If you want to turn your website into a Marketing Tool these are questions that you need to be addressing, but before you do that it’s important that you gain some understanding of how the Internet works.
Imagine a huge spider crawling through out the Internet; its job is to determine what each website is all about and which are the most important. After a while this spider figures out that with over 300 billion websites he’s going to have to organize them in some manner. He decides to create categories; Financial, Medical, Shopping, etc. The spider looks for keywords, examines the site title, it’s description and its page content.
Once he gets his 300 million sites categorized he has to come up with a system of determining which of the sites in each category are the most important to the category and to the Internet overall. So he decides to give a site points for other sites linking back to it, more points for having other sites referring back to it in its content, and more points if the content on the original is updated on a regular basis thus keeping current on the subject matter of the category.
Those sites with the current content, and most relevant back links are then ranked highest and appear highest in search. That’s a simple explanation of how Internet search works.
If you build a beautiful website to promote your business and it’s not appearing on the first page of search, it’s like building a beautiful billboard and keeping it in your basement.
To find out where your website is living, type your business and location in your search bar (Orthodontist Omaha), just like someone who needed your services would do. There are usually ten listings on each page; are you on the first page? Now ask yourself, when you’re searching how deep do you go? If you’re not on the first page 80% of the searchers will not find you.
If you’re an Orthodontist in Omaha there were 1290 searches last month that you could be just what the searcher was looking for; that’s over 15,000 information searchers a year. How important to your business is it that you’re on the first page? You could pay for one of those “Sponsored Ads” on the top and right hand side of the page, which would put you on the top.
Did you see that map on the top of the page with pinpoints showing where your competitions offices are located; are you in that picture?
Do you currently know how many visitors come to your website each day and how they found you and how long they stayed? If someone does come to your website is it easy for them to get information from you? You know, get on your newsletter mailing list, or sign up for your next seminar; or do you offer anything like that on your website? Have you considered using your website to market your business?
If you could hire or train an employee to get you to the top of the page and keep you there, as well as help you turn your website into a marketing tool what would you be willing to pay them a year?
It’s all about Return on Investment (ROI); what is a new client or patient worth to you a year? How many new clients would your website have to bring on to justify a full time employee? Would you be better hiring a professional to do the work for you?
It’s easy to find out how many searches there were last month for your profession in your city, and a professional in the field of Search Engine Optimization can help you get your website to the top of the page. Today you’re probably going to find national companies, local listings, and general information site competing for first page positions. It’s not hard to displace them on a local level. If you do find one of your competitors up there you’re behind in the fastest growing segment of business marketing. Check their Google Page Ranking if it’s 5 or above you’ve got a steep hill to climb, if it’s 2 or below you can challenge them in short order.
As you’re a professional in your field you need a professional if you want to add Internet Marketing as an effective tool to market your business. Building a website is step one, build traffic to your website is step two, converting that traffic into prospect is step three, and converting those prospects into client is step four.
If you'd like to learn how I built a product and marketed it over the internet, I writing a blog on how I wrote, illustrated, manufactured and marketed a children's book, The Christmas Web - A Family Tradition.
Kerry Grinkmeyer founded BestofUS.com a web listing of the best of ten professions in the United States. He works with his listed professional to assist them in marketing their business over the Internet. You can apply to be listed on BestofUS.com at Apply To Be Listed
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