Digital marketing is an essential part of any business, no matter what industry you are in. It can be used to effectively promote your business in order to increase brand awareness and improve sales. Here is a guide on the basics of digital marketing and how you can utilize them for your business.

Your Business and Digital Marketing

One of the first things that you should be aware of is how digital marketing can fit into your business. The first step is to identify your goals. It is important to have an idea of what you want to achieve through your marketing.

Are you trying to increase awareness of your brand? Are you trying to get new customers? Once you have this in mind, it becomes much easier to tailor your marketing to suit these goals.

What is Digital Marketing?

It is important to understand that digital marketing is not just one thing. In fact, it is a vast category that encompasses many different activities. These include (but are not limited to) social media, SEO, email marketing, and content marketing.

All of these methods can be used to promote your brand and ultimately achieve the goals that you have set out.

How Does it Work?

Before you start any sort of digital marketing campaign, it is important to know that everything works a bit differently on the internet. This is because the end goal is usually to get people to your website.

For example, when someone likes or shares your Facebook page, it appears on their friends’ newsfeed. This gives your business free publicity and can help you gain a following. In order to achieve these results, you need to have a solid marketing plan in place.

At its core, this plan revolves around one thing: content. You need to offer something valuable in order to get people interested in whatever you have to say.

You also have to know where your market is and how to reach them. This is what differentiates digital from traditional marketing like ads in newspapers and television.

While those mediums were largely one-way, digital marketing consists of having a two-way conversation with your potential customers. This is why social media plays such a large part in digital marketing.

It is all about engaging with your customers and providing them with what they want.

What Should My Plan Include?

No two digital marketing plans are exactly alike, as the needs of each business vary. However, there are some basics that should be included in all plans. The first of these is social media.

There are several different social media sites out there (both general and industry-specific), so it is vital that you choose the ones that are right for you. Next, you need to consider SEO.

This is how search engines find your website, so it is important to have high-quality content if you want to rank well. Finally, you should have a newsletter.

Even if you do not use it for marketing purposes, it’s always good to have an email list of people who like your page and are interested in your business.

Now, all of these elements can (and should) be included in one plan.

Consideration should also be given to other digital marketing methods, such as digital advertising and online advertising.

These methods are similar to their traditional advertising counterparts, but work slightly differently due to the nature of the internet.

The next step is to decide how you want to implement these strategies. Do you want to do everything yourself or hire a company to do it?

Both options have their pros and cons, so you will need to decide which is best for your business.

Finally, you need to measure your results. This is important so that you know what is (or isn’t) working for your business. Without measuring results, you could be doing something useless and wasting time and money.

You’ve got your plan together. The next step is to start executing it.

Search engines like Google use over 200+ website ranking factors in their algorithm!

Taking the most important and proven factors in Google rankings which are written below and let’s dive right into them :

1. Domain Authority (DA):The total number of external links pointing out to the website, weighted by their importance, it is given by MOZ and Google somewhat consider it in Rankings.

2. Page Authority (PA): The total number of internal pages linking to the website, weighted by their importance, and the same goes with this as it is made by MOZ, the higher the DA the greater will be the DA.

3. Meta description text (MDT): A brief summary of 155-160 characters that describes the content of a page, This helps search engines to understand what the content on a particular page is all about and to know the relevancy of the page, it also impact on click-through rate (CTR) and also plays a great role in Google Ranking Factors.

4. Keyword density (KDD): How many keywords are used per 100 words of keyword-rich content. For example, if you have 10 words in your meta description describing your product, but only 1 word for a keyword like “free shipping”, then this would be considered low KDD because it has very few keywords in it.

5. Anchor text (AST): A pointing out of a link is obviously more imporatant than just words. It’s usually a short sentence that explains the main point of the link and doesn’t use any special characters such as punctuation marks or dashes.

6. Internal Linking Domains (ILD): Links from internal domains to external ones, which can help you get backlinks from high authority sites like webmaster tools etc.

7. External Linking Domains (ELD): Links from external domains to internal ones, which have a a good page and domain rank,which are trustworthy and also increase visitors from other sites.

8. Keyword in Title (KTD): The specific words that you put into the title of a web page, blog, or directory. This should usually be your target keyword as it helps search engines better understand what the page is all about.It is the main aspect for SEO.

9. Keyword in URL (KU): The main keyword you would want to impressively use must be placed at the beginning of your domain URL and the URL should not be longer rather than pointing out the keyword, e.g. www.yoursite.com/best-seo-consultant-nyc.

10. Keyword in Content (KC): Your main keyword so-called primary keyword must be present in the main content of the page, most probably once per paragraph and a maximum of 2-3 times per sentence.

11. Keyword in H1 (KH1): The main heading of a page or a blog post is called the H1 tag and the main keyword must be written in the H1 tag of your page or blog post.

