All you really need to know about internet marketing for beginners.

Part 2

If you missed part one you can find it by clicking here.
We previously compared internet marketing to a can of drink. We previously covered off the ‘looking good’ element of the analogy, so this section is on the ‘taste good’ element.

So what do we mean by ‘taste good’? Well this has to do with SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). This is the process of optimising your website to affect its visibility within search engine results, essentially making your webpage appear higher/or more frequently in the page results. SEO can affect different areas of a search engine from image search, local search, academic search, video search and so on. There are now a lot more areas to consider than just traditional text searching.
As you can imagine, SEO is an incredibly important pillar in the Internet marketing scaffold, and therefore has to be dealt with if you want to get the best out of your internet marketing. The amount of time it can take to deal with SEO can sometimes be extensive and requires you to keep up to date with the process to ensure you are not left behind on important changes.

SEO involves everything from the technical optimisation of a site to link building and driving visitors. When trying to get to the top of search engine results you need to consider what keywords you should be aiming for. These keywords can be anything but some rules have to be considered:

Service or product - This might be quite obvious but what you need to do is consider what your business does. For example if you have an estate agents you want to be considering particular keywords which someone will search for in Google like “selling property, residential property, buying residential property” etc.

Location – Identify your business location and the area you wish to aim for to produce business. This is because identifying a specific locations (or locations) allows the ability to gain page ranking slightly more quickly than generic terms.  If you search for keywords like “Clothing”, “Shopping” and wide ranging keywords you will find that massive companies, firms and king retailers will appear in the highest ranking slots of a search engine. The technique we suggest you use is localised keywords that help filter other businesses from having the high rankings.

Example:
Competitors – A great way to identify what keywords you want is to look at a competitor’s site and identify what they are aiming for. This allows you to compete against them and identify what you need to do to gain higher rankings. Looking at competitors keywords allows you to adapt them and find others that may cover additional market space.

Amount – This needs to be taken into account how many keywords do you want to cover? Having too many keywords won’t allow you to focus on them enough, and this will affect the overall outcome of the page results, meaning it takes longer to generate results. This isn’t the end of the world, but needs to be considered when setting your expectations.

There are even more parts of a website that get the best out of SEO, like Link Building which is the process of creating links to the site via particular techniques. Once these techniques have been implemented then there should be a steady stream of visitors coming to the site from other areas of the web which are related to your business. Link Building is technical and has to be constantly monitored and maintained. This is a crucial part of the process and is unfortunately fairly time consuming, so time needs to be set aside for this purpose.

We produced an article about ways to gain links and we fully recommend checking it out as an aside to this article:
http://redcowmediaseo.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/other-ways-to-create-links.html

The world of SEO can take a lot of time and effort, and this can affect other parts of the business, that also need maintaining, which is why specialist SEO agencies are often engaged to carry out the process on your behalf.

There’s a lot more to learn about SEO, but hopefully this article has helped you identify simple strategies in getting the most out of your SEO.

Who are we?
We are Red Cow Media, an online marketing agency specialising in SEO, WebDesign and Social Media marketing. We provide services to enhance your online presence, getting people to connect with you and helping to spread your message and drive revenue. For more information you can talk to one of our friendly team or visit the website by clicking here.

All you really need to know about internet marketing for beginners.

All you really need to know about internet marketing for beginners.
Part 1

New to Internet marketing?  This article will go through the basics of what internet marketing does for your business and the different areas it involves. We will also identify the good and the bad aspects of different forums of Internet marketing to give you a general idea of what services you may be receiving from other SEO companies, and where this can be expanded on.

There are many parts of internet marketing but the three main parts which most companies consider are:

Web Design
SEO
Social Media

These parts influence the amount of people who visit your site and could potentially invest in your services or products later on, this is why you should ensure you are getting the most out of your internet marketing. A great way to look at online marketing is to imagining your site as a signature drink - what your drink needs to do is look good, taste good and have people talking about it.

How does this relate to internet marketing?

Well each individual part is similar to what your signature drink needs to have. For example, the website should look good; you need a site that is easy on the eye and allows visitors to navigate through different pages easily.

Web Design is a key factor in creating influence in your business; it’s a front cover for your business and needs to influence a customer and inspire confidence in your brand.

Website design and User Experience factors are a key part of internet marketing and need to be at a high grade to perform the best it can and maximise business brought in through your online presence.

What should you consider when creating a website?

You want your site relatable to the business and this means multiple things have to be considered, from colours to style, text and website type. There are so many options and things to consider, which is why most business employ a web designer to take on the task. This is usually the best course of action as a good designer will take into account your preferences and produce some designs which are suitable for you to choose from.

What are the different types of websites?

