Inbound Marketing Blog

SEO-What Is It? How Can It Help Me?

SEO-Search Engine Optimization-What Can It Do For You?

Let's talk about the basics. You have a website. You have a product or a service you want people to know about, right? SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a term you have heard, but you are not quite sure why it is important to you.

SEO means that your website is designed (and we'll explain that part in a minute) so that what every major search engine people use (Google, Yahoo, Bing for example) to find who has a service or product like you have, they will see your website near the top or at the top of the list presented to them on the search engine results page (SERP) of their search. Got it?

Effective SEO (and this is the objective we talked about in the preceding paragraph) include a choice of keywords used in the text paragraphs in your website and the placement of those words on the page, both visible and hidden inside meta tags. Simply put, your goal is to be sure 3 fundamental elements are in sync on each and every web page that is considered valuable:

1. A Relevant, Targeted & Reasonable Keyword
2. The Basic Backend Coding:
   a. title tag
   b. description tag
   c. header tags (H1, H2, H3)
   d. image or ALT tags
   e. keyword meta tags (although may be obsolete)
   f. robot txt.
3. Content

SEO is the entire process of making your website "search engine friendly."

Search engines use different criteria for ranking pages (up to 500 different pieces), and those criteria are changed once in awhile to keep web marketers on their toes as well as from obtaining a permanent higher ranking without applying the needed work. To use SEO effectively to help you slowly and steadily reach your goals, you need a team or company such as ours who have a specialty configuring important pages to be search engine friendly & are up-to-date on the constant changes in algorithms.

The best way to start is to call us for a free SEO consultation! We can help answer all your questions and get you closer to achieving the ranking you need to best promote your website and its services!

To make this decision a bit easier, understand that we are a certified inbound marketing partner of one of the fastest growing online marketing applications in the world... HubSpot!

 

 

For a no cost evaluation and consultation, simply use the link below to read additional information about who we are, our approach and methodology.

Blog Development & SEO

The Importance Of SEO As An Element of A Well Designed Blog Marketing Campaign.

A vigorous inbound marketing strategy is critical if you want your company to compete in today’s world of business. But in order for your business to gain the full benefits of such a lucrative resource, you must employ multiple resources to compound the impact of your marketing efforts.

There are 5 key elements to a successful inbound marketing strategy:

1. Search engine optimization (SEO)
2. Blog development
3. Social media
4. Real-time analytics
5. A well defined conversion strategy

While there is much information to be provided about all of these inbound marketing components, this article will focus specifically on blog marketing as a powerful tool for your business marketing efforts.

 

The term “blog marketing” is rapidly becoming a more commonplace phrase in the internet marketing community. SEO blog marketing takes this one step further, combining the leverage of community interaction with search-engine friendly web content.

Here are just a few of the biggest benefits of the SEO blog marketing approach:

1. Blog marketing provides potent results at very low cost
Most blog software can be easily integrated with your current company web site at no cost. Even if you hire a web designer to install the blog and customize the initial look & feel to your liking, today’s blogging platforms make it very easy for you to then maintain your own blog without further need for outside assistance.
2. Frequently-updated content for your web site : If you’ve done your research, you’ve no doubt discovered that adding new content and pages to your web site is essential, not only for search engine placement (SEO), but also to keep your visitors coming back consistently for new information. A blog enables you to update your site on a regular basis, without need for special software or expertise.
3. More opportunities to use essential keywords: 
Utilizing keywords for SEO is nothing new – but it’s not always easy to find way to incorporate hundreds of keywords into a standard web site with limited pages. SEO blog marketing enables you to build dozens – even hundreds - of pages for your web site, each one containing an article that features one or more of your important keywords. When you take full advantage of this blog marketing strategy, the possibilities are endless.
4. Increased number of inbound links : When other websites provide links to your blog, the result is immeasurable visibility for your company. Not only will web users click through those links into your site, but also you gain perceived relevance with search engines, who reward you in turn with higher search engine rankings. Blog marketing furnishes valuable content that other web site owners will want to share with their own visitors (by linking to YOU), in their own effort to provide new and updated material for their readers.
5. Your target market will know, like and trust you: 
Historically, consumers prefer to buy products or services from a business they recognize as reputable, knowledgeable and friendly. Blog marketing affords unlimited opportunities to demonstrate all of these qualities through articles, free information and useful tips. When you write about topics relevant to your business, you position yourself as an expert in your field of industry, instilling a level of confidence in your professional abilities. Your readers (potential customers) get to know you better, and appreciate the knowledge they gain as a result of their interaction with your content. When the time comes to buy, they’re far more likely to turn to your business than one who hasn’t gained this level of familiarity with them beforehand.
6. Blog marketing makes it easy for others to share YOUR content : It’s not just “if you build it, they will come”... with SEO blog marketing, they will not only come to you, but they will tell others about you! Today’s blog software makes it ridiculously simple for people to disseminate your blog’s content on a moment’s impulse, using share buttons, re-tweets, like buttons and more. Post valuable blog content, and let others spread the word for you. 