12. Keyword in H2 (KH2): If an H2 tag is present it shows that there are 2 posts on your site, then the main keyword has to be included in it.

13. Keyword in Bold (KB): If a word on your page is bold, then its main keyword.

14. Keyword in Italicized (KI): If a word on your page is italicized, then it is primary keyword.

15. Keyword in Bulleted List (KBL): The main keyword should be included in the bullet points of your list if you are using them. So if you have “Orange, Apple, Pear” in your list, then “Pear” is the main keyword.

16. Keyword in Image Alt text (KIA): Add an ALT (Alternate Text) attribute to your images to describe them in 150 characters or less. Search engines can display this if they can’t show the image for some reason. Your main keyword should be included if it appears anywhere on the page.

17. Domain Name Age (DNA): Older domain names like google.com tend to have more trust and authority than newer ones like latestSEO.com. This metric isn’t a clear indication of a website’s success, but it’s still important to take into account,Google also said it doesn’t matter anymore if Domain is older or newer.

18. Domain Name Length (DNL): The longer the domain name the better, as it shows that the site has been around for a long time and has had time to build trust with its audience.

19. Domain Name: The simpler the better, because a page with a long domain name tends to lose out on user trust and user experience compared to a page with a short one like “yoursite.com” compared to “yourwebsite.com”.

20. Unique Text on Page (UTP): This metric measures how much unique text is on any given web-page, so a unique title and description is far better than a title and description copied from another source,which may also cause other problems.

21. Social Media (SOC):This measures the amount of social activity that a site has, like how many Facebook likes, Tweets, etc. The more social activity the better,Social media shares play good role in SEO point of view.

22. Secondary Keyword in Title (SKT): If you have secondary keywords that are important on your page then include them in your title and make them bold. For example “Best SEO Services in Auckland” would be a secondary keyword, this is when you’re using multiple keywords for a single page.

23. Number of Outbound Links (NOL): A site with a high number of outbound links tends to lose users trust, because there are so many chances for advertising to other sites. This doesn’t directly hurt your site, but it can make a difference with some metrics.

24. H1-H6 Tags (HHT): The H tags are a part of the HTML code that tell search engines what a page is all about, which is why it is best to use them properly and to add main keyword in them. Using different H tags for different headers on your page makes it looks like you’ve created a well structured site.

25. Site’s Purpose (SPA): Is the site’s purpose to make users money? Then it’s commercial. Is the site’s purpose to help users find information? Then it’s informational. Is the site’s purpose to entertain users? Then it’s entertainment. If a site has multiple purposes then all of them need to be identified.

26. STORYFUL Score (SSC): This score is awarded to a site if the majority of the content on it is from a trusted source, like an established news company. The higher the score, the more reliable the content is.

27. LSI Keywords (LSI): LSI stands for Latent Semantic Indexing, and is used in modern search engines to find related keywords to what you are searching for. This metric shows the relationship between your keywords and other related ones.

28. Use of Numbers in Title (NIT): Search Engines seem to favor pages with numbers in their titles over those without, like “Top 10 Universities in Germany” instead of “Top German Universities”. Using numbers in your titles can boost your ranking.

29. Use of Question in Title (QUA): Sites that use question in their titles like “Who is the Best Footballer in World?” tend to do better than sites that don’t for some reason.

30. Number of Words on Page (NWO): The more words on your page, the better as long as they’re relevant to each other. Having a page full of text with 1,000 words on Seattle SEO and another page full of text with 10,000 words on how knots are tied is meaningless if the search engine’s algorithm doesn’t know that and if your competitor is having 2,000 word post then you must have double of that i.e,4,000.

31. Use of Keyword in URL (UQU): If possible try to include your keyword in the URL, like “www.seo-specialists.com” instead of just “www.seo-specialist.com”. This doesn’t always work, but if it does it can be an easy way to boost your rankings,the shorter the URL the better it is.

32. Number of Images (NIQ): Having more than 1 image on a page is generally considered to be bad for SEO, as search engines can’t read the images and therefore can’t index them. Having no images would get you a 0, but having more than 1 image generally gets a penalty. The higher the number, the worse but if your competitor is having Images then you must add Image more than him/her.

34. Mobile Versions (MOB): Having a mobile version of your website gives your site a small trust factor boost, as this means it is forward-thinking enough to be accessible on all devices. Having a better ranking than competitors is a big gain, so if you care about such things you may want to make the effort of creating a mobile version of your site, it plays a great role in Google Ranking Factors and you can also check it on Google Search Console.

35. Use of Stock Photos (USP): Using stock photos that are directly keyword-stuffed will hurt your ranking, but having a few scattered throughout your site generally won’t do anything to help it.

