When it comes to website design, I find many people consider the aesthetics and colors of the website to be the most important aspects. This could not be further from the truth. Don’t take this the wrong way, aesthetics, colors and overall look of the website is very important, just not the first concern to be dealt with. In reality, the function and purpose of the website should be the first consideration along with design and process flow. Typically any color or design theme can be worked into the overall feel of a website, but it is vitally important to get the functions down first in order to have any real success.

So, what is meant by function and purpose? Namely, what is the site supposed to do? Are you going to be using the site to display information about your business, products or services? Are you going to be using the website as an ecommerce platform to actually take orders or sales? Are you going to be using your website to keep in contact with your prospects or customers and update them regularly? Are you going to be using the website as a platform to collect leads for follow up later or to drive them to somewhere else? Each of these types of websites has a different function and therefore, have to be designed differently. There are proven techniques and strategies that can be used on each of these types of websites to make them successful, but they are not the same across the board for each type of site.

Once the function of the website has been determined, then the overall flow of the website can be built and designed. What this means is that traffic can be moved throughout the site in a logical and easy fashion by the visitor and result in a desired action for the business owner. For example, a lead generation website might only have 1-3 pages and an overall desired result by the business owner of a name and email address entered on the page. An ecommerce website might be 1,000+ pages and result in the successful sale of a product through a shopping cart system. Whichever type of website you have, the flow of traffic is an important consideration and can’t be taken lightly.

During the overall web design process, it is also critically important to practice good design practices and optimize every page of the website for the search engines. The more planning that goes into this upfront, the better the chances for success in terms of ranking in the search engines. This is also where content should be considered and the appropriate content delivery created (written copy, pictures, video, etc.). I like to call this the “meat” of the website. We can have ideas of what we want it to look like in terms of colors, etc. but the main thing at this stage is filling the site with the appropriate, good content.

Only after all of the above has been done appropriately should you begin with the colors and designs and making the site pretty. This is unfortunately where most people start, and as you can see it comes at the end of my list. It’s okay to have an idea of what the site should look like, in fact I would encourage and hope that you already have a visual in your mind. But, you must approach the design in a systematic way and I have found this method to work the best myself. By approaching a new website in the fashion that I’ve outlined here, you will save many headaches in the long run and end up with a finished product that you can truly be proud of.

ZTXGPTKV4586 So what if you have a small business but you don’t have a website? Should you consider marketing on the internet? One of the most common misconceptions about internet marketing is that you have to either already have a website online or you have to pay big money to have a website made and put online. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In reality, the internet is just another form of media, just like a newspaper, magazine, television or radio. You don’t have to own a radio or television station to take advantage of advertising in those forms of media, nor do you have to own a website to take advantage of the internet as a form of advertising media. Naturally, it can be very beneficial to have a website for your business, but not absolutely necessary.

Another big misconception is the cost involved with having a website designed and hosted on the internet. Many people believe that it is very expensive to have this done. This again is not necessarily true. My answer to how much a website costs is, it depends. You see, as with anything that you as a company owner are going to buy to benefit your business in some way, you have to look at the big picture of what a website is going to do for you. The purpose of a website can be many different things to a business. It could be a way to easily distribute information about your business, products or services. It could be a lead generation source. Or, it could be an actual sales portal for whatever you sell for your business. Those are just three examples, but it is important to understand the purpose before deciding whether or not a website is the right use of money for your business. Depending on what type of website you need, the cost will vary based on size and complexity of the website. You may only need a one-page website with very little text on the page and the ability to collect visitor information, or you may need a 500+ page website with all of your products listed, with a picture or video and a shopping cart. There is a big cost difference between these two types of websites, and the justification depends on the purpose.

Enlisting the help of a web designer can be one of the biggest decisions you can make if you do decide to build a website for your business. While it is true that there are numerous free ways on the internet to build websites and in some cases free places to host as well, as a business owner you need to remain cautious. If the website is merely for personal use and/or a hobby, a free website and hosting is probably fine, however, if you actually intend to use a website to further the goals of your business and use it in any form of marketing, it would be my advice to look at having a website built professionally. The main reasons that I have for this advice are due to the ability to perform the functions that you would like to on the website and keeping within the limitations of the terms and conditions of the website creation tool and in being able to drive the traffic necessary to make the website a good use for your business. In most cases it is extremely difficult to get a free website ranked well on the search engines for any period of time and there are just too many things that you can’t do with the technology. There are cases where it can work fine, just make sure you weigh out all of the options before diving in.

