Marketing a business online can mean a lot of things because there’s are lots of ways to do it.

• Content Marketing: which means information you deliver on your website which makes your site valuable to readers (and viewers in the case of video) and also gets the attention of the search engines.
• Blogging: which is an extension of content marketing.  Blogging is like adding more content to your website continually, as this article is adding informational content.  Blogging can also include adding content to someone else’s blog.  This is called “guest blogging” and a very smart tactic.
• Video Marketing: Leveraging YouTube or any other video site (YouTube is most important to any marketing effort) is powerful because it combines a social element to the 2nd most powerful search engine behind Google which is YouTube.
• Social Media Marketing: which is establishing, maintaining and being socially active on social sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and others.
• Search Engine Optimization: which covers several aspects of on online presence including keywords, key phrases, onsite content, website development style, multiple websites, black links and other strategies which can be done outside your own online properties.
• Pay-Per-Click: which means having a link to your website on other high-traffic websites (like Google) which you pay for only when someone clicks the link.
• Banner Ads: Having a link to your website which you pay for, usually on a monthly basis as you would a print ad.

The list goes on but the idea I’m trying to explain is, I would be very leery of firms with pretty websites who market themselves as a “one-stop shop” for internet marketing services.  It’s very difficult to do all these things right.  You know the old saying: “Jack of all trades-master of none”.

In my real-world online marketing experience, I learned ONE aspect of driving attention to my business which paid off.  Then I learned another, and another.   Each one of these took my business to a new level.  At a certain point, they start working together and the synergy between them takes you to yet another level. You don’t need to do it all and you certainly don’t need to do it all at once.

In my free online marketing consultation, I will learn about your business, your current status and overall online presence so I can make a set of practical recommendations which will put you on a path to a positive return on your marketing investments, change your business and your life.

Click here to get this free service or fill in the form below.  There is no pushy salesmanship just because I deliver this valuable consultative report.

Good website page content

Good web page content is a combination of information for people and information for search engines.  While that may seem obvious, I see so many website which break this rule…more often than not.

To make page content people-friendly, it needs to follow a few simple rules:

• Text should be dark and the background should be light.  Black or dark gray on white is ideal.  If you want the information on your site to be consumed and understood, there’s nothing like black on white for easy readability and therefore, attention and comprehension.
• Text should be of a sufficient size. I see it all the time-tiny font sizes. Why?  Why make it difficult to read?  It’s nuts.
• Pages should have headlines.  It’s somewhat of a reinforcement of the navigation title of the page.  It’s also good style and a very important search engine optimization tactic.
• There should be one main idea on a web page and ind in most cases there should be no more information than will fit without scrolling.  A couple paragraphs of 2 or 3 sentences each is enough and sentences should be short.  

People have extremely short attention spans governed by a built-in bullshit meter so avoid trite cliches.  Speak about your audience, not yourself or your company.  What is it that your target prospect ideally wants from a business like yours and tell them how they get it without sounding like a commercial.

Keep in mind, your visitor has most likely come to your website for information on the path to making a decision.  Visitors aren’t going online for marketing messages so your marketing must be subtle and information-rich.

To make your page content search engine-friendly, it needs to follow a few simple rules:

• The headline should have a keyword-rich phrase.  This is where you need the assistance of Google’s keyword search tool.  Find out what kinds of words and phrases are being used to search for a business like yours.  This is invaluable.
• Having one main idea per page is vital.  This gives the search engines only one thing to decide: is this information relevant enough to be worthy of page-1 search results?  When more than one idea is shared on a page, then there simply isn’t a main idea.  There are multiple ideas.  It’s smarter to save other ideas for other pages.  When you have one main idea per page, your 2 paragraphs of 2-3 sentences each can have ample keywords and phrases and be communicating with both people and search engines simultaneously.  
• Using internal links is an effective website strategy.  You use internal links to refer people to other pages of your website.  I just said you want only one main idea per web page.  But one idea often relates to another or transitions to another.  You use an internal link to refer your visitor to another page which is a natural transition or reference to another page on your site which ties one idea to another.  You may want to use links to refer people from one blog post to a previous blog post or from a blog post to a main page on your website.  

This is not complicated stuff.  I’m not writing this for website developers.  I’m writing this for business owners who can now return to your website and see where your website is falling short in these areas.  This is not complicated.  This is not technical in any way.  If you’ve read it, you understand it.  So implement it and make your website better for your visitors and customers and better for the search engines to determine your website is worthy of higher search results.

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