36. Having a Blog (BLOG): Having an official blog for your site, written by actual people and not a simple “company profile” gives your site a major trust and visitors’ boost. Expect to invest significantly more time into this though, as posts need to be regularly written and it can’t just be about your company. Contribute to related discussions, write about current events or other topics. You are a person with thoughts and opinions too, right?

37. Forum Posts (FPO): Writing posts on industry related forums, discuss current events and topics that are relevant to your industry. This helps people to know what’s happening in the current time, find your profile and helps build trust and links back to your site. Be sure to sign with your domain name so that people can find you more easily.

38. Company History (CHI): how long has your company been in business? The longer, the better and helps people to understand the background of your company.

39. Types of Media (TPM): Having a good amount of video, flash, images or other types of multimedia on your site helps build trust. It makes people think that you’re actively investing in your company and your website.

40. Advertisements (ADV): Do you advertise on the internet, in newspapers, or on TV? The more you advertise, the more people know about you, and the more likely they are to trust you and your website.

41. Blog Topics (BLT): How wide is the variety of topics your blog writes about? The more variation the better it is for user convenience.

42. Press Releases (PRS): Does your company issue press releases about major events or announcements? You should try to write a few of these to build up your brand, but don’t try to spam by putting out a lot of fake ones.

43. Industry Awards (AWD): Have you won any major industry awards? If so, list them on your website. If you haven’t, try to win some. Nothing sells a company better than an award, and potential clients will instantly recognize the brand and it will reassure them that they are dealing with a quality business.

44. Linking to Offline Resources (LOR): Are you known for linking to your flagship store in your website footer? Perhaps you have a Youtube Channel with videos of your store? Potential customers can instantly see that by trusting you online, they can save time and money by doing business with you offline.

45. Grammar and Spelling (GMS): Unfriendly grammar and spelling make a company look unprofessional. Hire someone to check over your content to make sure it’s free of these mistakes and it is also not good for SEO persepective.

46. Use of Popular Keywords (UMP): Using words and phrases that are searched for a lot helps to bring a lot of traffic, but if it doesn’t look natural, then you might get some suspicious users to your site. Use this tactic very carefully.

47. Compliance with Local and Federal Laws (LCFL): Do you have a copy of your business license posted on your website?If not then post as soon as possible as it attracts users.

48. Website Speed (WS): Is your website fast enough? People want to buy from companies that are quick and easy to deal with,higher the speed more will be the traffic instantly.

49. Contact Information (CIR): List all the contact information you have available such as phone numbers, email addresses, and physical locations. This way potential customers can reach you quickly via telephone or email if necessary.

50. Social Media Presence (SPN): What kind of social media presence do you have? Some things to consider include Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn. These are great ways to market yourself and gain new customers.

51. Site Navigation (NS): Are there clear links between pages on your website?As these help users to jump on other pages through your site easier and faster when searching for something specific.

52. Privacy Policy (PL): A privacy policy is required by law before anyone can use your services. Make sure yours is comprehensive and accurate!

53. Terms of Service (TOR): These terms are used to set forth what type of service a user may receive when using a particular website or application. They also provide legal protection for the company in case of disputes that arise between the parties involved with their respective websites or applications.

54. About Us (ABU): This should describe who you are as a company, along with any interesting information about your company and the history of how it started.

55. Contact Form (CF): This is another must-have on any website. Make sure the form captures the necessary information such as name, email address, and message.

56. Knowledge Base (KB): Do you have an internal database of FAQs and how to’s that your customers can reference? You should!

57. BBB Rating (BBB): While not everything can be avoided, if you have a reasonable complaint record with the BBB, then you’ll seem like a more trustworthy company and if you have not shared the share it as soon as possible as it will enhance organic traffic.

58. Customer Reviews (CR): Are your customers allowed to leave reviews?If not then allow them Customer reviews can either make or break your business. Be sure to respond promptly to both positive and negative comments, these reviews decide that whether a user is going to buy something or not.

59. Media Mentions (MMS): Have you been mentioned in any articles in newspapers, magazines, or online blogs? If so, make sure to collect and display these mentions as awards and testimonials.

60. Website Update (WU): If your website is more than a year old, it might be time for an update as it will let Google come for crawling and indexing.

61. Reputation (REP): Is your business starting to gain a reputation in the marketplace? This can take time but if managed correctly, it can be a very powerful tool and a lot cheaper than traditional advertising!

62. Online Mentions (OM): People talk, and that’s especially true with online reviews. Are people talking about your business on any forums or review sites?

63. Number of Pages (NP): The more content you have on your website, the longer it will take for someone to navigate through all of it. Try to break up your site into multiple pages if necessary.

64. How responsive is your website? (RESP): People don’t like waiting around for pages to load. A site should never take more than 3 seconds to load. Try to keep it under 1 if possible.

