I try to make it a point to let anyone I am dealing with know that a website design is only one part of the puzzle. You can have the best looking website in the world, with the best content in the world but that doesn’t mean your website is going to show up in the search engines. And let’s keep in mind that getting a website to show up in the search engines doesn’t mean anything.

If your website only shows up in the search engine for its name, chances are nobody is ever going to find it unless it is a well-known name. And once again, content counts for about 5 percent of a websites ranking. The links pointing to that website, from other websites, is what’s going to boost the ranking of a website.

It’s simple enough to submit a website to the search engines, throw a couple links at it and get it showing up for its own name. However, getting that website to show up for keywords that are actually going to bring traffic that will convert to dollars is a whole new project.

www.successrei.com Real Estate Investor websites for marketing your business. Part 3 in how to create your own real estate investing website.

Many contractors may not realize the importance of having their business branded on the Internet just like they do on a business card. What’s the difference of creating a website versus marketing a website? Learn from an industry expert the basics of creating a website as well how best to market it for maximum exposure and return on investment.

Mostly everyone online is trying to learn how to start marketing their websites. Marketing websites can seem like a very tough thing to do. Many people have no clue how to market their websites. I think one of the main reasons people have trouble marketing their websites is because of the lack of the right information online currently.Many people are sadly misinformed about how to market their websites correctly. Many people are using marketing techniques which are highly ineffective and may end costing tons of money. Many people trying to make money online are duplicating failure. Many people are heavily marketing to classified ads, FFA’s, and other places which do not work at all. I will go over a couple of techniques to effectively start marketing your websites.

First you must decide if you are going to start marketing your websites online or offline. Both ways can be very effective and I would suggest using both. Offline marketing can tend to be a little more costly, so you will need some money to effectively start marketing your websites. One way to market your website offline is to buy drop cards. Drop cards are effective because you can drop them practically anywhere. Making a trip to the supermarket, drop a card. Making a trip to the bank, drop a card. Simple. Another way to effectively market offline is to buy ad space in major newspapers and major magazines. This can be very pricey, but it is also very effective. Offline marketing is often ignored but I would not suggest it. Offline marketing can be a powerful way for you to market your websites.

Online marketing can actually be very simple. In order for you to start marketing your websites effectively, you must be consistent and work these techniques daily. For instance writing articles and press releases can be a very effective, but you must write consistently. If you do not write consistently using articles and press releases to market your websites will not work. Writing one or two articles a month will not bring you the type of traffic you are looking for. In order to be truly effective with articles and press releases you must at least write one or two a week. The great thing about writing articles and press releases is it is completely free. You can write as many articles and press releases as you want and they will bring you great results. Remember the key to writing articles and press releases is to write them consistently. Another way to effectively market your website online is to post useful comments on forums and be sure to add your signature with your link.

The key to marketing your websites effectively is to be consistent in your marketing techniques. Any marketer worth his weight knows you must market on a daily basis in order to be fully effective. It takes at least 7 exposures for the average person to purchase something. When marketing your website being consistent is the name of the game.

So let’s take a look at some of the most common mistakes done when a small business takes their business online.

 

Order of links

So many times you visit a small business website and they proudly flag the “about us” link as their first link. This is called the pride link because they often think that telling people about the company is the most important thing. The links should be in order of importance. Not in the order of the business owners EGO! If you use a website designer and he does consult you on the order of links, chances are you should be using someone else or at least make sure you educate yourself about online marketing because your website designer sure hasn’t!

 

No focus

Most small business websites lack focus. When you enter you are not sure where to go next which makes it hard for the user to understand exactly what he is supposed to do. The website should flow and the user should be able to make sense of the site within a few seconds of opening it up.

 

No sale / No lead setup

Many small businesses do not use their website to increase sales directly or capture leads. It is nothing more than an online brochure or business card. Sometimes the information is more confusing than it is helpful. If you competitors site is easier to navigate and captures either the sale or lead, you just lost a client. A small business websites needs to be even more on top of catching leads than a corporate website because every client lost counts more!

 

No analytics

Most small business websites have no clue what people do when they enter their site. No clue what users are really looking at and where they are loosing their potential sale or lead. If customers just walked in and out of their place of work eyebrows would be raised and something would be done. Shouldn’t the same thought process apply to the site? You need to know what is going on with your small business website and what users are doing.

 

No marketing purpose

This is the biggest “Whammy” of them all. Small business websites tend to fail seeing the potential of using the website as a complete marketing tool. The fundamental reason to take a business online would be to do marketing. The lack of marketing vision explains the mistakes from above. If just this single piece was in place when a small business builds their website, many of the other things would be solved because they would educate themselves about what it means to have a marketing tool!

 

No results!

This is no surprise considering everything above. If there is no purpose, no focus, no vision and no marketing thought behind the site then there are probably no results from the site either. What is even worse is that most small business websites do not even measure results or understand how to measure results from their site. Once again it is a lack of understanding more than anything!

 

So what can a small business do when they are ready to take their business online and setup their small business website? The most important thing is to educate themselves in a few areas. The most important ones being, what you need to consider before building or having someone build your website. How to use the website as a marketing tool and it would be extremely beneficial to you if you at least had some understanding of what SEO is and how it works. What is the difference between a website designer, website developer and an online marketing company? All of them do different things and have a different understanding of how to use the internet; the question is what purpose is your website supposed to serve? For most it should be a marketing tool, because the internet is the most effective marketing tool available!

 

If you own, operate, manage or you are starting up a small business then we suggest that you take a look at the 10make90: Get your website up right. (Can be found on www.10thatmake90.com). It is a great resource for small businesses looking to build a website and take the step online. You can find all the basic information you need to know before taking that step and taking your business online. Make sure that you are utilizing the power of the internet fully as a small business. The rate of businesses that fail is high enough; at least make sure your business is getting all the leads and sales that it can be getting. Don’t make the same mistakes that others are doing, it takes so little effort for you as a small business owner to avoid those common mistakes!