The list of SEO blog marketing benefits can stretch far longer than this single article permits. Suffice it to say, this is a powerful tool that no serious business should overlook for increased exposure and community interaction at little or no cost.

 

In closing, make note of another side of the blog marketing coin: guest blogging. Be sure to take time to actively comment on other people’s blogs featuring content that is related to your own blog’s topics. This is a great way to further get your name out there, to interact with online communities, and to make more contacts with potential future customers!

Search Engine Submission Software

A comprehensive inbound marketing strategy should include the following components:

1. A Clean, Clear & Compelling Website (Your Message)
2. A Search Engine Optimization Strategy
3. A Blog Strategy
4. A Social Media Strategy
5. A Conversion Strategy
6. An Evaluation Procedure
7. A Strategy Modification Process

We all know that search engines can play an important role in getting found by your target market(s). However, search engine submission software is a relic and virtually obsolete.

In the "old days", search engine submissions were considered important and many used search engine submission software as part of the solution. Today, this is no longer needed as most major search engines will "crawl" or "spider" any web page that has relevant and/or compelling content. In other words, "If you write it, they will come".

Even though search engine submission software is no longer a critical element of search engine ranking success, the search engine optimization process is very important and in our opinion, needs professional attention. Below is a basic search engine optimization schedule. It includes tasks and activities needed to achieve and/or improve major search engine rankings. You can use this as a general guide to understand search engine optimization components and time frames.

SEO Activities	Timelines
Initial SEO	1st Week (16th Nov to 22th Nov, 2009)
Keyword Research	1st Week
Initial Ranking Report	1st week
Creation of Robots.txt	1st Week
Page Rank Sculpting	1st Week
Tags Optimization (A set of pages)	2nd Week (23rd Nov to 29th Nov)
Title Tags Optimization	2nd Week
Meta Tags Optimization	2nd Week
Social Book marking	2nd Week
Updating Pages for Local Search & hCard Integration	2nd Week
On Page Optimization & Other Activities	3rd Week (7th Dec to 13th Dec)
Image Alt Text Optimization	3rd Week
Hyperlink Title Attribute Optimization	3rd Week
Creation of Themed Link Pages	3rd Week
Submission to Search Engines & Directories(Local)	3rd Week
W3c Validation of Homepage (HTML Code)	3rd Week
Getting One-way Links	3rd Week
Link Building & Other Activities	4th Week (14th Dec to 20th Dec)
Creation of Simple Sitemap	4th Week
Collecting Related Links	4th Week
Loading the Links on the Site	4th Week
Sending Link Requests	4th Week
Tags Optimization  (A set of pages)	5th Week (21st Dec to 27th Dec)
Title Tags Optimization	5th Week
Meta Tags Optimization	5th Week
Off-page optimization	6th Week (28th Dec to 3rd Jan, 2010)
Social Book Marking	6th Week
Creation of Google XML & Yahoo XML Sitemaps	6th Week
Getting One-way Links	6th Week
Link Development	7th Week (4th Jan to 10th Jan)
Collecting Related Links	7th Week
Loading the Links on the Site	7th Week
Sending Link Requests	7th Week
RSS Feed Creation	7th Week
Current Ranking Report	22nd of Every Month
On-Page Optimization	8th Week (11th Jan to 17th Jan)
Image Alt Text Optimization	8th Week
Hyperlink Title Attribute Optimization	8th Week
W3c Validation (Inner pages)	8th Week
Tags Optimization	9th Week (18th Jan To 24th Jan)
Title Tags Optimization	9th Week
Meta Description & Keyword Tags Optimization	9th Week
On-Page Optimization	10th Week (25th Jan to 31st Jan 2010)
Image Alt Text Optimization	10th Week
Hyperlink Title Attribute Optimization	10th Week
W3c Validation (Inner pages)	10th Week
Social Bookmarking	11th Week (1st Feb to 7th Feb)
Social Bookmarking	11th Week
Link Development	12th Week(8th Feb to 14th Feb)
Collecting Related Links	12th Week
Loading the Links on the Site	12th Week
Sending Link Requests	12th Week
Monthly Statistics Report (Google Analytics)	22nd of Every Month
Monthly SEO Report	22nd of Every Month

