We often work with small to medium sized businesses that have little or no experience with the Internet and have no idea where to begin. Indeed stepping into the web ether with no clear plan can be incredibly daunting for a business. With this is mind we have developed a no nonsense step by step guide to help businesses get to grips with some of the basics of Internet Marketing.
This is not meant to be a definitive guide to online marketing " more of a checklist of things to do for businesses that are just starting their internet marketing.
Please note - we are based in the UK so a couple of these may not apply in your particular country!
Search Engine Optimization
You need to be found if you are going to be a success
1. Fix your Title Tags " make them keyword rich, with the keywords at the start
2. Fix your Meta Descriptions " Include a Call to Action and some of your keywords, this is for sales not ranking purposes
3. Fix your headings (h1, h2 and h3)
4. Create relevant useful content for your site
5. Keyword research is essential " find out what language your customers will use to find you and target it on your site
6. Remove duplicate content on your site
7. Learn about how search engines work (crawling and indexing) in order to help you understand the basics of SEO
8. Dont worry too much about Page Rank " its a (fairly) useful guide but that is all
9. Dont buy links " check out this recent SEOMoz post on buying links
10. Get access to your webmaster tools
11. Get a sitemap " you want a HTML and a XML sitemap to cover the search engines and the human users
12. Get a free website grade from Hubspot Grader " it will give you an idea an what needs work on your site
13. Fix your Alt Tags " recent study has suggested that these may be more influential than we previously thought, make them keyword rich and descriptive
14. Draw up a detailed inbound linking campaign and follow it (pay particular attention to the anchor text being used to link to your site)
15. Optimise for universal search (video, photos and local search can all be optimised)
16. Improve the internal linking structure of your own site
17. Subscribe to a couple of SEO blogs to ensure you stay in touch with any new developments
Social Media Success
18. Join LinkedIn
19. Join Facebook " once you have your Facebook page interact with your customers and fans
20. Join Twitter " it is a great tool for staying in touch with your customers and can be used as a promotional tool also. Develop a strategy rather than jumping in blind
21. Attach blog to your site " this will aid your SEO with the fresh regular content, it can give your company a human touch, it can help build inbound links and increases traffic to your site. Get your blog in some big blog directories
22. Get happy customers to review you on the relevant review sites and then thank them via the site
23. Use YouTube and other video sharing sites
24. Use other relevant photo sharing site or site related to your niches
25. Be consistent across all social media " claim your brand online
26. Use social bookmarking services - pick two and start with those
27. Join the forums that are most relevant to your niche and be helpful
Promote your business online
28. Get an add on Gumtree
29. Give a story to the BBC or other relevant news sites
30. Sponsor local events (for exposure and backlinks)
31. Write a Squidoo lens
32. Publish articles and press releases for exposure and backlinks
33. Get your products on Google Shopping
34. Use trust signals and calls to action on your website
35. Get and utilise reviews and testimonials
Drive traffic to your site
36. Give stuff away (content, advice, run competitions)
37. Feed the press
38. Use email marketing
39. Use add this buttons and share buttons
40. Guest blog on other sites in your niche (this can also give you a couple of new inbound links)
Measure your success
41. Get Google Analytics, understand it " and use it to its full potential
Hopefully this will help any businesses that are new to the world of Internet marketing understand what is required to be successful on the Internet " it is time consuming but rewarding. If you need further information here are some links to relevant tools and articles to get you started:
- SEO " Beginners guide to SEO
- Keyword Research Tool " Adwords Keyword Tool
- Website Grader - Hubspot