Shout Load and Clear for the Search Engines

Shout About Your Website

With Millions of new websites being added to the internet every day it is easy to understand why your little website might get lost in the cloud.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization needs to start with the very basics. Simply launching a new website and expecting search engines (and in turn potential customers) to find your services is unrealistic and simply not going to work. As always with computers (which is all we are talking about here) they do exactly as we tell them. You cannot be subtle about this you need to tell them (search engines) in no uncertain terms, to go and look at your new website, shout it from the roof tops and send up a “Notice Me Flair” about how great your website is.

Search engines like to search and while they often struggle to keep up with the sheer volume of new websites, files and data they do give us the perfect method in which to flag ourselves and make ourselves noticed.

Simply submit your site to the Search Engine, tell it where to go and look and it will. Simple.

Google: http://www.google.com/addurl

Yahoo: http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html

Alta Vista: http://addurl.altavista.com/addurl/default

Bing: http://www.bing.com/webmaster/SubmitSitePage.aspx

A Word of warning:

Submit your website to the search engine by hand only once in any one month, constant submissions will be seen as spam – check with your developer to see if they have done it first before you submit.

And just as a final point most search engine submissions will have a security text request on them. This is so that they know if it is a human or machine request. Be careful of companies that promise to ‘submit your site to all major search engines’, this usually means that they are using an application for submission and rest assured the search engine bots will know so enter them by hand that way you know you have done everything you can to be heard.

Think Marketing Not Advertising

Changing The Way We Think

During my regular trawl through the business forums last week I came across a post from someone who is selling fashion accessories at their local markets and the giving the profits to local charities. They had a really low budget and so they were looking for sources of cheap advertising.

Unfortunately, advertising will often fail to give value for money, especially if it is used in isolation, small quantities or with a limited budget. I wanted to help, so I offered some tips on other marketing and promotion ideas that can yield dividends without costing very much money. An abridged version of my reply is below.

Hi

I think you should consider this from a rounded marketing approach. Don’t just think about advertising, which is probably going to be too expensive for you, think about other methods of promotion that will require time without costing too much.

1. Press Releases.

There are a few free press release websites that you can load press releases to. Also, contact your local paper with interesting things you are doing, new lines of jewellery, other activities. When you have been going 1 year, tell them. You are a charitable organisation, so they are going to be happier to print it than if you were just a new small business. You are clearly a big hearted person who cares for others, doing something other than moaning about your situation, a real can do person. The press will love writing about you.

2. Blogging

Your on the web so set up a free account at blogger.com and start writing about the things you do. Make it personal and interesting. The people you met at the various markets, the new lines of products, how sales are going, are you nearing a target, etc. Once or twice per week if you can. Put the blog address on any offline marketing you do (leaflets, cards, press releases, etc)

3. Twitter

So if you are blogging then try micro blogging. Set up a free account. Follow a few people who are interested in jewellery (search twitter for those users) and then try to write a few tweets of your own. Be upbeat and amusing. Tweet a few times per day if you can. People will start to follow you.

4. Facebook

Again, its free. Set up an account and start a fan page. You can upload photos of your designs and get feedback on them. Also you can profile the charities that you are helping. Every time an amount of money goes to a charity, find out what it does, then let people know.

5. Recognition

There may be awards in your area and nationally that you could win. Business people pat themselves on the back all the time. There may be something like the Pride of Britain awards in your area. I am sure that someone knows about the great job you do and if you were nominated for a local hero award then you could raise your profile and sell more jewellery and do even more good.

6. Personal Representation

Try to put yourself in front of as many people as possible. On days that there is no market you might want to try contacting local organisations either on the phone or in person. You could try to sell directly to the people you talk to or ask if you could have a small table with samples that you could sell during lunch time or at home time. Again, make a point of letting them know that this is charitable work, they are more likely to allow it. Maybe business centres with a lobby area or larger organisations with plenty of staff could be good locations.

All my ideas are designed to be cheap or free and generate buzz around your business. The more people talk about your business and how great your products are and what a great job you do for charity the orders will start to come in.