Dynamic websites – Dynamic websites, unlike static, allow advanced interactions and allow the ability to use databases to deliver certain content for an individual page. This kind of interaction allows the website to formulate catalogues, photographs, videos and series of data. One of the good parts of a dynamic website is allowing the ability to stop users accessing different parts of the site and can include password restricted areas and other user permissions to get through the site - such as member areas etc. The down side is that it is much harder to implement different SEO techniques into this kind of site, meaning some potential visibility in search engines may be lost.

Flash websites – Flash can implement unachievable levels of interaction that other web types can’t do and can be stunning and eye catching with animations and graphics. But all this is often outweighed by the inability to implement any form of meaningful SEO on to a flash site. Therefore if you’re wanting to get a site to page one of the rankings, flash sites aren’t the option for you. These are best utilised as portfolio sites to showcase work which doesn’t necessarily need to be searched for.

Static websites – One of the simplest forms of website in which the site’s content may include graphics and animation and may have JavaScript features. Static sites are principally for brochures sites. The down sides/limitations being that they’re not very complex and lack in user interactivity, this is because they cannot gather information for a user or serve content which is dependent on user actions.

Content managed websites – These are a Further refinement of a database driven dynamic site. A content management system provides a user login system to protect the interface. This allows the user to add, edit and remove the content from the site and is particularly useful if the business needs a large site which has numerous contributors.

eCommerce websites – These are dynamic websites which have the functionality to implement financial transaction gateways e.g. PayPal. Most eCommerce sites also include a content management system so that all product details can be added and updated, and some include advanced features such as automated stock control.

Part 2

So what do we mean by taste good? Well this has to do with SEO (Search engine Optimisation)…

Coming soon…


Who are we?

We are Red Cow Media, and online marketing agency that specialise in SEO, WebDesign and Social Media marketing. We provide a social media service which helps enhance your social media presence, getting people to connect and spreading your business message. For more information you can talk to one of our friendly team or visit the website by clicking here. 


References:  http://www.thememagazine.com/
http://www.buystockswithus.com/
http://www.optillion.co.uk/web-development/website-types.asp

Other Ways to Gain Links

Many of our clients ask about how relevant having content is to getting good quality links. Well there are ways of getting links without it, but having great content is one of the best long term ways to gain quality links which add value. Strategies not involving content tend to be less effective but some of them can still can help increase your link building. In effect, content is incredibly important, but should ideally be one component of an overall strategy.


Advertising

Big brands focus on advertising because it can make a massive impact on where they are on Google rankings. You will notice businesses advertising anywhere and everywhere online. Effectively, this advertising is content elsewhere online which tells users of their business and links back to their website. Content around the web can consist of videos, images, text and banners which relates back to the site. The primary reason to do this is because advertising both off and on site allows a larger audience to be exposed to your business. As you will see when you go on any kind of site that has video integrated advertising, you will notice that during the video, there will be advertising of services and products. A great example of this is Compare the Market having there videos, banners, text and images all over YouTube and Sky News, linking back to their website. The costs of advertising on site such as YouTube would be extensive, so this is pretty much ruled out for small to medium businesses, however, there are some good alternatives to provide this service on a smaller scale.

Ingrained Product or Service

This is a service or product that you share with others which you are able to keep coming back to. A great example of this is Pinterest, a service which allows users to share pictures with other people and then send them a link to the relevant corresponding website. The use of Pinterest for small businesses has allowed more visitors to be introduced to the website through the links given out and shared. Pinterest has an extremely high PR (Page Rank) score, which means that links coming from this are strong. This is due to people constantly coming back to the site and introducing others to it, as well as the content being refreshed constantly by its users. This makes it a prime site for small to medium business use.

Recommendations

What we mean by this, is that people talking about and recommending your business can provide excellent quality links to your site. If you have another business which you have worked with, they might be happy to advertise your site via a link on their site. You may also want to return the favour by linking back to their website in return, providing a great link opportunity for both sites. Although this is a good idea, recommendation links take a relationship with another business which can take time to build up. An example of high quality linking between sites is Microsoft and 343 Industries, both have reciprocal links that promote each other on their websites.

Community

Having a community relating to your business can cause people to generate content on your behalf. For example Stumble Upon allows people to post and interact with others, with most of its content coming from the community creating their own content for the site. Community is a powerful way to create content without the need to invest time in generating it yourself.

Blogs/Authority

Having a blog on your website is a great way to generate content and keep content fresh and updated. Blogs allow your target audience to read about things going on in your business in realtime and are also a good way of engaging with them in a less formal way than the text on the actual website. It also allows you to become an authority in your area of expertise so people will come back to your page at a later date for anything relating to your business area, eventually generating sales. You can invite guest bloggers to write for your blog, who may also promote their articles elsewhere, again providing linking opportunities as well as good content.