How To Make Any Web Page Search Engine Friendly

Web Page Optimization: What you need to be sure of when making any web page search engine friendly.

When a search engine user enters a keyword in the search box, all search engines run through an evaluation process in nano seconds and if your pages do not meet certain criteria, they will pass you by just as fast.

The process of making a web page search engine friendly can include a lot of detail but there are basic elements that will help you get some initial momentum and help you compete, especiallay for the "lower hanging fruit" or what is also known as "long-tail keywords".

If you are a subscriber to this blog, you may have a better sense of the inbound marketing concept, formula and active components, so now we can now focus on the area of web page optimization. The idea here is to configure any given web page to be as search engine friendly as possible or to be sure the work you paid an SEO professional meets these basic requirements.

For an easy download of this information, use this link:

 

 

 

Each search engine uses a different set of algorithms to evaluate a web page and produce search results based on a keyword or key-phrase entered by a search engine user. Even though Google, Yahoo, MSN and the other search engines evaluate differently, they are close enough so it’s possible (at this level) to develop one set of guidelines for all. As part of a more sophisticated strategy, you will ultimately develop these formulas to match each search engine and keyword with more concentration.

Below is a table we developed for you to use as your web page optimization checklist. These are the basic components that need attention when competing for both, targeted or more general keywords. There are two assumptions we need to make before you begin applying these principles:

1. A detailed keyword analysis and selection has been executed.
2. We are targeting 1 to 3 keywords per page.
3. You are able to make these updates to your web page through an HTML editor or your CMS (content management system). Ex. Wordpress, Contribute, Dreamweaver, Front Page.
   

	Item	Description
1	Page Title	The title tags on each page are very important and should reflect the 1-3 keywords you selected.
2	Page Description	Although some feel this part of your page code is not use as part of a search engine results evaluation, we feel it still warrants attention and should be aligned with your page title and other page optimization elements.
3	Page URL	When possible, include one of your keywords in the actual page URL. Ex. www.abc.com/free-guide
4	Meta Keywords	Some may say that this part of your page coding is not used and obsolete, it only takes a minute and should reflect at least your 3 relevant keywords.
5	H1, H2 & H3 Header Tags	Your page should include headers similar to the header and sub-headers in a newspaper article. Just be sure it is formatted as a header so the search engine see as such.
6	Images	The number of images on any single web page needs to be balanced with load time and what we call easy “scanibility”. Too many will hurt your search engine ranking.
7	Image Tags	Each image or graphic placed on your page needs a relevant “ALT” tag. This tells the search engine what each image is about. The tag should have your 1-3 page keywords.
8	Domain Registration	Many times overlooked by website owners, the longevity and expiration status of your domain name is important. If your domain name is set to expire in less than 1 year, the search engines will view this as an element of instability. It’s an easy fix to renew for 2 or more years.
9	Page Content	Your page content or copy maybe the most critical element of all. Be sure your main keywords are represented but in a common sense and methodical manner. Remember that the primary function of a search engine is to find the most relevant information for the search engine user.
10	Inbound Links	This item is considered an “off-page” optimization component but needs mentioning. The more websites that include a link to your web page, the better. They build your :authority” in the eyes of the major search engines.
11	Social Bookmarks	When your pages start to gain traffic, you will benefit further from the traffic that bookmarks your pages on sites like StumbleUpon, Digg, delicious, etc.
12	These Elements Can Not Be Evaluated By Search Engines:	Frames
		Flash
		Splash Page
13	Regular Blog Posts	Regular blog posts can accomplish many of the above items.

