USA Marketing Associates Blog

Build A Website and They Will Come!

January 24th, 2010

The 1989 movie Field of Dreams was a fantasy that used the phrase “If you build it, he will come!” which is sometimes misquoted as “If you build it, they will come.” In the movie, Kevin Costner built a baseball field because he thought that “Shoeless” Joe Jackson would return and once again play baseball in the field.

If you build a website will visitors come to your site? If you believe they will just because you have a website, then you, like the movie, are living a fantasy.

Today it takes more than just having a website to get visitors (potential customers) to come to your site.

You wouldn’t design a brochure or catalog and not mail it out to potential customers would you? No, of course not! Unfortunately, most website owners are doing just that with their site. They are not taking the proper steps to promote (market) their website and therefore are not getting the traffic they should.

Today, the Internet (specifically search engines) is the number one source that individuals use to look for products and services, even for local sources. Without properly promoting your website, you will be sitting in the stands waiting for the game to start.

So, what do you do? The following list gives some of the best proven ways to get significant, quality traffic to your website of potential customers looking for your products or services.

Search Engine Optimization

Writing Blog Articles

Submitting Articles to Article Websites

Using Social Media

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

The primary goal of a well established plan to promote (market) your website is to get your website listed high in the search engine results. Not just for the name of your company, but for keyword/phrases that potential customers would search on when looking for your products or services.

This goal holds true whether you sell nationally or locally. With the search engines being the number one place individuals go to search for products or services; don’t you want your website to show up high in the search engines or do you want a “Website of Dreams?.”

Where do you start to promote your website? Most website owners lack the knowledge of how to properly promote their site, so the best staring point is to find an Internet Marketing company that has the experience to guide you.

If you are interested in learning more about the best ways to promote your website and generate traffic, please contact us today at USA Marketing Associates. 508-223-3653 or jconant@usamarketingassociates.com

Tags: Pay-Per-Click Advertising, search engine optimization, Social Media, Writing Blog Articles
Posted in Internet Marketing | No Comments »

Social Media Marketing and Other Sites Now Ranking High On Google

January 19th, 2010

Achieving high rankings in Google’s search results is getting more difficult as more non-traditional websites are now being spidered and indexed. If you are seeing your search engine rankings on Google slowly dropping, it’s most likely not you, it’s Google! Here’s why.

You might have noticed recently that Google’s search results are listing pages from sources other than traditional business websites. It’s certain that Google is now taking a big interest in ranking, within their search results, with more unique information. It most likely started when Google purchased YouTube three years ago and started listing video from YouTube in their search results related to the specific keyword/phrases being used for the search.

With videos being hotter than the SUN as far as search popularity is concerned, Google made a very good choice in their purchase of YouTube. So what does that mean for individuals searching on Google? The first clue is that search results are showing small jpeg graphics of videos Google believes are relevant to the search. If an individual thinks the video would be of interest, they now can click on the link and view the video on their computer.

However, what Google is now displaying in their search results doesn’t just include YouTube. We are now seeing listings from LinkedIn, FaceBook, Wikipedia, MySpace, EzineArticles, Scribd, Flickr, Search Directories, and Twitter to name just a few. Yes, even Twitter is showing up on the first page of Google’s search results.

This is both Good news and Bad news for website owners trying to obtain high rankings! The Bad news is your previous high rankings in the search results might get pushed down to the second or third page. The Good news is you can regain your rankings by taking advantage of all of the Social Media sites. In fact, it is possible to obtain several listings on the first page of Google’s search results by providing good content to the Social Media, Article, Directory websites and good optimized pages on your site.

So if you are not using LinkedIn, FaceBook, MySpace, EzineArticles, Scribd, Flickr, Search Directories, and Twitter, you should. And the best news is they cost nothing to use.

If you are using FaceBook, LinkedIn, and other Social Media websites for personal use, create new accounts for business “only” use.