65. How often are you updating your website? (UPDT): As with any website, it has to be updated regularly if you want it to be successful. At least once every two months is recommended.

66. Is your site compatible with mobile devices? (MP): Since more people are browsing the web on their phones nowadays, your site must be easily viewable and usable on smartphones and the traffic on mobile is growing more and more.

Conclusion:

So there you have it, 66 quick and easy Google Ranking Factors tips anyone can implement to help your local business. All of these items can be done with very little effort and cost. Of course, if you do want to dive a little deeper into SEO, there are a lot more factors to take into consideration such as URL structure, keywords, backlinks, content, title tags, XML sitemaps and so forth.

The important thing is to take some action.

Many people have dreams of starting their own business, but few actually follow through. One of the major reasons for this is a lack of funding and marketing. If you are considering starting your own business, one of your biggest challenges will be marketing. You need to be able to effectively get the word out that your business exists so people can buy from you. Here are some tips that you can use to market your business.

1. Search Engine Optimization

This is one of the most used and effective forms of online marketing. It is a method of improving the ranking of your website in the results of search engines such as Bing and Google. This is often the first option that people turn to when looking for something, so it is extremely important that your website has a good ranking.

2. Pay-per-Click Advertising

This is similar to search engine optimization in that you will pay each time that your ad is clicked on. Unlike search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising is used in places other than the search engines. You can also pay to have your website shown whenever a certain word or phrase is mentioned in an online article or blog. This can be very effective if you are a business that is related to a certain news story or if you are part of a current event.

3. Press Releases

Many people overlook this free method of marketing, but it can be very effective. A press release is an article written about you, your company, or one of your products. You then distribute this article to online and offline newspapers, magazines, and blogs. Anytime a newspaper or magazine publishes your article, it is called a press release. Blogs often also publish press releases, but they are called blog posts.

4. Social Media

Social media has become a very popular way to market online. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and many others allow you to create a page for your business, where you can post articles, pictures, and updates specific to your business. You can also market your business through social media by interacting with other people and pages in your industry.

5. Speaking Engagements

This method of marketing involves you, the business owner, speaking to groups about your product or service. You can do this in a few different ways. You could speak at a large event, or you could speak at smaller meetings of prospective clients. This method is very effective for some businesses and not very effective for others.

6. Online Videos

Many people use video sharing websites to watch funny videos, but these same websites can be used as a tool for marketing. If you have a business that sells a product, you can create a video of yourself discussing the benefits of your product. This is a great way to build trust with your potential customers. If you are a service-based business, you can create a video that tells the story of how your business helps people.

7. Infographics

Infographics are visual representations of information. For instance, you could create an infographic with information about starting a business. This infographic could then be used on your website and other social media sites.

8. Discounts and Coupons

Offering discounts and coupons is a great way to bring in new business. You can offer discounts and coupons through online coupon websites, newspapers, magazines, and even through fliers. This method is very inexpensive, but it will not impress high-end clients.

Conclusion

While there are many other ways to market your business, these are some of the most effective. Before you begin any method of marketing, it is important to have a website for your business. A website is necessary in the marketing world, because it gives people an area to view your product or service information. It also allows you to provide coupons, discounts, and links to social media sites. Be creative, persistent, and diligent and your business should start seeing results from your marketing methods.

The 21st century business world has been increasingly moving towards a more technology-based future. As a result, it has become increasingly important for employees in all fields to have strong critical thinking skills. The future of your business largely relies on the quality of your employees, and in order for these employees to be successful, they must have strong critical thinking skills.

“What are critical thinking skills?” You may ask.

In short, critical thinking is the ability to “critique” things. Employees with strong critical thinking skills can analyze situations, determine the best course of action, and then implement it in a way that has a positive outcome.

This is particularly important when it comes to problem-solving. There will always be problems, and it is your employees’ job to sort through these issues and find a solution that works best for everyone.

Without this skill, you run the risk of your business falling behind its competition or, even worse, going out of business.

With that in mind, here are five critical thinking skills that all employees should have.

1. Communication

When most people think of communication, they immediately think of speaking. However, communication involves a lot more than just speaking. In fact, it involves every aspect of sharing information and thoughts with one another.

This includes reading, writing, speaking, listening and expressing. When it comes to business and problem-solving, communication is particularly important. Employees with strong communication skills can sort through complicated issues and share their thoughts in a way that is easy to understand.

2. Collaboration

Collaboration involves teamwork and cooperation. It involves the ability to share ideas in a way that makes others want to help you accomplish a goal. It is a vital skill to have, as the success of any business largely relies on teamwork and collaboration. Employees with strong collaboration skills can work well with others and encourage teamwork in order to achieve a common goal or desired outcome.

3. Initiative

Initiative involves taking the lead and coming up with ideas for how a project can be accomplished. An employee with strong initiative skills will not wait around for others to take charge; instead, that employee will take charge and responsibility of a task or project and lead the way in accomplishing it.