The important thing to keep in mind is that regardless of whether you decide to have a website for your business or not, you can still market your business online and definitely should have internet marketing as part of your overall marketing plan. If you are already advertising in any form of media (newspaper, magazine, coupons, radio, television, circulars, etc.), then you really need to look at the vast options the internet can provide. Online advertising is the wave of the future and becoming more and more vital as the best means to reach people more consistently everyday.

What do people mean when they refer to online advertising? Well, it could mean a lot of things. Some examples of online advertising which come to mind are placing advertisements on websites or online media publishing sites, pay-per-click advertising through the search engines, pay-per-view advertising through various online websites, banner advertising and banner exchanging with websites, pop-up advertising on various websites, and the list goes on and on. The common theme with most of these online advertising examples that I gave is that they all are going to cost money to implement. Now this is not necessarily a bad thing. I have used all of the above mentioned advertising methods mentioned at some time or other and have had varying levels of success with each one. If done properly, the results can be staggering and in the case of pay-per-click and pay-per-view marketing, they can happen almost instantly. The problem lies in the execution and proper managing of these types of campaigns. If not done the right way and managed appropriately, you can spend a lot of money with no real return on your investment, and that too can happen very fast. I still will use many of these methods from time to time depending on what I am trying to accomplish, however, I have found the best bang for my buck has been through free advertising channels. You really can’t get a better return on investment when you haven’t invested any money in the marketing in the first place, right?

Most of my online advertising these days involves local businesses and marketing at a local level for clients. I have developed and am always working on ways to establish my own business ventures as well as those of my customers in such a way that I can drive local traffic to the business and develop long-lasting relationships with customers. In some cases, pay-per-click marketing makes a lot of sense and can be used without spending a lot of money and driving a nice volume of traffic to the website, but the key is to use geo-local targeted keywords and filters when setting up these campaigns. For the best results, I still maintain that the simplest marketing channels as well as the most effective are free when dealing with local markets. The benefits of using local channels for marketing are that they reach a specific audience targeted to your specific location, are low cost (mostly free), and they also provide help in the search engines. Put all of this together and you have some very powerful ways to reach customers without breaking the bank.

Advertising in the traditional sense involves print, audio or video to reach customers via newspapers, magazines, radio, television, etc. The nice thing about online advertising is that it can encompass all of these things and touch all of the same senses through various online channels. The key to success with online advertising becomes the same as it is in the offline world, getting your ad in front of as many people as possible. That is why people spend more money for primetime ad spots versus early morning spots on the television and radio. It’s also why people will pay more for the front page or back page of a magazine or other publication. What the internet provides is a means to reach even larger numbers of people with the right techniques and strategies, and with the ever-expanding growth and reach that the internet has, it is only going to get bigger. I believe that offline marketing will never completely go away, and should definitely not be ignored in a business’s overall marketing plan. However, in order to survive and get the most from your marketing budget, online marketing will have to take a larger and larger role. The success of your business depends on it.

One of the biggest buzz terms on the internet today is social media and everyone is talking about how it can be used to drive traffic. But what is social media and how exactly can it help someone in driving traffic to their website? The first part of the question is fairly simple to answer. Social media is the use of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to build up friends or followers in order to create a mini-network of sorts. Obviously many people are using these sites to connect with people and share their thoughts and ideas globally with these people on a daily basis. So it would make sense that we could find a way for businesses to use this to develop their own network, right? That’s where the second part to the question above comes into play. How can we use these to drive traffic to our websites? That is a little trickier to answer, but I’m going to try to tackle a few ideas and add my own thoughts to this.