Realizing high rankings on Google and other search engines using Social Media and other sites, will require that your content be of high quality, and relate specifically to the keyword/phrase or phrases for your business.

If your business sells “home gardening supplies” as an example, you will want your content to be written for this topic (keyword/phrase). Make sure you use the keyword/phrase in the title of your content, whether you are describing your business in your LinkedIn profile or if you are writing an article and submitting it to an article website.

One thing you should remember is that your Social Media site listings on Google and other search engines will not give you direct links to your website. Someone clicking on one of these listings will need to go from the Social Media site to your website with another click or two. The primary way to get potential customers directly to your website is with optimized web pages. The next best thing is all of the free Social Media sites that will help you generate more visitors to your website.

Tags: Facebook, LinkedIn, Search Directories, Social Media, YouTube
Posted in Social Media | No Comments »

Is Your Website Invisible on Search Engines?

October 3rd, 2009

Many website owners believe that once their website is designed and posted on the Internet everyone will be able to see it (find it). Unfortunately, this is not always true! Many times the website is invisible for most individuals searching the Internet. Is your website invisible? Let me show you how to check to make sure it is visible, and if it isn’t visible, how to help make it visible.

Visibility Test #1

Go to each of these search engines (Google, Ask, Yahoo, Bing, and Netscape) and search using your company or website name. You should find it listed high in the organic search results on all of the major search engines. If your company website doesn’t show up within the first few listings in the organic search results you have a major problem.

Visibility Test #2

The second test is to search using the same five search engines, but search using phrase(s) that relate to the products or services that you sell. As an example, if you own a landscaping service in Boston, search using phrases like “Landscaping Services Boston” or Boston Landscaping Services”. What was the result of your search using your keyword/phrases? Did your company website show up within first 10-20 organic search results for those or other keyword/phrases that relate to your products or services? If it didn’t than for all intents and purposes your website is INVISIBLE.

Summary

If you show up high in the search results when using your company or website name, that great! But this will only help you if potential customers know the name of your business or website. But what about all of the other potential customers that don’t know you, how will they find you on the search engines?

Potential customers will use keyword/phrases to find your business. This means that anyone who is searching for your products or services using keyword/phrases like “Landscaping Services Boston” or Boston Landscaping Services” as an example, may not be able to find your web site. “No visibility on the search engines means no sales.”

Make You Website Visible!

The first step to make your website visible is to submit your website to all of the major search engines and directories. Start with the five search engines listed above and also include any other popular search engines that you know. Also, submit your website to DMOZ (www.dmoz.org) the leading search directory. This is very important since many search engines use DMOZ’s listings to find new websites for their database. To get a quick start on getting your site listed on search engines, place a link to your website on a business associates’ website that is already listed on the major search engines. This will speed the process of getting the search engines to find your website. This is very important for new websites.

The second step is writing good content. Content is king in regards to getting your most important website pages ranked high in the search engine results. Search engines do not use colors, graphics, photos, videos, or banners on your website when they rank pages. Search engines want to see good content specifically related to the theme or topic of a page.

What is the optimal amount of content to get a web page to rank high on search engines? There is no perfect answer for this question, as each search engine has their own formula for ranking web pages. But be sure of two things: if your website is not listed on the search engines you won’t be found, and if you don’t have good content, only the people that know the name of your company or website address will be able to find you.

If you still can’t obtain high search engine rankings for the keyword/phrases related to your business that potential customers would used to search the search engines, what should you do? You should seek the help of an Internet Marketing company that has professional experience in creating web pages with powerful content that will get ranked high in the search engine’s rankings.

Tags: Bing, Goolge, Internet Marketing, search engines
Posted in Internet Marketing | 44 Comments »

Pay-Per-Click or Search Engine Optimization?

September 7th, 2009

I’m often asked which is the best method of getting quality visitors to a website; is it Pay-Per-Click or Search Engine Optimization? Without taking into consideration many other techniques that generate high quality visitors for a website, let me address the PPC vs. SEO question.

