What’s the cheapest, most productive place to spend marketing dollars today?

What’s the cheapest, most productive place to spend marketing dollars today? An article to explain Internet marketing for business owners. Tips for getting your site to the top of the search engines—SEO, or search engine optimization. Link to free ranking report. (PRWEB) August 19, 2004 -- A friend sat me down recently and asked me to explain what Internet marketing is. In one respect, it’s marketing your site by getting exposure, but in another respect, it means using the Internet to help people find the site—what we call search engine optimization. I told her about improving the search results for her site, about how the search engines work, and how page content was probably what needed to be fixed. She was nodding all along, but then she asked “But why spend money on the Web site when what I really need to do is increase my sales?” This was one of those EUREKA! moments. “You need more prospects to get more sales.” Suddenly, I realized that she really didn't understand how the Internet works, or that she could literally drive prospects to her site. She simply didn't know that this practical, common sense approach—Internet marketing—is the most productive marketing investment she could make, for the least amount of money, with the fastest return on the investment. And if one smart business owner with a Web site didn’t realize how the Internet landscape has changed over the past two years, there must be thousands more—maybe you’re one of them. By tapping into the power of search engines with a freshly optimized site, you use the Internet to deliver prospective customers—who are actively looking for a solution—right to your door, and can do so without ANY incremental cost. You can also advertise on the search engines, paying only for people who actually visit your site. It’s an exciting time. Even a small business can be the #1 result when people search for your solution—and today, 85% of people with Internet access find new products or services by searching the web (even for well-established brands!). Here's another interesting (or scary) fact: if your site isn't in the top 20 listings, 56% of people won't find you...they just don't look any further. On the positive side, visits from top rankings are up to 4 times more likely to convert into customers. Making it to the top So, getting to the top of the search engine results list is important. On the other hand, there are over 6 billion web pages. What do you do to get your pages to the top? The key to optimization is to realize that the search engines index pages, not sites. Any of your top-level pages can be an entry page. To optimize a site, we concentrate on the page content, making sure that important search terms are there for the search engines to index; for example, “Internet marketing.” We optimize the home page for the two or three most relevant, most used terms, realizing that other pages can be optimized for other terms, e.g. “Internet marketing agency,” or “web marketing.” The basic premise of search engine optimization is that almost every Web site needs tweaking to improve the productivity of the site. Most Web sites are built as a special project by a design team, then maintained by technical people. Marketing of the Web site, either by refining content to match prospect interests or by utilizing other promotional tools, simply doesn't happen, so there's nowhere near the traffic there should be. The ABCs of SEO There is a four-step process to search engine optimization (SEO), understanding that search engines look at meta tags in the HTML document, page content, internal link structure and external link popularity to determine your ranking in the results. 1. Brainstorm, research and analyze the key words and phrases that will draw profitable traffic to your site. 2. Optimize your content against these key words and phrases a. Create pages specific to one or two terms b. Include key word/phrase in title tag c. Write meta descriptions around key word/phrase d. Develop or improve headings and text tailored to key word/phrase e. Incorporate links and alt image tags appropriately 3. Register site with directories, submit optimized pages to search engines a. Free directories and search engines b. Pay-for-inclusion on Yahoo, Inktomi, etc. c. Optional: pay-per-click to quickly increase traffic 4. Monitor the results, tweaking as needed to increase traffic and improve your position in the search results Turning Your Website Outside:In Many companies are disappointed in the results they get from their Web site. They spent a lot of money on design and content…there may be thousands of unique visits recorded, but very few calls are resulting. Most companies have Web sites that reflect an “inside:out” orientation, what we call “brochure ware.” The original purpose was met, to provide information, but as a result, the Web site is like a flyer that is skimmed once and then thrown away. All the money spent on attracting interest from prospects is wasted if the interest isn’t reciprocated. Reaching far beyond a brochure, the Web provides a rich media environment and two-way data-driven communication. This should drive a Web site with an “outside:in” approach, one that is wrapped around the wants and needs of the prospect. Your web site is the most valuable real estate you own. The web provides a single point of access between you and your market—it can offer 360-degree visual tours, spoken testimonials, brochures on demand, discount coupons, references—at the same time it can gather information and deliver follow-up. Especially on the web, successful marketers anticipate the needs of the prospect, and they work constantly to understand “the mind of the market.” Search engine optimization helps your site focus on attracting prospects, giving them exactly what they are looking for. Once prospects get to your site, the images and words you use are important, but they have to be part of a larger sales strategy, one that incorporates powerful, motivating messages and two-way methods of communication. About the Author: John Rasco is founder and CEO of RefreshWeb, a company focused on website marketing, and of Brand X Austin, a marketing services network tailored to the needs of emerging companies.