First off, you obviously have to begin by building your network. This will start with creating a profile on the social networking site and finding people that you would like to connect with. On some sites you can actually create a business profile and with others you will have to use groups or lists in association with your profile. For example, Facebook will allow you to create a business page that is connected to your personal profile and Twitter will allow you to create multiple profiles (personal, business, etc.). So after the profiles are created then you need to find people to bring into your networks. This is where some real thought has to come into the mix. Some people choose the route of accepting everybody as a friend or follower and believe that high numbers of people in their network are the best. Others believe that you should have a more intimate relationship with those that are in your network so the list should be smaller. I don’t claim to have the answer to which results in the best traffic, however, I believe the answer lies somewhere in the middle. While it is good to have a substantial base of followers, I don’t necessarily believe that the actual number of people should be the target. You have to establish credibility and trust with those people that become part of your network and allow it to grow itself to some degree. Not only that, but with massive lists of people in your network, it becomes extremely difficult to interact with everyone and you run the risk of isolating many people. By maintaining some control with the size of the network, you allow the network to become more targeted resulting in higher quality traffic.

A common theme with many of my posts is keeping the end goal in mind: more traffic to your business resulting in more sales. But also of equal importance is the quality of that traffic. Just because you are getting large numbers of people visiting your website doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to increase the size of your business. I believe that this is where the strengths of social media really come into play. By establishing a good network of people who have decided to keep up with what you have to say, you are in a great position to establish credibility and trust as well as deliver good quality content to your network. With that in mind, it is very important to communicate with your network and not always be trying to sell them something all of the time. Social media provides the best platform for mixing great content with sales messages without seeming to be constantly sending a pitch for goods and services. Establishing good relationships is really what business is all about.

The hardest part of tackling social media as a marketing tool is all of the noise that is created and filtering the vast variety of messages that are abundant. Not to mention the sheer number of social networking sites that are on the internet. If you add to the mix that you constantly have to find something to say on your profile, and it can be a pretty daunting task. The good news is that there are ways to automate much of the day-to-day tasks that have to be done with social media marketing. By mixing automation with the personal touch of daily activity, much can be accomplished. As with any form of marketing, it always starts with a plan. Plan first then execute the plan daily and monitor results. It doesn’t have to be a daily chore if it is done right and the rewards can be incredible. Start planning on ways to use social media marketing in your business, and if done well, you can increase your traffic numbers and build a sales base beyond your wildest imagination.

I want to take some time to talk about search engine optimization and local search engine traffic based on a few conversations that I have had this week with customers and potential customers. First off, let’s forget about search engine optimization (seo) for a couple of minutes. Now, I know what you are thinking…wait a minute, don’t I need to optimize my site to get it listed higher on the search engines? While it is true that there are always aspects of seo being performed in order to rank higher, we have to keep in mind that the only reason we seek higher rankings is to get more business traffic. Too many times people lose sight of the real reason that we do this stuff and get caught up in where their site is ranking on the search engine. If we keep our mind focused on the real reason for doing internet marketing in the first place, more traffic, we can then step back and figure out how to achieve our goals without getting so caught up in the world of seo.

Let me explain what I mean. Let’s say that I have a website that is brand new and just recently went live on the internet, and it is in a very competitive market that has many other websites. I immediately want to see my site ranking very high in the search engines, however, being a brand new site it starts off on page 14 for specific keywords that I need to rank high for. The chances of anyone finding my site for my best keyword terms is pretty slim at this point. The first thought for many people in the internet game is to start performing search engine optimization tactics and focus entirely on getting the website listed higher in the rankings. Don’t get me wrong, this is important, however I need traffic NOW! So what should I do?

Why not find other ways to get traffic from page one? There are many other ways that traffic can be leveraged to get people coming to your website. The reality is that there are ways that you can ultimately dominate page one without your website even showing up initially and it is still FREE traffic. The beauty of these methods is that while you are getting traffic immediately online from these techniques, you are also building the credibility of your website and it will begin climbing in the search engines naturally. It truly is the best of both worlds. Over time your website will reach page one and through these strategies, it will be only one of many traffic sources on the page.