Before getting into this, let me start by saying, that for most business owners with a website, their first question should not be PPC or SEO, but what do they want to happen when someone visits their website. Does the website owner sell products? If so, are they simple products that can be purchased online with a credit card, with minimal product information, and just the need to answer basic questions using a FAQ page? Or are the products more expensive and complicated, potentially requiring a phone call or possibly a visit from a sales person? The same types of questions need to be answered for service businesses as well.

For low cost products that are very competitive, meaning there are lots of websites that sell similar products, PPC may be too expensive on a per click basis. As an example, the keyword/phrase “replacement ink cartridges” has lots of bid competition on Google (over 100 PPC advertisers). One click on a popular PPC keyword/phrase like “replacement ink cartridges” on Google will cost the PPC advertiser $3-$5 or more.

If you are selling a $15 ink cartridge your cost of sale would range from 20-30% if you are paying $3-$5 per click. (That is if 100% of everyone that clicked, purchased.) If 5 visitors land on your site from PPCs and only one purchased (a conversion rate of 1:5) you will lose money by spending $15 to $25 for that traffic. That is not to say that repeat orders and multiple cartridge purchases wouldn’t help, but it might take you months to find out that PPC won’t give you the sales you want at a reasonable cost of sale.

Don’t give up on PPC just yet. I suggest that if you can purchase PPC traffic from Google and other engines, for less popular (less expensive) keyword/phrases related to your products, you should do so. Then test to see if your conversion rate per sale is acceptable. If it takes 8 clicks at $0.25 per click or $2.00 total to obtain a purchase of one ink cartridge at $15, (a conversion rate of 1:8), your cost of sale would be just 13.3%. That’s far better than losing money with more expensive clicks. If your PPC bids are lower, you will most likely get fewer clicks, but with your conversion rate staying the same, you will lower your cost of sale.

I’m not anti-PPC; they do have a place in almost anyone’s marketing mix to maximize market reach while holding down cost. The key to PPC is to test, test, and test!

However, most users of search engines know that when they see the words “Sponsored Links” or “Sponsored Results” they are looking at a list of paid advertisements and not real search results. Most searchers click on the real search results, the “Organic Search” results, instead of the PPC “Sponsored Links” or “Sponsored Results” listings.

On the other hand, one professionally written and crafted, optimized SEO web page on your site that gets listed high in the search results on Google and other major search engines, can generate 100’s to 1000’s of visitors to your website. That result would have cost $300 to $5,000 if you went with PPC. If you have deep pockets like large companies then go ahead and spend your money on PPC.

If you have a professionally written SEO page created for you, it will appear high in the search results on all major search engines not just Google, but MSN, Yahoo, AOL, Netscape, ASK and others. When utilizing SEO pages it doesn’t matter if someone clicks on the search engine link for a page 100 times or 10,000 times, you get all of the traffic without paying anything to the search engines.

What is the answer to the question of which is better, PPC or SEO? The answer is; there is no best one. My recommendation for all clients is that they need to use a mix of PPC and SEO. Use PPC for the low cost keyword/phrases and SEO when the cost for PPC is greater than $0.50 per click. If a keyword/phrase is likely to get 100 or more clicks per month at $0.50 per click, your monthly cost will be $50 per month. Multiply that times 10 keyword/phrases and you will be paying Google or other PPC engines $500 per month or $6,000 per year. Ouch!

Tags: Google AdWords, optimization, pay-per-click, PPC, search engine optimization, SEO
Posted in Internet Marketing | 19 Comments »

Meta Tags Generate More Visitors and Sales

August 21st, 2009

Not many of us know what Meta Tags are and how they relate to our website. Meta Tags are a set of coding tags on a website that contain important information about the website and its content.

If you want more visitors to your website, you need quality Meta Tags or your competition will be getting your business.