Remember that these are the main elements of a well-optimized page and have been outlined for the user who isn’t ready to hire an inbound marketing or SEO consultant. As the process evolves, there are other components that require attention and will ultimately benefit your efforts. Here is a partial list:

Creation of Robots.txt

Page Rank Sculpting

Updating Pages for Local Search & hCard Integration

Image Alt Text Optimization

Hyperlink Title Attribute Optimization

Creation of Themed Link Pages

Submission to Search Engines & Directories (Local)

W3c Validation of Homepage (HTML Code)

Creation of Simple & XHTML Sitemaps

For a complete inbound marketing analysis of your current website, use this link:

Search Engine Positioning Guarantees

When negotiating with a search engine optimization professional, is a search engine positioning guarantee reasonable?

This topic of discussion was much more common in recent years but as many businesses are more involved with the inbound marketing or search engine positioning process and are deeper into this process, they seem to understand the relative validity of a search ranking guarantee. Especially an Organic search engine positioning guarantee.

This blog post is more general in nature for those who still need to understand the process, expectations and the differences between a sponsored ad strategy and an organic search strategy.

I was asked by a potential new alliance partner today about guaranteed search engine positioning from an SEO (organic) or pay per click perspective. This is a topic of discussion that I have had more often 12 to 24 months ago. As SEO was the primary method of entry into the world of inbound marketing, many businesses getting involved with inbound marketing presented this question but has now become less frequent. I think that many businesses and many organizations that are getting involved with inbound marketing understand a little bit more about the nature of search engine optimization both from an organic stand point and a sponsored ad stand point, here is how I answered this question about a guarantee in the world of SEO.

A guarantee in the world sponsored ad marketing is reasonable. I believe that there can be a guarantee simply because you're purchasing position (not in all cases) but in most cases a certain paid sponsored listing in a specific targeted search engine location. So I believe this can be guaranteed in one form or another.

Offering a guarantee for an organic search engine position as a rule, is much more dangerous from an inbound marketing professional's standpoint. The reasons are as follows:

1. Each computer/IP address will get varying search engine positioning. For example if we're discussing an air conditioning company in a specific geographic region I can type in a given keyword and get x-results on the search engine results page while another individual, even in the same location and certainly other geographic locations will get a different ranking position. This is because the search engine technologies and algorithms are changing. They are becoming more personal and geo focused based on past personal searches.
   
2. Another determining factor that would make a professional avoid making a guarantee is the actual real estate available. The search engine results page is becoming more limited as search engines like Google are including blog results and soon-to-be social media results on the SEPR or search engine results page. This decreases the space available for straight SEO or search engine optimization programs.

With these reasons in mind a wise and experienced Internet marketing professional would not make any guaranteed search engine positioning statements. It's more a matter of establishing expectations on a case-by-case basis. Each business is different and each business has a different target market. In some cases the target market is local with limited competition whereas others are national or even global in nature. These factors must be taken into consideration when discussing expectations.

To add to this thought process, I would advise that any search engine optimization strategy that maybe recommended by and inbound marketing professional doesn't guarantee a certain search engine position through organic search. This, in my mind should raise a red flag. The actual process of search engine optimization on any given website is as follows and is not as secretive in nature as it used to be.

• Each page can be optimized for 1 to 3 keywords.
• The relative components on a given web page need to reflect these one to three keywords.
  
• The content on the actual page needs to also reflect the other elements like page titles, page description, and all other related HTML code tags.

Here is a new checklist that you can use to be sure each of your web pages is at least "search engine friendly".

Internet Marketing Methodology

Is your Inbound Marketing methodology complete, flexible, effective & measurable?

