Building a Web site marketing engine

[brianj]

Web sites should increase revenue, improve business efficiency and leverage corporate branding. Your Web site should be a self-contained marketing engine pumping qualified leads to your virtual doorstep.

The key to making a Web marketing engine is accurately identifying your target audience through some leg work and research. Once the characteristics of your target market are defined, all aspects of your site, from the content to the programming to the site flow must be built utilizing this data. This methodology helps ensure you have a Web site that provides an easy-to-use structure, superb navigation and content your target audience is looking for. This translates into happy revenue generating customers.

Once you've done market research and know your target audience you can identify the keywords your audience is using with the major search engines. Lets look at a few ways to use these keywords.

Title of pages
Keep your titles simple and on topic. Have your search engine savvy writer begin the title of your Web page with the topic and content of the page. Create different titles for each page of your site, don't use the same one for every page.

Meta description
Many search engines use this for your listing and this will be the first impression on a prospective client! Be straightforward and unambiguous with the description of each page. Have your writer keep it to one sentence. BTW, I don't bother with meta keywords.

Paragraph text headings
Use your keywords in the heading of your body copy. Search engines often rank headings higher than standard body copy.

In the body copy
Make sure your writer includes keywords in your body copy. Don't go overboard with every other word being your keyword. Make sure your copy is easy to read, logical and on topic. Remember to write copy for your target audience, not just a search engine.

Linking Strategy
Search the web for the keywords your target audience is using. Do any directories, forums, blogs or calendars web sites come up on the first page? Get your site listed! Beware of link farms. You don't want to be listed on the wrong site.

Pay per click campaigns
Pay per click campaigns like Google Adwords or Yahoo! Search marketing can be a great way to attract qualified leads. You do not pay anything when your ad is displayed. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad.

Keep in mind that building Web site marketing engines is not about two or three of these techniques. It's a balance of all aspects of your Web site(usability, useful content, ability to convert, etc) along with your online and traditional marketing strategy. Each piece needs to work together in order to achieve maximum results.