For more information on anything online marketing related, visit our website by clicking here.

What’s the point of Social media?

Social Media has grown from the heart of the internet over many years and allows people to communicate though what is fast becoming known as the new 'word of mouth'. There are so many different types of social media used in different ways, which are all adapting over time. Not only are social media platforms accessible via your computer, now users are able to access it via anything from a mobile to a tablet or TV, making it even more accessible and prominent. Allowing any user to access social media anywhere and everywhere also means users are updated instantly, in real time, meaning anyone who has a device connected to the internet can access the shared data instantly.

So why is this good for a business?

With the ability for people to access social media everywhere, business should think of this as a prime opportunity to attract new customers. Some businesses find social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter too 'social' 'relaxed' to be implemented into their business strategy and therefore think it is unneeded. This is where they are wrong; social media can provide a massive impact on a business either by creating business or making relationships with other business, and providing information quickly to your audience. Another feature of social media is its almost always completely free, meaning you can get your message across to the target audience for free....how many other marketing platforms do you know that offer that kind of ROI?

Another great benefit of social media for business is it allows information to be spread easily, for example the 'like' button on Facebook means that when a user likes your content, it will show up on their profile and allow all their friends to see it. With an average user having around 300 friends, this makes the reach of social media incredible. This makes more people aware of the subject, and therefore of your brand.

Social media doesn’t just connect clients to a business, but businesses to other businesses. This commonly happens on twitter, what twitter allow users to do is announce or quote something that will appear to anyone who is following the user. If the tweet reaches a business that shares or replies to the tweet this might instigate a relationship between both businesses, or provide a great start to discussions.

Another great example of the uses of social media is video marketing. Creating video content and then just posting them on your site means that the only people who are going to see them are the people who visit the site. Posting them out via social media channels would allow them to be seen by the public and generate a wider audience. From there they can be linked to by other social media services like Facebook or Twitter allowing an even wider audience to see the video, making people aware of what the business does.

What the downsides to social media?

The downside to social media is it needs a constant eye on productivity. This can cause issues for some businesses as they may not have time to handle the interaction with social media to get the most out of it. It doesn’t help that to get the most out of social media requires an audience, and the process of getting people to link or add you is tricky. There are different techniques but almost all of them take time and a lot of attention.

Content has to be provided to make people more interest in your social media message, if no content is given then there isn’t much chance that viewer of the social media will be interested in sharing it. This is another time constraint on businesses.

Conclusion

The reason why businesses should use social media is basically as it allows your business to extend and grow, helping it to move forward and be perceived as a 'modern' business. As we all know, the internet is changing the world and now allows people to communicate with one another when they could be on the opposite side of the world geographically. What this does is allows business to communicate and increase the chance of getting more customers and create relationships with other businesses. Not only does this happen, but if a company has a good social media presence this will also result in the SEO being enhanced.

The reason why business should use social media is basically it allows you to extend and grow your online presence, helping you to move forward and be perceived as modern at the same time. 

Like with most areas of business and productivity, everything takes time and investment, all social media is free but getting the most from it takes a lot of time and attention.

Who are we?

We are Red Cow Media, and online marketing agency that specialise in SEO, WebDesign and Social Media marketing. We provide a social media service which helps enhance your social media presence, getting people to connect and spreading your business message. For more information you can talk to one of our friendly team or visit the website by clicking here. 

What do we mean by Make it, Find It, Share it?

What do we mean by Make it, Find It, Share it?

When we say “Make It” we mean the design and the structure of a website. In today’s internet dominated world, this is first thing most customers will see as a reflection of your business. This means your website makes a massive impact on your customers and potential customers, as well as your business itself.

“Make it” also refers to the web development stage of the process. What we do is make the website to the specification agreed with the customer, bearing in mind what is needed to provide the best user experience for potential customers.

Now, it’s all very well and good having a snazzy, all singing all dancing website, but how useful would it be if none of your potential customers could see it? 

This is where “Find it” comes in; allowing the customer, who may be interested in the service to find it. This is done with Search Engine Optimisation to help your website reach a wider audience online. With every business being unique, all elements of the SEO process are included, but with the strategy tailored and custom planned to suit your business.

“Share It”, the last of the three but still incredibly important to your online presence, and increasingly so. The “Share It” element engages your existing and potential customers with your business. This is done via Social Media marketing, using various social media channels that help the customer interact with the services.

This helps expand the audience of your website and helps engage current and potential customers. What all Social Media services should have in order to enhance the ability to influence and engage, is a fully customised page design with valid and helpful information for the customer to see and share.

For more information about Red Cow Media, Click Here