I really do wish you all the best of luck with this. Let me know if I can be of any further help.

Phil

You can read the full post thread at the UK Business Forums,  http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=1142952#post1142952

If Aileen gets in touch to say how things are going then I add it to my blog.

DRIVE YOUR WAY TO A SUCCESSFUL WEBSITE

Drive yourself to a sucessful website

In the year 2010 most of us have come to the same conclusion that marketing has changed and success only really comes to those that position themselves apart from the rest move with the time and stay on top of their game.

Some companies are quiet happy sticking to the traditional methods of marketing that they have always used, and that’s fine, but now is the time to give you that competitive edge and really stride out ahead.

By using current and flexible marketing technology practices, such as e-mail marketing, social media and mobile marketing to drive traffic to your SEO (Search Engine Optimised) website you will soon see the ROI when an increase in website visits turn from “never visited website before” to “Just looking” and finally onto “ready to buy.”

Don’t make your users work too hard to find you

Very simple but often overlooked. Your website should be working for you constantly and if it’s not you need to consider why not? Think about the content of your website, think about how you can generate buzz about products and services displayed on your pages. Put into place your search engine strategy and don’t lose sight of your end goal … engage your visitors, generate interest and convert that interest into revenue.

Today’s web market place is made up of a variety of tools (categorized into Social marketing) e.g. email Marketing, twitter, facebook, alone press releases etc and are in the main free to use and in part your path to a successful online presence.

In simple terms the link between you, your customers and potential customers is the search engines and you need to shine big and bright.

Generate a website that is clear to navigate, full of factual and easy to find information about your services and products and then shout about it from the roof tops.

Striving to get to the top of Google isn’t a bad goal but get the basics put in place first and remember that measuring progress is one of the most important parts of your search engine strategy.

Four Tips to get you Started

  • Know your market place and where you are going to position yourself in it.
  • Follow best SEO and SEF practices
  • Create your search engine strategy
  • Measure, Measure, Measure with something like Google Analytics

Subscribe to our online marketing newsletter and we’ll send you the very latest tips and tricks to help you with more exposure on the web with less exposure of your wallet.

Cyber War Declared on Penguin News Website

Numerous news sources are reporting that the Penguin News Website has a new design. The website was attacked by Argentinian hackers who put a new website design of the Argentinian flag on the home page with their national anthem playing. The Faulkland Island newspaper has a circulation of about 1500 so would seem to be pretty easy prey and wouldn’t normally raise more than an ironic smirk from the Argantians or an eyebrow from the British. But with tensions rising over oil rights in the region and The Sun Newspaper raising a lather this is bound to become more than a one day story.

The content has now been removed and the original website design has been restored. Will this be the end of it or will this froth up into sabre rattling or worse? 

Reward Offered to Catch Fly Tippers at Cannock Chase Beauty Spot

Selfish fly tippers are ruining an area of natural beauty at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire. The situation is so bad that a reward is being offered to help catch those responsible after water tanks and other plumbing materials where being dumped by the side of the road for the fourth time in six weeks in Norton Lane, between Cannock and Norton Canes.

Many people from Stafford and Cannock and the surrounding area of Staffordshire enjoy the beautiful country side and this is being put in jeopardy. Covert surveillance is now being used in an attempt to catch the culprits but the public’s help is needed. Councillor Tony Williams has said “Cannock Chase Council has a zero tolerance attitude in the battle against fly tippers and we will always prosecute where there is sufficient evidence.”
Fly tipping can be reported with time and date of the incident, location, description of waste, vehicle registration, and a description of the fly tippers on 01543 462621 or visit http://www.cannockchasedc.gov.uk/site/index.php A reward of £100 is on offer for information which then leads to successful prosecution.

Rake Mark Launch Business Facebook Page

In line with our Social Media blogging focus for 2010, Rake Mark have launched a New Business Facebook Page. This will be used to keep you updated on company activities, new articles (both news and blogs), new products and information that will help guide you through the process of the change in your marketing mix.

From here you can participate in discussions, comment on posts and we are also inviting you to ask questions (which we will happlily answer for you online)

To follow our business pages please Become a fan here