google Sitemaps XML file

Once the website is build and live we will then submit the website to the major search engines and submit the Google Sitemaps file to Google for indexing.

 

Search Engines

Search Engines are still one of the best ways of getting users to your site. However with the large number of websites you need to find ways of making your site stand out from the rest. Simply relying on a basic listing is no longer effective. Below are some of things you should consider doing to improve your search engine performance.

1) Page Optimisation. In order to get your website listed under the correct keywords/key phrases you need to optimise the pages within your website. There are a number of different elements that you need to look at to optimise a page.

  • Include the most popular keywords in your website copy
  • Use the most popular keywords along with 'qualifiers', either geographic or sector specific
  • Look for niche keywords or markets that others haven't yet found
  • Make sure the page title is relevant to the content on the page and the keyword you are targeting
  • Include links from the body text from one page to another within your website

2) Page Ranking. Your position in the search engines is determined by something called page ranking. There are many things that effect page ranking these include:

  • Get links from other websites to your site
  • Get links to individual pages about a specific topic
  • Make you pages relevant so that people will link to them

3) Keep your website up to date. All the search engines index websites in their directory on a regular basis. If you find that your performance in a search engine is poor then possibly changing the text and keywords on your website could improve the situation.

4) Keyword advertising. Many of the search engines include keyword based advertising. These services are provided by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft and allow you to target your adverts to users that search for specific keywords.

Examples of these services are:

Specialist Directories

With so many websites now selling the same goods website users are turning to specialist directories and shopping comparison sites as a way of finding the items they want. Services such as DealTime and Kelkoo are among the most popular for shopping comparison.

Examples of directory services are:

E-Mail Direct Marketing

The use of e-mail as a direct marketing tool has increased significantly over the past few years. However the line between legitimate direct marketing and spam e-mail is a fine line. As a rule it is generally considered that anyone undertaking direct marketing via e-mail should observe some general rules.

  1. Do not purchase e-mail lists form any company or website who offers such a service.
  2. Don't use bulk mailing services that don't require you to provide the intended recipient list.
  3. Do not harvest e-mail address instead offer an opt-in service.
  4. Offer recipients the ability to opt-out of the mailing list.
  5. You can use the e-mail addresses of people or businesses that you have an existing relationship with.
  6. Always put the e-mail addresses in the BCC field to prevent disclosure of the mailing list to others.
  7. E-Mail addresses that contain an individuals name are consider personal information and will be covered by data protection laws.

If you decided to carry out e-mail marketing then there are number of different ways that this can be carried out. You can simply use your own e-mail application, use a bulk e-mail application or use a bulk e-mail service.

 

General Advertising

Another way of advertising your website is through the use of banner advertising. This form of advertising is best used on website where your type of customer is most likely to visit. For example if you selling football related products then you should consider sports and football related websites as a place to advertise.

In summery all websites require work to ensure that it is advertised and marketed at your target market. All websites that are produced by 3 Legs Limited have been designed to allow search engines to index the site. You will still need to market the website to get visitors to the website.

 

What to do next?

Below are some of the things to consider in optimising your website for the best search engine performance.

What to do:

  1. Make sure that your websites homepage includes a strong description of your site and includes the 2-3 main keywords that you wish people to find your website using.
  2. Make sure that your websites page titles relate to the given web pages content.
  3. Customise Meta Descriptions and Keywords for each page within your website.
  4. Make sure each page on your website has text which includes the keywords that you would like people to use to find the web page.
  5. Think of a slogan for your website which includes 2-3 of the main keywords that you would like people to find your website with. This slogan can then be used throughout your website.
  6. Include a sitemap within your website.
  7. Add your website to as many website directories and if relevant shopping portals.
  8. E-Commerce websites should submit their product information to shopping comparison websites.
  9. Ensure that any product names or model numbers are complete and spelled correctly.
  10. Get as many websites to link to your website as possible, the more relevant to your sites content the better.
  11. When you get other websites to link to you try to get text links and ensure that the text includes the main search keyword terms for your website, eg "Affordable Website Packages".
  12. If you have a wide range of services consider having these on individual pages rather than one big page. Individual pages gives you more opportunities within the search engines. Also link to these pages from as many other pages within your website.
  13. If you have an e-commerce website consider including a description on each category as well as each product page.
  14. If your website site sells different brands or different product types, ensure you website has information pages about these brands and product types. These pages can then be linked to your product catalogue.
  15. Set an advertising budget and consider online advertising services such as Google AdWords and Yahoo Marketing Services.

What Not to do:

  1. Don't over submit your website to the search engines
  2. Don't include hidden text on your web pages.
  3. Don't create multiple pages for the same page.
  4. Don't employ cloaking or sneaky redirects
  5. Don't load pages with irrelevant words
  6. Don't use doorway pages