The best strategies for internet marketing involve multiple search engine traffic streams and techniques designed to bring high volumes of traffic to your business very fast and consistently. By keeping your eye on the ultimate goal of more business and not getting too caught up in the details of ranking your main website initially, you can virtually eliminate the time it takes to build your site ranking and dramatically improve the amount of time it takes to get traffic from the search engines. Don’t let the headaches associated with search engine optimization slow you down. Always remember that there is a better way. You will be happier and the results will speak for themselves.

Who needs internet marketing?  If you operate any type of business that relies on someone buying a product or service from you, then YOU need internet marketing.  Many people think of internet businesses as shopping carts and credit card orders.  If you ask people for examples of internet business, common business names like Amazon, eBay and every major department store come up.  The reality is that online business marketing is much more than just finding a product online and entering your credit card number to have it shipped UPS to your home.  Sure, that is one aspect of online business, however, there are many products or services that simply can’t be bought online to be shipped.  And there are many times that this would not make sense.  For example, if the air conditioning in your home went out today, you wouldn’t want to purchase “air conditioning repair service” online would you?  However, 70-80% of people would go to their favorite search engine and type in (your city) air conditioning repair service and call the businesses that come up in the results.  Just for fun, try typing that in and see what comes up and you’ll see that there are definitely businesses that take this internet marketing thing very seriously.  And they are getting results.

Regardless of your product or service, you can use the internet.  Examples of types of businesses are local stores of any variety; local service businesses such as auto repair, heating and air conditioning repair, carpet cleaning, computer repair, home remodeling, etc.; health and dental services; professional consultation services such as certified public accountants (CPA), insurance companies, lending institutions, real estate agents, etc.; private lessons such as piano, guitar, typing, computer, etc.; network marketing businesses…  The list goes on and on.  Whether you are marketing a business location such as a physical store or yourself, such as a real estate agent or other professional consultant, internet marketing is a valuable service that will generate more leads for your business if done the right way.

The key to making all of this work effectively and generating the kind of business that you want is to use proven techniques to get yourself found among the thousands of other businesses that are putting their information on the internet everyday.  A good online marketing company has the ability to not only put your information up on the internet, but also the ability to make that information findable and generate more leads for your business.  In this current economy and with the ever-growing popularity of the internet and all that it has to offer, you can’t afford not to use online marketing as a chief component in your overall marketing plan.

The overall desired effect from marketing online is no different than any other form of marketing – To Increase Business.  Just as in marketing in the offline world, be it placing ads in local publications, leasing billboard space, direct mail marketing or any other type of marketing, you want to increase visibility and catch the consumer at a time when they are looking for your product or service.  The advantages to marketing on the internet are too numerous to go into any real detail, but here are some of the best reasons that internet marketing is the best alternative for businesses to get their business noticed.

• Search engines are used by over 80% of consumers to find what the specific product or service they are looking for.  As of 2009, search engines surpassed the yellow pages for searching for local business.
• Advertising is completely targeted and visible to consumers when they are actively looking for your product or service.
• Advertising is always on 24/7 and current.
• Online marketing is easy to edit and update at any time.
• Placement of advertising in the search engines is an open playing field where you get to compete head-to-head with your competition.  Where you are seen is directly related to your efforts and ability to be found online.
• Online marketing techniques make it extremely simple to capture customer contact information and maintain a relationship with them.
• There are numerous tracking methods that can by employed with technology to not only track the amount of traffic you receive, but also to get a true indication of your return on investment.
• The ability to use multimedia advertising (video, sound, pictures, etc.) levels the playing field with offline advertising.  You don’t have to spend an enormous amount of money to get your video ads in front of people.

From this list it is easy to see why internet marketing is the best media for advertising your business and generating more customers.  This is by no means an exhaustive list of all of the advantages, but it does give some very good reasons for investing in online marketing for future growth.  Simply put, there is no other form of marketing available that can do all of the things on the above list.  Doesn’t it make sense to do everything you can to dominate the search engines and take advantage of all of the opportunities that online marketing provides?

