August 30, 2005 - Page 2  <back to first page>

5. Content

Your website becomes more valuable as you add to it. Press releases, product news, related articles all posted on your site will do wonders for your search result position. You are also considered by visitors to be somewhat of an expert in your field, especially if your content is clear and well written.

Now take this a bit further. Consider syndicating your online content through the use of RSS feeds. Once you generate RSS feeds, other organizations can pick up your information to display on their own websites. The advantage of this is that the links go directly back to your site. Anyone understanding web design can set up a feed quickly. For the rest of us, I recommend software that allows you to enter and edit your article through your website and will also automatically generate the feed for you.  One product I recommend is Article Manager from InteractiveTools.com. No web design knowledge needed, just your ability to write about your passion - your business, product, service, organization, etc.

If you have separate products or services, create specific sub-domains with a keyword as a sub-domain name.  An example of this is right in front of you.  This site's primary domain is www.PRWP.com.  When focusing on book sales, the domain to use is http://Bookstore.PRWP.com. Google also searches on domain names as part of the search results.

6 Reciprocal Linking

This is the process of exchanging links with other website owners. I would suggest avoiding link farms, but rather cross-link with sites that compliment your site or product. Don't link to poorly designed sites. If you are part of a business group or even a small chamber of commerce, links from these sites and between members can provide you with quality inbound links that helps you with your "popularity" rating with Google.

7. Put meta tags on every category page

I suggest you look at the content of your page and use your TITLE tag as well as your KEYWORD, DESCRIPTION and ABSTRACT tags with similar key phrases.  Don't try to put every word that may pertain to your business in the keywords section, you will only dilute the value of your most important key-phrases or keywords. In your title tag, use a descriptor first. Many businesses put their company name first. That is OK if people know your domain name (Google, Amazon, Microsoft), but better search results are achieved by putting your product or service first in any tag including the title tag. For more on this see the article on Search Engine Positioning.

Determine you market.  You will have probably have done this in your marketing plan, but this affects keywords as well. If you customer base is regionally located, use that region / city / state as part of your keyword phrase.


8. Ask Customers to Bookmark your site

Weather you do this my email or by having your web designer create a "bookmark this site / page" button in your site (recommended), you increase your chances of having your site stored in visitor's favorites folder on their browser.

9. Affiliate programs

Affiliate programs work two ways. You can make money with other affiliate programs like Amazon, Network Solutions, etc, especially if their products compliment your own. Or, you can start your own affiliate program and have others bring customers to your site to sell your product. The former is the easiest. Being an affiliate of a larger business provides you with a capability of selling products and receiving a commission for sales. You may want to focus on products that do not detract from yours. If you are a business that provides financial advice, you may want to sell recommended books from your site as an Amazon affiliate.

10. Market your worthy causes
Show that you give back! Every good business has a philanthropic side. Proudly display your on your site to show that a portion of sales directly supports a worthy cause. Just make sure the cause you are promoting on your site does not alienate potential customers.

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In summary, a good marketing strategy includes supporting the most permanent and most cost effective advertising you can conduct for your business - your website.  Like Mr. Franklin used to say, "Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?"