Internet Marketing in Ohio and Michigan

Marketing your business online in Ohio

How to Increase your Ranking on Search Engines in Ohio

I earned my Associate’s degree from Owens Community College in Electronic Business. I felt I knew everything I needed to know about Web Design, Internet Marketing, Community Management and IT Support.

Of course I learned about HTML, XHTML, CSS, JAVA and some PHP. I even learned the basics of Search Engine Optimization. But over the last three years I have been implementing my internet marketing strategies and I have learned much more information from that. I guess you could say I am a “hands on” kind of guy. The following is a brief summary of some of the things I have learned along the way.

Internet marketing is very similar to the traditional approach of marketing. You attempt to get as much exposure to the greatest number of people for a particular product or service. Marketing your business online is very similar in that regards. But that is where the similarities end.

Many companies in Toledo ask why can’t I get top rankings on Google and why are my competitors on top? If you are talking about the organic results on a search engine, that is achieved by Search Engine Optimization. To optimize your website, you must have some knowledge of HTML code. Web crawlers are what bring you the targeted results for any keyword that you type in on Google. The web crawlers read the html code to determine the most relevant result for what you are looking for.

After hiring so called “Professional SEO Companies”, many businesses in Ohio claim that their site is still only performing well for one or two keywords. The problem here is the world is constantly changing. The internet changes even faster. When I graduated in 2007, SEO was the golden ticket to achieve top rankings. Now the Social Media network is influencing web prescience. Such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, LinkedIn, blogs, articles and free lance writers. Basic SEO is not enough to achieve top rankings in 2010. There are at least 200 other factors that affect rankings on search engines. There are hundreds of books on Amazon that explain the craft of Search Engine Optimization. Do not attempt to learn the do’s and don’ts of SEO as you go.

Companies looking to achieve top rankings on search engines need to implement creative marketing strategies including the online Social Media sites mentioned above. One of the new job opportunities offered by many companies in Ohio is Social Media Strategist. Hiring an experienced Social Media Manager will guarantee that your company is using online networks to their full potential. In fact, there are some local companies paying an individual $30,000 a year to manage their Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and blogs.

One of the other related aspects of Search Engine Optimization is called link building. Link building is the process of building links to your site. In case you are confused by my corny dictionary definition, here is a good example.
Website A just launched yesterday. No one knows about the site. Even with good website optimizations, the site will not achieve top rankings if no one knows about the site. I then write a blog and link one of the relevant keywords to website A. There is one link.

Search engines also determine the rank of a site by the amount of quality links to the site. I bolded the word quality for a reason. Every link to a site can be seen as a vote. Generally, sites with many links will achieve higher rankings. However, never take that sentence literally. Search Engines are increasingly looking at the quality of the site that is linking to the other. I will make another comparison to explain my idea.

website A has 1,500 links to the site. Coming from sites that have low traffic, poor reputations and scamy material.

Website B has 250 links to the site. However, all the links are coming from high quality and relevant sites.

Which site do you think would perform better on the search engines?

If you answered B. you are correct. Linking to sites with lower PR will usually hurt your rankings and may even get your site “banned” or “blacklisted” from Google. We wouldn’t want to risk that, now would we?

You can build links by doing the following

:
1. Write blogs with keyword rich links
2. Use paid blog writing services to write links (Beware)
3. Get involved on forums and add a signature.
4. Write comments on blogs.
5. Write unique articles
6. Establish profiles on social media sites such as: Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, Twitter, Digg, Stumbleupon and Reddit. There are around three hundred social media sites online.
Once again, do not try to abuse the system and build links anywhere and everywhere you feel like. Develop relationships with the online community first. Once some type of relationship is built, ask for them to link to your site. Spamming forums will not get you top rankings. Play nice!

The alternative to SEO to achieve top rankings is called Pay Per Click Advertising. Pay Per Click adverting is the small ads that appear on search engines on the right hand side. These ads only cost companies if a user clicks on the ad. Companies place bids on chosen keywords. In short, the higher the bid on a keyword, the higher the ranking that ad will appear. Setting up a Pay Per Click account such as Google Adwords can take minutes. The main benefit of PPC advertising is that the ads can appear almost instantly. It also is a very targeted approach to increase your website traffic. Lastly, every click is easily tractable due to Google Analytics. Pay Per Click Management is not for the novice internet marketer. There is a great deal of insight and strategy that is required to get a high return of investment.

Lastly, once all of these strategies are implemented, tracking the progress of your changes is crucial. You should keep a log of every change you make. Note what keyword is giving you top ranking and monitor the changes you make. If you notice one technique is not working, stop that technique and try something else. SEO is a long term strategy. It can take time to find out what works and what does not. It is not uncommon for Professional Internet Marketers to use trial and error approaches. Use analytics to track all the statistics.