4. Problem-solving

Employees with strong problem-solving skills can analyze a situation, come up with possible solutions and then implement said solutions in order to get the job done. This is a vital skill to have in any job, as every employee will come across problems (of varying degrees) that need to be solved in order to complete a project or task.

5. Thinking Outside the Box

Thinking outside the box involves looking at old problems in new ways or finding unconventional methods of solving a problem, as the name suggests. These types of problems-solving skills are looked upon favorably in the business world, as most businesses desire creative thinkers who can take a project in a new direction or try something different from the norm.

Introduction:

Welcome to the How to drive more traffic to a website guide. If you are reading this, you are probably an owner of a small business or website and are looking for ideas on how to promote it online. You might have tried Adwords, Facebook ads and other forms of online advertising, but you are yet to see a good return on your investment.

This guide will teach you how to drive traffic to your website using white hat SEO methods. You will learn about off-page and on-page SEO techniques and how they can help you improve your search engine rankings and in turn get more visitors to your website.

Chapter 1. On-Page SEO

What is On-Page SEO?

On-page SEO refers to all the Search Engine Optimization techniques that you apply directly to your website. The purpose of On-Page SEO is to make your website as search engine friendly as possible. This will help search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo! understand and index your website easily.

Why is On-Page SEO important?

If you have a poorly built website with little to no On-Page SEO, you will not get good search engine rankings even if you spend a lot of money advertising your website. On-Page SEO is really important if you want your website to rank well in the search engines.

Things you should know about On-Page SEO:

• Keyword Density: Using the same keyword too many times in a paragraph is considered spam by search engines. Use the keyword phrase once in a paragraph and a few times in the page.

Ex: Driving traffic to your website can be easy if you use the right SEO techniques. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.

• Latent Semantic Indexing: Sometimes, using your keyword too many times in a paragraph can actually work against you. Search engines can sometimes interpret your text to be Spam if you use the same keyword too many times in a short paragraph. In order to avoid this, use the Latent Semantic Indexing technique of repeating keywords.

Ex: If your keyword is ‘New York City’, you can write something like, “New York has so much to offer from the bright lights of Times Square to the bustling streets of New York City”.

• Keyword Location: Place your keywords in your first paragraph and in your heading tags. Also, place a few instances of the keyword in your text.

Ex: If your keyword is ‘New York City’, you can write something like, “Welcome to New York City. This bustling metropolis has so much to offer from the bright lights of Times Square to the quaint streets of Brooklyn”.

Chapter 2. Off-Page SEO

What is Off-Page SEO?

Off-Page SEO refers to all the Search Engine Optimization techniques that you apply to other websites in order to get backlinks. The purpose of Off-Page SEO is to get other websites to link back to your website. A single backlink from a high quality website can increase your search engine rankings substantially.

Why is Off-Page SEO important?

If you have a poorly built website with little to no Off-Page SEO, you will not get good search engine rankings even if you spend a lot of money advertising your website. Off-Page SEO is really important if you want your website to rank well in the search engines.

Things you should know about Off-Page SEO:

• Link Building: Getting backlinks to your website is called ‘Link Building’. You can get backlinks by reaching out to other website owners and asking them to link to you. You can also write blog posts and articles and use the ‘No Follow’ attribute for backlinks to avoid getting penalized by search engines.

Ex: You can ask other business owners in your niche to put a link to your website in their website’s ‘About Us’ page. You can also create a blog or forum and include your website’s URL in your profile page to get a backlink.

Chapter 3. Topic Research

What is Topic Research?

Topic research is the foundation of all SEO. If you don’t pick a niche that has search demand, you are never going to get any traffic. Topic research will tell you what keywords and topics are most likely to get you results.

Why is Topic Research important?

You are not going to get any traffic if you pick a poorly performing niche, even if you do everything else right. You need to research keywords, long before you start setting up your website and content.

Things you should know about Topic Research:

There are a lot of keyword research tools available. Some are free and some are paid. Most SEO experts recommend using more than one tool to find the best performing keywords. Here are some tools to get you started:

• Google’s Keyword Tool
• SEO Book’s Free Keyword Tool
• SEO Chat’s Google Adjective Tool
• Ubersuggest
• KeywordShitter

Chapter 4. Website Setup

What is Website Setup?

Once you have chosen a niche and done your research, it is time to set up your website. Your website is your online presence and the first impression that you make on visitors. Your website should be easy to use, intuitive and look professional. It should also load quickly and be accessible from all devices.

Why is Website Setup important?

If you set up a website that is difficult to use, people are not going to like it. If they aren’t going to like it, they aren’t going to use it and you will not get any traffic. If you set up a website that doesn’t look professional, people aren’t going to take you seriously. If they don’t take you seriously, they aren’t going to trust you and you won’t get any traffic.