A well conceived Internet marketing methodology will dictate all of your activities, measurements and evaluations. I true methodology gives you the road map and solid reasons for doing what you do each day, week and month. If you don't believe in your own marketing methodology, I suggest you start over and develop one that you buy into. I see too many organizations throwing darts or following limited advice and experience of others and end up taking shots in the dark at SEO, PPC, blog posts, atricle submissions, email campaigns, social media reach and a myriad of other tasks they feel are part of the big Internet marketing picture.

A well thought out inbound marketing methodology may be simple or complex. One not being better than the other.

This is the Inbound marketing methodology we suggest:
(Note: Inbound Marketing = Internet Marketing = Pull Marketing = Attraction Marketing)

1. Get Found

2. Convert

3. Analyze.

 This may sound over simplified but sometimes, focusing on the basics will help you strip away any elements of your current plan that do not fit or support these main objectives.

To be clearer we begin by explaining that based on our experience and expertise, SEO is one (1) of three (3) major segments of a complete and successful Inbound Marketing campaign. To be even more specific, we believe that SEO or major search engine (on-page) optimization is approximately 39% of the Internet marketing pie. We don’t point this out to minimize the importance of a strong search engine optimization plan, in fact, we believe all else is fueled by, and relies on strong page optimization and good search results.

To expand on this point we point out that SERP (search engine result pages) now include blogs, images, local listings, videos and soon social media results. This simply translates to less real estate for straight keyword search results through on-page optimization. Couple this fact with some of the new search technologies about to be used (Google Caffeine) and you will see actual search results will differ from place to place and computer to computer. These are some of our reasoning for applying the blog and social media development components to a comprehensive Internet marketing strategy.

We believe that understanding your own approach, methodology and philosophy is critical to understanding how bring success to your business or client's business.

First, we feel it is absolutely critical for you or your clients to learn how marketing has changed and the older efforts connected to outbound or interruption marketing have become more expensive and much less effective. To illustrate this point further, we explain to our prospects and newer clients to think about outbound (traditional) marketing as a hammer and inbound marketing as a magnet. Would you rather try to hammer your message into and at your target markets or would you rather attract or pull qualified prospects into your messages?

One reason we stress this point is because marketing directors, business owners and others that are responsible for an organization's marketing success now depends on their direct involvement. One of the first conversations we have with our prospects and new clients was designed to gauge how ready they are to change some of the older ways they approach and support their own marketing efforts. Nobody understands their services and products better than the client and we encourage them to contribute to the process. Their expertise coupled with our high level of marketing skills will bring real and measurable success.

Although Inbound marketing has become much more effective and efficient than the more traditional outbound marketing, some elements remain constant and our methodology was designed to focus on these 4 main objectives:

1. Generate Leads
2. Track Leads
3. Nurture Lead
4. Convert Leads

This covers the concept of Internet marketing methodology. We will discuss in detail the three main anchors of this suggested methodology... Get Found, Convert & Analyze.

How To Keep Up With Internet Marketing

Internet Marketing/Inbound Marketing Is Growing At Record Pace

Are you finding it difficult to keep pace and keep current with Inbound marketing? It used to be a simple as executing a solid search engine optimization plan (SEO). Internet marketing has changed tremendously since those days. I know because I am in the business.

As recently as one year ago, my clients would generate leads and substantial other activity as a result of a carefully constructed search engine optimization program combined with some supportive content development.

Inbound or Internet marketing has expanded and in order to be successful, must include other components. Blog development and social media development are now critical elements of a complete Internet marketing plan.

Many organizations are having a difficult time understanding the need to refocus some (or most) of their marketing efforts in this newer direction. The transition and evolution from traditional or outbound marketing to inbound marketing can be confusing to many. Businesses understand the old marketing methods even if they admit they have become less effective. 

We are at an important crossroads for many businesses even if they don't notice. They must get involved in their marketing more than was demanded in the past.

An Overview:

• Outbound marketing is also considered "interruption" marketing.
• Outbound marketing is 40 year old technology.
  
• Outbound marketing is using a hammer to deliver your message.
• Inbound marketing is using a magnet to attract those sincerely interested in your message.
• Inbound marketing produces more quality leads at a lower cost per lead.

What should be included in your inbound marketing strategy?