There are many kinds of Meta Tags. However, for a website there are a few which are extremely important when it comes to how search engines rank and display a website in the search results. Without proper Meta Tags, a website listing on the search engine’s results can be so confusing or irrelevant that someone looking for your product or service will not click on your search engine listing.

A recent search on Yahoo using the words “Spring Candy” provides an excellent example of what happens to a website’s listing when no Meta Tags are used.

EXAMPLE #1

Welcome to springcreekcandy.com

www.springcreekcandy.com – 4k – Cached

Example #1 used a Title Tag <title>Welcome to springcreekcandy.com</title> but didn’t use a Meta Description Tag. Without a Meta Description Tag the search engines read the website page and take whatever readable content is available. The only readable data the search engine found and displayed was located at the very bottom of the website.

If you were searching for a good website that sold spring candy, would you click on that link? Most likely you would not, and would continue looking at other listings in the search results to click on.

The next listing on the page was one that used proper Meta Tags.

EXAMPLE #2

Palm Springs Candy Company – Home

Palm Springs Candy is made completely by hand using the founder’s original recipes. … known as the ‘FUN IN THE SUN CANDIES’, we continue to specialize in the finest …

www.palmspringscandyco.com – 8k – Cached

The Example #2 website used a Title Tag: <title>Palm Springs Candy Company – Home</title> and also used a Meta Description Tag: <META Name=”description” Content=”Palm Springs Candy is made completely by hand using the founder’s original recipes. Our bakers continue the tradition of quality using only fresh creamy butter, the finest imported fruits, and rich dairy cream and roasted nuts. We invite you to taste the tradition – Palm Springs Candy Company simply the best.”>

The search engine used both the Title Tag and the Meta Description Tag information to create the search listing shown above. The search engine also read the page and added the second sentence of content to the listing.

Now when you compare the two search examples listed above, which of the two listings do you think potential customers would click on? The second listing is far superior in it description, thereby generating a lot more site visitors and more sales for the Palm Springs Candy Company.

So, does your website have the right META TAGS?

Tags: Internet Marketing, Meta tags, web help
Posted in Internet Marketing | 15 Comments »

Articles, Videos and Social Websites Oh My!

August 21st, 2009

Recently, I spent two days checking out some of the more popular Social, Article Submission and Video Submission websites like Facebook.com, Youtube.com, Metacafe.com, Scribd.com, PR.com and others.

You might think I have a lot of free time on my hands to be checking on these types of websites, rather than the typical marketing websites that I usually review.

We all spend some time looking around the Internet to find new, interesting, or funny websites. But my review of over 100 websites wasn’t for fun. You see, recently I came across an interesting article that talked about using Social, Article Submission and Video Submission websites for marketing purposes. Yes, Marketing!

I knew there had to be a connection between theses types of websites and getting improved rankings on the search engines for my websites. I also thought there might be away to use these types of websites to actually direct potential clients to my website.

Through my review of these websites, I found out that search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN and others are now using content they find on these websites in their search results. What’s so good about that? Well, if you write a 300-700 word article on a topic related to your business, you can submit it to an Article Submission website like ezinearticles.com

When your article gets listed in the directory of the Article Submission website, the search engines will find your article, and will rank that page in their search results. Your article acts as an advertisement promoting your knowledge of the topic you wrote about. With a link in your article that points to your website, you will get more visitors to your website.

The same holds true for Video Submission websites like Youtube.com and Bebo.com when you upload a video to one of these sites. For a simple video; record yourself reading the 300-700 word article that you wrote. Add some graphics and you’ve got your first business video.

Social websites like Myspace.com, Facebook.com and others are great places to build an online network of business owners with products or services that are not competitive but synergistic with yours.

These websites can be a good source for referral business. There is a lot to learn about how to use these sites for marketing, and my best suggestion is go slowly and learn the ropes first. You certainly want to make your best impression using this type of media.

I almost forgot to mention that with many of these Social websites you can upload articles and video.

There is another type of Social website that is more for business. Linkedin.com, Fastpitchnetwork.com and Xing.com are growing fast in popularity will business owners.