In order to be found on the search engines, you have to take many factors into consideration and optimize in many different ways.  One particular way that you can boost your ranking is to optimize your website content as it is on the web page.  This is an important factor to consider and will make a difference in how the search engines perceive your site.  The search engines look to the title tags on the pages, the meta descriptions of the page, the keywords of the page, overall structure of the site including the site map, and many other factors.  The purpose for all of this analysis is to determine relevancy of the website topics, the reputation of the page and to assist the person performing the search in finding the best possible information that they are searching for.  The search engines are all about providing the best search experience possible for the searcher, so they put processes together that automatically scan all of this data on the millions of websites out there and determine the best results.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, just putting up a website is not enough.  You have to take into account these factors of on-site optimization as well as off-site optimization factors (arguably the more important of the two).  The most important thing is to remember that the overall purpose of a website is to get attention and in the case of a business website, drive traffic and sales to that business.  By looking at the overall structure of the website and performing the necessary analysis, goals can be determined and plans can be put into place to reach those goals.  It is important to find a company that can assist you in the most economical way possible to achieve these goals and help you determine the best optimization and traffic techniques to employ.  If you would like a free consultation with us to determine the best internet marketing techniques and website strategies to use for your business, please call us at 317-884-8472 or email us at info@bestwebperformancenetwork.com.

Whatever path you decide to take in your online marketing, we wish you the best of luck.  We will continue to provide tips and ideas through this blog so continue to check back often or add us to your favorite RSS reader by clicking the RSS button here on the page.  Keep in mind that these techniques are not overly difficult or technical in nature, but do take a considerable amount of time and require systems to achieve results quickly and in the most efficient way possible.  Further realize that these services do not have to cost you an enormous amount of money and strategies can be custom built for your particular situation.  Whatever your situation, we can help and look forward to the opportunity.

When people ask me about my business and what I do, they sometimes get confused with the details of my response.  When I tell them that I make businesses more findable on the internet or that I provide online marketing services to local businesses I often get responses like, “So you build websites?” or from people who are more internet-savvy they might say, “So you do SEO for people’s websites?”  My answer to either of these questions is often times longer than it should be and too many times leads to more questions as well.

So, what exactly does local internet marketing entail?  Well, it involves a lot of things.  Basically, it is a way for local businesses to market their products and services that are provided in the “real world” to consumers that are looking for their products and services in the “online world”.  That’s about as simplistic as I can describe it.  Everyone who has a computer and internet access has seen the growth that has been taking place on the internet over the past few years.  With that growth it has become more difficult, if you have a business to promote, to get your business found by people who are searching for you.  The most popular method of finding anything online is to use the search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing, but how do you get found on them?  As an example, if you go to Google and type in a search term, its not unheard of to see over 1,000,000 results listed for that search term and unless you show up on the first page or at least in the first few pages, you will never likely be seen by the searcher.  Simply put, building a website is not enough.  It is a great first step, but without promotion, its no different than a billboard in the desert.

Our services at Best Web Performance Network do include website design and SEO (search engine optimization) because they are important to online presence, however, our services also include much more.  We use time-tested and proven strategies for not only improving rankings in the search engines, but also for driving quality traffic to websites through many other channels and traffic systems.  A business’s website ranking is only one channel and will have varied results depending on what keywords people enter into the search engines.  Not only that, it could vary from day to day.  Putting all of your eggs in one basket and continuously optimizing your one website is a risky venture.  With our strategies and techniques and consistent ongoing promotion we can drive targeted traffic and generate leads from varied resources that will be more consistent over time and provide long-term growth for businesses.

The power of the internet and its dramatic growth have created a marketing medium and information channel that truly stretches the imagination.  The search engine providers have gotten very good at delivering quality results for what people are looking for and they are continuing to improve, especially when it comes to searching local markets.  When you add it all up, you can’t afford not to be advertising and marketing online if you truly want a growing and sustainable business.  No matter what the service or product is, people are looking for it on the internet Right Now.  The question you have to ask yourself is “Are they finding my business or someone else’s?”

Be sure to check back often for helpful tips regarding online marketing and methods for becoming more findable on the internet.  It is our goal to help small to mid-size businesses increase their online presence through proven internet marketing strategies and techniques.