*Note: Pay Per Click advertising will not increase your ranking on the organic results.

I gave you the basics behind Internet Marketing. If you are able to master all the resources that I mentioned in this blog, you will be ready to tackle the online community. But until then, you might want to take some courses to strengthen your internet marketing knowledge. It is a jungle out there; don’t get your business caught in the quicksand. Feel free to leave a comment or email me at bnlguy2002@yahoo.com. I have the answer to all your questions.

Quick tips to increase your ranking on Google:
1. Optimize your website for Search Engines.
2. Establish profiles on social networking sites
3. Write blogs
4. Use paid blog services
5. Write articles
6. Comment on other blogs
7. Join forums
8. Add URL to directories
9. Build links
10. Pay per click management (Google Adwords etc..)
11. Website architecture

Marketing Your Business Online In Ohio and Michigan

Have you been thinking about jumping on the bandwagon to gain more exposure through the use of the internet? If yes, you have made a great decision. Marketing your business online can be a time consuming and difficult task. First, you have to have a well developed website that is user and SEO friendly.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. In short, it is the process of modifying a website to perform well in the organic results on search engines such as Google, Yahoo or Bing. This is done by adding content and optimizing the html code on the site. Sounds complex doesn’t it? In reality it can be complex depending on the size of your site. Many large ecommerce sites with hundreds of pages of products will make it even more difficult.

Unfortunately, SEO is not the only answer to becoming a top ranked competitor on search engines. The next piece to the puzzle is Search Engine Marketing (SEM). To explain this concept clearly, consider SEM in the same way a public relations manager would gain exposure for a business in the offline world. They establish networks and get to know the right people. If done correctly, these partnerships can help gain interest and new customers.

This is done in the online world by establishing a reputation with individuals across the globe. One of the most influential ways to grow your business online is to have a dominant prescience in the social media network. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Myspace are just a few of the resources a business can use to establish an online prescience on the internet.

Facebook and Myspace are relatively the same. Individuals can create accounts for free and can find old friends and look at their pictures and even comment back and forth to each other. The best part is that businesses can use Facebook and Myspace to build a fanbase. Businesses can request individuals to add them as a friend and if the user accepts the invite, the business can then reply with messages that help gain interest. Best of all it is free!

Stay tuned for an article on “How to market your business using Facebook” soon!

Twitter is another great online tool to establish a loyal following on the internet. It can be considered a micro blog. Businesses can post short messages to users about upcoming events and sales. These messages can be written and posted on phones too. So you can always be in touch with your target audience.

Another way to market your company online is to write and comment on blogs, much like I doing right now. Have your blog link to your website. That way you can tell people more about your product or service and even educate them. If implemented correctly, your customers will come back to do business with you!

Here is an important fact about internet users; People search the internet in different phases. Users will first use the internet as a research tool. Once they find exactly what they are looking for, they will then be in the buying phase. Many companies only focus on one phase for the internet marketing agenda. A successful website and company will need to be available in both phases. They should first educate the public and answer the common questions about the product or industry. If the user is satisfied with the answer, they will come back to your site when they are ready to make their purchasing decision. Let me further clarify myself here with this example using a fictitious website.

I want to travel to Tahiti to see the beautiful beaches and the women that wear far too many layers of clothing. Sarcasm aside, I realize that I need a passport to travel overseas.

I have never been in a plane and I rarely travel outside of Northwest Ohio. I decide to look online to find out how to get a passport. After typing that keyword into Google, I find many results. The first results are for USPS and a government website. I choose the third result; www.goldenpassport.com. I visit the site and see information about fees, where to send the passport and four sentences that describe the process of getting a passport. However, I want to learn more about the whole process. I then promptly leave the site and I find a blog on page two on Google that is well informed, reputable and answers all my questions. The blog is for www.speedypassport.com. Since the blog answered all my questions and seemed trustworthy, I used www.speedypassport.com to get a passport. Why would I go somewhere else? The website and blog was very useful.

My point is that www.goldenpassport.com missed a “golden” opportunity to convert a user by not having the right presence on the internet. Even though the site was well designed, it was not the content I was looking for. Generally, users will only browse a site for twenty seconds and if they do not find what they are looking for, they will leave your site. Since most blog platforms are free anyways; you are not getting the most out of your website and your online marketing strategy.

As a homeowner in Toledo, Ohio I can feel the tension in our economy. Most companies have to be very tight with their advertising spend.  Many of their traditional marketing efforts such as T.V advertising have been put on hold. However, if done correctly, marketing your business online can prove to bring you a high return on your investment. I hope you enjoyed this blog and this is only the beginning to understanding the idea of marketing your business online.