These sites are excellent for building up a network of other business owners willing to network with you and exchange referrals. On some of them you can post press releases, submit business events, add your Blog, search for businesses and services and a lot more.

If you decide to join any of the above websites that I’ve talked about you need to carefully read their rules and regulations as to what is and what isn’t permitted.

So the next time you have some free time and want to learn about the next level of Internet marketing you should checkout these Social, Article Submission and Video Submission websites. I did and I’m already seeing the results with more visitors to my site.

Posted in Internet Marketing | 17 Comments »

Generate More Business by Networking Online!

July 24th, 2009

blitzlogo

I’m usually up on most new Internet ways to help my clients market their products and services, but I initially missed this one.

Would you like to network (meet one to one) with potential customers without leaving your office? Well now you can. And best of all, you can try it out 2 times for FREE!

How do you do this?

You do it on BlitzTime! What is BlitzTime? It is an online “LIVE” networking website that allows you to participate in five minute conversations with 12 different people in one hour.

One of the great things about BlitzTime is that before you begin networking, you can select who you want to speak with and who you don’t. As an example, if you sell business insurance to larger companies, you can just select the networkers on a BlitzTime event that you think best match your sales market. You can also select from the list of participating networkers, those that might be a good referral source for you.

How do you select from the list of networks for a specific event? Simple! About 15 minutes before the networking event starts, login and select the event that you have registered for. Next, click on each of the participants who have signed up for the networking event and read their information to see if they are a match for you. Then select if you want to speak with them or not.

Check out the Big Boston Blitz #5 event this Wednesday at 5:30 PM, it has lots of local people!

I’m getting ahead of myself here, so let me slow down and show you how to sign up for two FREE online “LIVE” networking events.

Click here BlitzTime.
Click on the link Register at the top of the page
Fill out the registration form (don’t forget to write down your password)
Click on My Profile
Fill out your profile information
Click on an event that looks like a good match for you
Click on the “Click here to Register for this Event” button

I hope to see you on BlitzTime!

Tags: networkers, networking, online networking
Posted in Internet Marketing | 16 Comments »

The 2009 Fight for New Business

July 24th, 2009

Are you going to fight for new business in 2009, or are you going to sit on the sidelines and watch your competition get more business than you? If you are a fighter, you should find this article of special interest.

No one exactly knows what is going to happen in 2009. However, you will most likely not generate the same amount of business that you did in 2008. Times are tough for most everyone, but the ones who are ready to fight for new business will grow or maintain their sales, while the ones watching and worrying will lose!

I don’t have a crystal ball to forecast the future, but I’m sure that your existing clients will purchase less of your products or services in 2009. Unfortunately, some of us will lose clients during the year despite our quality products and services.

So what are you going to do in 2009? Are you going to cut your advertising and marketing budget as a way to save money? If so, you are making one of the classic marketing mistakes that businesses often make in tough economic times. Research has shown that those businesses that change, maintain or expand their advertising and marketing efforts recover faster, maintain their growth and find new customers ready and willing to buy now.

Older Marketing Techniques Just Don’t Work As Well Anymore

If you are advertising and marketing using the same techniques that you have in the past, you might want to look at modifying your budget to include new methods that allow potential clients to find you. Why would you modify your advertising plan for 2009? Here are a few reasons.

Less people will be purchasing newspapers and magazines, which means less exposure if you are a print advertiser. Direct mail marketing expenses will be going up in 2009 with changes to the postal requirements for direct mail and a pending increase in postage rates. This means your costs will go up, and your reach will go down. Yellow Pages and other traditional forms of advertising will not work as well as they have in the past.

You don’t think this is true? In our office complex there are eight businesses. Each time the phone books are delivered only one of the eight takes their phone book. The other seven copies sit under the mail boxes until someone picks them up and throws them in the dumpster. The primary reason for this is more and more potential customers are using the Internet (Search Engines) as their first source to find products and services.