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
2. Blog development - regular blog posts
3. Social Media Strategies
4. Strong & accurate analytics or measurement

Developing and administering a strong Internet marketing plan takes the same effort and patience as developing a comprehensive traditional marketing plan. In most cases the budget won't have to be as extensive but the time commitment and ability to partner with highly skilled professionals is similar. Remember that in spite of what you read or what may appear in your inbox (or spam filter), a good inbound marketing strategy takes time, effort and a budget. There is no quick fix. Show me a keyword on page one of google and I will show you an organization that applied effort and had patience.

Internet marketing, at it's most basic level is about:

1. Lead Generation
2. Lead Tracking
3. Lead Nurturing
4. Lead Conversion
   

For a free inbound marketing white paper, click on this image:

How To Decide: Organic SEO or Sponsored Ad Campaign

Inbound marketing can consist of a simple SEO project or a more complete picture using SEO, blog & social media development with the appropriate analytics.

When analyzing and evaluating the Internet marketing needs of any business, it's important to understand that one size does not fit all. Each business will have different objectives, different budgets and therefore demand different and flexible solutions.

It is also important for businesses to realize that as Internet marketing or inbound marketing become more of a primary marketing mechanism, its important to apply the appropriate attention, budget and changes required to generate the return on investment that is, in most cases, the main objective. Understand that inbound marketing is now more efficient, more effective and more measurable than the way marketing has been implemented over the past 40 years (outbound marketing).

With this in mind, one of the decisions you will need to consider is the choice between PPC (sponsored ads) or a natural or organic search engine strategy. Although both can be beneficial, they do serve different objectives and need careful consideration before launch. Below are some basics that need to be understood in order to make an educated decision.

Any business and Internet marketing plan can benefit from both PPC or SEO so...

1. Where do you start?
   
2. Is it a sponsored ad campaign or organic search engine optimization?
   
3. Both are important so what where should I start or would be the right mix?
4. How do I determine what my budget should be?
   
5. How much should I spend on PPC and how much on SEO?
   
6. Which one has the higher rate of success?
   
7. Which one is easy to manage?
   

Many of these questions are asked by business owners while developing their online marketing strategies or working with an Internet marketing expert on consulting firm.



One of the first steps should be a basic understand of the differences between the two. Here is a simple explanation:

The standard industry term is PPC, which means "par per click". You pay search engines or any other publisher for the clicks you get on your advertisement links. Another way to explain this; the traffic you are getting is Paid Traffic through the creation and placement of your advertisement. The alternative is SEO or search engine optimization. SEO is where you work on your web pages to improve its natural rankings in the major Search engines for the selected (important) keywords. If done correctly the result is free traffic for your website. This doesn't mean the process of organic optimization is free. If you have the skills and time, it will be free but you may need to pay a specialists to perform these activities.

These are some Pros and Cons of both PPC and Organic SEO as part of an overall inbound marketing plan.

If you have a newer site and need some faster exposure, PPC Campaigns can give you these quick results. You can launch your projects within hours and start getting search engine (or Facebook & LinkedIn) placement and traffic on your website over night. Pay per click programs are easy to monitor and lets you do specific testing and experimenting. This method will provide you with a detailed analysis of important metrics like:

1. How many times your ad had been displayed
2. How many people clicked on them
3. Which ad got maximum clicks
4. What is the conversion rate

Sponsored ad campaigns are also easy to control. You can control the placement of your listings and location where you want your ad to show, and stop your project anytime you want.

 PPC campaigns are also very effective to test the impact of changes in site architecture on conversion rate.

 PPC campaigns are great if you are going to promote some seasonal items and when it is not feasible to wait for improvement in organic rankings.



Cons - PPC campaigns, in most cases don’t have long term value. Your listings will disappear from search engines and other networks if you stop spending money. Usually a larger budget is needed to run an effective PPC campaign. If your niche is highly competitive and you are competing against big brands, this is even more true. In my opinion, the biggest reason to be careful when utilizing a sponsored ad campaign is because PPC ads get only 10% of click throughs when compared to  organic search rankings. 



Search Engine Optimization 

Pros - Natural Search results get 90% of the activity on a search engine results page. This means you can get much more traffic if you can get top positions in organic results. 

You don’t have to pay for extra traffic you get due to improvement of your website rankings in organic search results.