Things you should know about Website Setup:

There are two types of website setup – HTML and CMS.

1. HTML: HTML is short for HyperText Markup Language. If you want full control over your website and don’t want to pay for a ‘real’ website, you can use HTML. HTML is easy to learn, but can take a long time to manually code everything.

2. CMS: CMS is short for Content Management System. With a CMS, all you have to do is enter your content into pre-defined sections and the CMS does the rest.

Chapter 5. Technical SEO

What is Technical SEO?

Technical SEO relates to the technical setup of your website. This includes things like your server requirements, ensuring that your website is ‘robots.txt’ed and not blocking access to search engine spiders, having a clean URL structure, using the right http headers, etc.

Why is Technical SEO important?

Even if you do everything right from a content and marketing standpoint, but your website is set up poorly from a technical standpoint, you will not get any search engine traffic.

Things you should know about Technical SEO:

1. Choose a Good Hosting Company: It is important to choose a good hosting company. Your website is going to get a lot of traffic and if your hosting company sucks, you website will often go down. This will cause you to lose a lot of traffic and potential customers.

2. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN): A content delivery network acts as a middleman between your visitors and your hosting company. If a large number of people are trying to access your website at the same time, a CDN will send the majority of these people to a ‘copy’ of your website on a different server, thus preventing your server from crashing.

3. Keep Everything Up to Date: It is important to keep everything up to date. If you don’t, your website is going to be less trustworthy and visitors won’t like it. This will cause them to leave your site and you will lose search engine traffic.

4. Don’t Use Frames: Although frames make your website look fancy, they are not good for SEO. Google doesn’t like them and will often not include content in frames in their search results.

5. Use a Robots.txt File: If you want to prevent search engines from accessing certain parts of your website, you can do so with a ‘robots.txt’ file.

6. Keep It Simple: Although you might be tempted to use flash and other fancy features, you should avoid them. Keep your website simple. Not only are fancy websites harder to navigate and use, but they look less trustworthy to visitors.

7. Use Good Quality Images: If you want to use images on your website, make sure they are good quality. Poor quality images make your website look unprofessional and won’t impress your visitors.

8. Make Sure Your Site Is Easy to Navigate: Although you might think that your website is easy to navigate, others might not think so. Have others (preferably people from outside your target audience) try to navigate your website and see if they can do it. If not, you will lose a lot of visitors and search engine traffic.

9. Make Your Site Stand Out: Although your website needs to be simple and easy to navigate, you also need to make sure it stands out.

Have a free SEO audit for your website

Chapter 6. Social Media Marketing

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing involves using social media platforms to market your website or business. This involves creating a social media profile related to your business, and using it to interact with potential and current customers.

Why is Social Media Marketing important?

If done correctly, social media marketing can be an extremely powerful tool. When done correctly, you can reach a large amount of people for free.

Things you should know about Social Media Marketing:

1. Be Yourself: Although you want to seem professional, you don’t want to seem too formal. Social media is all about creating a personal connection with your audience. People are more likely to trust you and do business with you if they feel like they know you on a personal level.

2. Interact: You should try to interact as much as possible with potential and current customers.

3. Listen: You should also try to listen. Pay attention to what people say about your product or service. If you do this, you can easily adjust your marketing strategy and improve your brand.

4. Consider Paying for Advertising: Although social media is free, you may want to consider paying for advertising. Although more expensive than other forms of marketing, social media advertising is targeted and very cheap if you have a small budget.

5. Be Professional: Although social media is personal, you still need to be professional. You don’t want to share too much about your personal life or go on rants about things not related to your business. This will not only make you look unprofessional, but it will also make potential and current customers mistrust you.

6. Create a Company Page, Not a Personal One: Although social media is personal, you should still create a company page rather than a personal one. Potential and current customers are more likely to do business with you if they can directly interact with your brand.

7. Always Be Testing: You should always be testing your social media marketing. Try to A/B test your posts, and try out different headlines and images. This is the only way you will find out what types of posts your audience enjoys viewing and interacting with the most.

8. Make it Easy to Share: Make it as easy as possible for people to share your content. If you make it easy for them to share, they will do it. This will help spread your content, and therefore your marketing, much further.

9. Join Discussions: It’s not only important to create discussions, but to join existing ones as well. This shows that you are an active member of the community and want to interact with everyone.

10. Be Transparent: If you do something wrong, admit it. People appreciate honesty and it will help your image rather than hurt it.

Chapter 7. Email Marketing

What is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is the process of creating emails to be sent out to a mailing list usually for the purpose of marketing.

Why is Email Marketing important?

Email marketing has the highest conversion rates when compared to other forms of marketing. If you can create an email that gets attention and clicks, you can potentially receive a lot of profit.