Do you want to know where the fight for business will take place?

The fight for new business will take place on the Internet in 2009 and beyond. If you are still sitting on the sidelines to see if the Internet is the place to be, you are about to lose your chance to take advantage of the most cost effective media available. According to eMarketing $24 Billion dollars will be spent on Online Advertising in 2009. You don’t think for a minute that businesses are spending billions of dollars just because advertising on the Internet is cool? The two main reasons why businesses are using Internet advertising is that it works and there is 100% accountability for each dollar spent.

There are many types of Internet advertising that can be used by you in 2009 to generate more sales. And the best news; most of the advertising is less expensive than traditional forms of advertising and has a higher market reach. So are you going to be a fighter 2009?

Don’t know where to start finding out what new Internet advertising techniques are available?

If you would like to begin saving money and generating more sales in economic hard times, we can help. Contact us today for a FREE One Hour (no obligation) review of your current advertising programs and learn about the new cost effective techniques that are being used by successful businesses today.

Tags: Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimizatin
Posted in Internet Marketing | 3 Comments »

Avid Fisherman Uses His Techniques to Catch Customers

July 24th, 2009

As I was day dreaming about fishing the other day it came to me that finding new customers is a lot like fishing. Let me tell you a short story before I continue.

I went fishing on Saturday to a local pond. I put bait on his hook and cast in my line out. I waited for several hours and didn’t get a bite. So I packed up my pole and equipment and went home. I wondered what went wrong. So I he went back the next day and tried again without success. On the third day I tried again. The fish could not wait to be caught on that day. The difference was the fish weren’t hungry (they weren’t ready) the first two days but on the third they were waiting for food.

Now let’s talk about traditional advertising like print ads in the newspaper or direct mail marketing.

Are your customers ready to purchase your product or service when the newspaper arrives or when they receive your direct mail flyer? In most cases they are not. So, like the fisherman, you decided to repeat the advertisement or send out your direct mail flyer again. Maybe you have a little success, so your run your advertisement a third time or send out your direct mail flyers again. Now you start to see some success. But what did it cost you to get the response that you obtained from your multiple attempts?

Fishing for customers when they are not ready to buy is very expensive. So why not fish for customers only on the days they are ready to buy (hungry) for what you have to offer. That would be great. I would like to know on what days the fish are going to be biting. So what do you do in regards to your advertising? The answer is: find a low cost way to have your advertisement available when the fish – sorry – clients are looking for what you have to offer.

What is the low cost advertising answer? It’s the Internet!

You can have a presence on the Internet 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year so when someone is searching for what you have to offer your advertisement is there waiting for them. It would be like having someone fish for you around the clock, ready to catch fish when they are hungry.

So what is this low cost way to make this happen?

It’s in the listings that you can (should) have in the search results on all of the major search engines. “I don’t mean when someone searches using your company name and your listing shows up in the search results.” I mean you need to have your company’s listings show up in the search results for exactly the products or services you offer. Here are some examples.

If you sell “reconditioned furniture” you will want your website to show up high in the search results anytime that anyone using a search engine is searching for a supplier of [reconditioned furniture]. If you do it right, your listing will show up no matter what time of day or day of the week. It will be ready when the fish – Oops I did it again, customers are ready and looking.

This applies to local searches as well. Let’s say that you have a landscaping business in Foxboro, Massachusetts. You will want your website to show up high in the search engine results when someone searches using the phrase “Foxboro landscaping services”. You might want your landscaping services to show up for other towns that you provide service in. This is all possible if you consider using the latest low cost techniques of Internet Marketing.

So is your website ready to go fishing on the Internet?

Don’t know where to start finding out what new Internet advertising and marketing techniques are available?

Call or email Jim Conant today at 508-223-3653 (jconant@usamarketingassociates.com)

Tags: Internet Marketing, low cost advertising
Posted in Internet Marketing | 3 Comments »

Search

Categories

Pages