 You can stop your SEO (search engine optimization) and link building campaigns for few months once your rankings become stable in Search results and can enjoy free traffic.

 Proper SEO and Link Building will help you to increase the overall authority of your website.



Cons - SEO and Link Building is a time consuming process. It usually takes 6-8 months or even more to achieve the top results in organic rankings depending on the quality of your website and competition in your niche.

 No control on the Rankings of website and no guarantee of results because organic results are very unpredictable.





As you have now seen the pros and cons of both marketing strategies, the selection of the SEO or PPC depends on the purpose of your inbound marketing campaign. If you are looking for quick exposure for your new business then PPC campaign is your best option but if you are looking for long term solution then focus on your SEO and link building campaigns. Business owners need to maintain a proper balance between their SEO and PPC activities. While, money spent on SEO should be considered as long term investment for your business, PPC campaigns should be used only to fill out the gaps which cannot be achieved with SEO like running ads on content networks, for doing research of proper keywords or to test the new design of website.

 

Your Internet Marketing Analysis

I hope that as an Internet marketer, you consistently ask yourself these questions when considering your Internet marketing projects:

1. What is the real condition of my web site?
2. What do the search engine see when they evaluate rankings for a chosen keyword?
3. What is the marketing effectiveness of my web site?
   

 

One way to get a quick accurate and snapshot of your condition and some of the answers to these questions is to use a tool called website grader. You can request a free website grade report from Virtual Support Systems or go directly to website grader.

To give you a better understanding of the relation between HubSpot & Virtual Support Systems, I offer this description:

HubSpot has created a cutting edge software application for use by Inbound Marketing Agencies like Virtual Support Systems, that enable us to apply all of the new and revolutionary marketing systems to our clients Internet marketing projects. Therefore, our clients subscribe to the HubSpot software and retain Virtual Support Systems to apply and manage all aspects of this application. Virtual Support Systems is a Certified Inbound Marketing Partner with HubSpot.

Okay, now that I have explained how to generate a real time report showing the condition of any given website, You should read a recent post on the HubSpot blog with examples of other companies' reports.

Email Marketing Strategies

Email marketing can provide wonderful support for your web site and Internet marketing efforts. But do it wisely....

Email Advertising and Marketing:
If you're smart you won't even think of developing an internet marketing plan &  web site without marrying it to a strategically created e-mail publication plan. The web site is the shy partner who passively waits for people to come to him. But the e-mail marketing strategy is the bold, active partner who goes out to where people are and invites them to come meet her groom. Together they make a great couple.

E-mail marketing is primarily a way to conserve the people who have shown some interest in your business by coming to your web site or responding to one of your offers. One of the highest priorities of your web site MUST be to get your visitor to sign up for your free newsletter, white paper, discussion list or updates publication. Offer a variety of inducements or compelling offers -- entry into a contest, a free gift, a free coupon -- whatever you must do to insure a steady stream of subscribers to your newsletter. Once they are subscribers -- if you give them "great content" they enjoy and learn from -- they'll stay with you for years, and you can gently build their trust and your relationship month after month. When they're ready to make a purchase, your site is at the top of their mind, and they'll probably buy from you. Figure the lifetime value to you of a single subscriber. When you've completed this exercise, you'll know why beginning your own e-mail marketing stratgey is so vital to marketing your business.

Though some Internet marketers focus on sending stand-alone e-mail ads to their mailing lists, I do not recommend this method. With so much SPAM (unsolicited e-mail) abounding, it's too easy for recipients to mistake your promotion for just another ad, and unsubscribe forever. Though an occasional promotional e-mail may be okay, your email marketing messages in the context of news and helpful information is much more effective, and builds loyalty that you can never gain by just bombarding your customers with ads.

Of course, you probably know by now that sending out mass e-mails to huge lists of e-mail addresses is a no-no. It violates the principle of Permission Marketing that says people respond better to a marketing message they have agreed to receive. Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail (UCE) also runs contrary to a long-standing Internet tradition that responds to SPAM with angry flames and enough returned e-mail to cause your ISP to shut down your account very quickly. If you're interested in building a long-term business based on trust, don't send SPAM.