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Internet Marketing Guide For Stores
With every new website development project we
try to stress the importance of adding smart web marketing strategies
to help capture more targeted sales leads. Many websites are competing
for the attention of your targeted shoppers online. What separates
them is their web marketing strategies. Most Common Ways of Driving Web Site TrafficBelow are the most common ways of driving web surfers to a web site:
Search Engine MarketingSearch Engines offer several ways to help drive traffic to your web site. The most common way is through the search engine's own web site where users type in search terms to help them find listings revelant to what they are seeking. Another way is through a search engines aligned web site partners or content partners. These are web sites that allow the search engine to display search results and links inside the partner's web site. This can dramatically broaden an advertiser's reach. Local Search MarketingLocal Search Marketing is really starting to come into its own. As more and more consumers have high-speed internet access (DSL & Cable) they are finding it's easier and faster to look for their local area stores online rather than thumbing through the Yellow Page Books. This is why we are seeing Google, Yahoo, SuperPages, MSN, YellowPages and others spending so much money and time trying to find ways of becoming consumers source for locating local businesses, including flooring stores. Natural Search (Free Listing)Most users begin their search by going to their favorite search engine and typing in several relevant keywords to help them find web sites that will contain the information they are seeking. A web site may or may not appear depending on how relevant the web page's text content is to what keywords were entered by the user. This is often referred to as the "Natural Search" or "Organic Search". Generally there are only 10 free listings per page of search results. Pay-Per-Click Advertising (Sponsored Links)Many web sites also bid on keywords and phrases that are relevant to their web site and content and that they hope the user will use when searching. Depending on your bid amount and keyword relevancy to the search phrase your advertisement may appear in the "Sponsored Links" along the right side of the screen or at the top. For those people not familiar with this method of advertising, it is referred to "Pay-Per-Click Advertising". An example of this is Google's AdWords. It is important to realize the advertiser never pays anything until someone actually clicks on their sponsored advertisement. This is truly "performance based advertising". Google, Yahoo! and MSN also have a global network of content partners and web sites where the pay-per-click advertisements may also appear. Using geo-targeted Pay-Per-Click advertising can help improve your local marketing reach for online flooring shoppers that might not ever see your newspaper, radio or televisions ads. Also, many consumers go from traditional advertisements (TV, radio, newspaper) to the Internet to learn more about the company, their offerings and directions to their store. Getting Listed in DirectoriesBesides search engines there are many directories where web sites are grouped into categories and listed alphabetically. Most directories are maintained by humans who actually visit your web site prior to insertion. A few of the more popular directories are Yahoo! Directory, Zeal, DMOZ open directory, AbiLogic Web Directory. They can help drive traffic to your web site as well as improve your link popularity with Google. Exchanging LinksAnother useful means of driving targeted shoppers to your web site is by exchanging links with other web sites that have content related to your products and services. Finding these web sites takes some effort but can be done cost-effectively using the barter method ("You put a link to my web site on your web site and I will do them same for you on my web site.") |
There
are over 172 Million websites today and billions of web pages.
Getting your website on page #1 of Google for the most relevant
keyword phrases is extremely important for generating new sales
leads online.. Although our focus on this page is about website
marketing strategies, it's still important for businesses to continue
using all available media channels, including offline media, to
help maximize your marketing efforts. Be sure your website address is displayed
in all your offline advertising. 