Things you should know about Email Marketing:

1. Consider Using a Template: There are many websites that allow you to create an email template for free or a small fee. This will allow you to format your emails consistently and make them look more professional.

2. Consider Getting a Newsletter Signup: One of the most important parts of an email marketing campaign is getting people to sign up for your newsletter in the first place. You can do this by having a signup on your website, or at the end of every blog post.

3. Send Out Newsletters: Once you have a sizable list, you can send out newsletters. Try to send one out at least once a month, and never more than two times a month. The key to a good newsletter is providing useful content that your audience will enjoy and find valuable. If you can do this, they are more likely to look forward to your newsletters and click the links within them.

4. Track Your Results: Just like any other marketing campaign, you want to track your results. This will allow you to see what kinds of emails get the most clicks and conversions and what doesn’t. You should try different things and always be testing to see what works best.

Chapter 8. Event Marketing

What is Event Marketing?

Event marketing is any marketing strategy that involves promoting your business at an event.

Why is Event Marketing important?

Even though the internet has drastically reduced the impact of event marketing, it is still an important marketing strategy. Many new and existing businesses try to cut corners by not attending events where they could be networking and generating revenue.

Things you should know about Event Marketing:

1. Don’t Overlook Conventions: Many people overlook conventions and instead focus on things like blogging and online ads. However, conventions can be a great place to meet people, generate revenue, and promote your brand.

2. Always Have Business Cards: You never know when you are going to meet someone who could become a valuable connection. Always have a stack of business cards on you so you can exchange information immediately.

3. Bring (or Send) an Employee: You should always go yourself if possible, but if you are stretched for time, at least send an employee or hire a booth model. Having some form of representation is better than nothing.

Chapter 9. Offline Advertising

What is Offline Advertising?

Offline advertising refers to any type of traditional advertising that is not online or on television. This includes print ads in newspapers and magazines, as well as billboards.

Why is Offline Advertising important?

Offline advertising still plays a large role in some industries. If you can find the right niche, offline advertising can be a very powerful tool.

Things you should know about Offline Advertising:

1. Print Ads: Print ads are one of the most common forms of offline advertising. They tend to be fairly cheap and widely seen. The only problem is you have to pay in bulk and you don’t really know how many people actually saw your ad.

2. Billboards: Billboards are exactly as they sound, a billboard is a large advertisement placed on a billboard. These are usually seen from highways and often have great visibility. The most common problem with billboards is the fact that the cost can add up quickly, especially if you have a lot of them.

3. Radio Ads: Radio ads are a great way to target a specific demographic. You can reach a certain age group more easily than with other forms of advertising. The issue with radio ads though is you have very little control over who is hearing your ad.

4. TV Ads: Television ads are very expensive and you probably won’t have enough money to consistently buy ad time for a long period of time. That being said, if you have a limited budget, this is the best way to get your brand in front of a lot of people.

5. Smart Placement: Perhaps the best way to spend your advertising dollars is on smart placement. If you have a small business, like a furniture store, you’re better off buying ad space in the Yellow Pages rather than spending the same amount on a billboard people will see as they drive by at 60 miles per hour.

6. Keep It Simple: When creating your ad, remember, less is more. You don’t need to fill every inch of your billboard with text. This is especially true if you’re making a billboard. Try using only a few words in big lettering to catch the driver’s attention.

Chapter 10. Public Relations (PR)

What is Public Relations?

Public relations, also known as PR, involves establishing a positive relationship between your company and the public.

Why is Public Relations important?

PR is one of the most important aspects of your business because if the public doesn’t like your company, it won’t do business with you.

Things you should know about Public Relations:

1. Know Your Audience: When establishing a PR campaign, you first need to know who you are targeting. Is your product aimed at children, young adults or senior citizens? You will tailor your PR campaign differently for each demographic.

2. Advertise: Once you know your audience, you need to advertise. If you’re marketing to children, television and radio ads would be best. If you’re targeting senior citizens, maybe a billboard or pamphlet campaign would work best.

3. Be Creative: There are so many ways to reach the public, you just need to be creative. Consider setting up an event at a local mall where people can come and see your product in person.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many things you need to consider before launching your product / website . By following this guide, you will have a much better chance at launching a successful product / website. Once you have read this guide, please pass it on to someone who might find it useful. Thank you for reading and good luck!

Growth hacking the algorithm:

Tip 1: Focus on generating good quality contextual content, nothing can beat good quality content. It’s like algorithm is designed to help your content find the right audience if its high in quality.

Tip 2: First few seconds and minute are important as soon as you post. This hack has worked well, where your community supports each other updates and gives an instant engagement boost in first few seconds and minutes of that post going live.

Tip 3: Live video beats all other kind of content. As it’s an instant notification to everyone + gets a priority in the newsfeed.

– Ali Salman

Don’t link externally. Photos and videos always perform better on Facebook because, besides being visually appealing, they don’t take users away from Facebook. Facebook wants users to stay on Facebook, the more businesses can avoid linking to external sites, the better the reach for those posts will be.

– Beverley Theresa

The most basic way to increase Facebook engagement and your number of followers, is to create a special Facebook Page for your Internet business and post to that Page, rather than to your Facebook Profile, the latter of which is limited to 5000 ‘friends’. Too, you want to post messages to your Page that are always relevant and consistent with the interests of your audience, always with a mind to reinforce your brand presence. Keep your focus and narrow and specific.

Customizing and adding integrations to your Facebook Page also helps to increase engagement. Customizations that you can integrate include, but are not limited to: email capture forms, quizzes, RSS feeds, podcasts, landing pages and other custom tabs. Focus always on creating content that engages your readership to encourage them to subscribe to your email list, from which you can bring them back to your website and point them in the directions that they want to go, i.e. products that you are promoting.

– Rosalind Gardner

Be real. Pages that resist the urge to post from a dashboard, and instead use the native Facebook interface almost always perform better. Also, engagement matters. Posts that have engagement perform better organically than posts which do not.

Get your people, your community, your customers, to be a part of what you’re doing on Facebook, react to posts, comment on posts, and give them a reason to want to celebrate and share that content—and they will.

Facebook is a machine, this is true. But people are human. When you treat what you’re doing on Facebook like it matters, or should matter, to the human beings you want to engage with, interact with, do business with, educate, assist, serve, it will pay off. Every time.

– Shelly Kramer

1. Post when your followers are online: The best way to quickly increase your Facebook post reach requires very minimal effort but has a massive impact on engagement. This involves posting when the highest number of your followers are online. Don’t worry though, you don’t have to interview every single one of your followers to find out when that is. Instead check out the “”Posts Report”” within your Facebook Insights dashboard. Facebook automatically provides you with the best days of the weeks and hours to post to make sure you are reaching the maximum number of people.

2. Use Post Targeting: Most Facebook marketers think that post targeting is restricted to paid advertising only. But that is not the case. Facebook allows you to target organic posts meaning that you can segment your followers based on age, education, location, and even their interests.

An example of how this can be useful is by imagining you are a restaurant marketer responsible for running the page of one of your branches offering a weekday happy hour. You are trying to increase restaurant reservations organically and don’t have the budget to allocate to ads. Organic targeting allows you to post content about your latest promotions and only target those that are above 21, living or working near your restaurant, and show them your post only at specific hours.

Instead of posting to all your followers at once and hoping to appeal to a minority, this gives you the power to engage just those that fit your demographic, which boosts your engagement.

– Saif Alnasur

1. AUTHENTIC and compelling images. Personal and candid images and video perform 3X or better than slick high-quality corporate imagery. Embrace employees, customers, and the human element of your company to grab attention and significantly increase the performance of your ads. Keep text to a minimum – say what you have to say through video, or in the text field, not in the image.

2. Tell a story. Many people make the mistake of keeping ad text short enough to stay above the “”Read More”” expansion on the ad. Tease something awesome up top, then tell a story that people want to read. Of course, you don’t want to write a novel, but you can feel free to take the space you need to get your story and point across. Bonus – when people click “”Read More,”” it counts as a click on the ad, raising your relevance score due to the engagement, and can result in lower costs overall.

3. The main rule is to tell a story and be conversational, authentic, and engaging. This is, admittedly, the opposite of most advice that tells you to be short and to the point, giving a compelling value statement to make people click. That may be true if all you care about is the click. But I’m pretty sure we’re all in business because we care about money, not clicks. I’ve consistently found in everything I’ve done on Facebook that a personal and engaging story performs much better than “”ad copy.””

– Ted Rubin

It’s no secret Facebook’s organic reach has taken a hit. In order to increase post reach, we’ve found a small paid investment for each post can highlight ‘winners’ -or those posts which are getting the highest engagement rates. At that point, a larger investment can be put behind those ‘winners’ to not only increase the overall exposure of the content but increase the overall engagement across paid and organic.

I have seen that posting links from your blogs on Facebook reduces the reach of your page, rather than increase it. Facebook limits the reach of external links. In order to increase the reach of your Facebook page, it’s better to share images and videos. Another tip is to keep a close tab on the posting frequency. If you are not producing a lot of content, limit the number of posts to 1-3 per day (unless you offer great content verity). Posting more on Facebook doesn’t mean that your posts will reach more people.

– Jon Clark

1. Choose something with invested interest. If you create a post that falls in line with you audiences beliefs you will see more likes and shares because of it.

2. Always try and create the best creative as possible, think slideshows, video and data. If you have a great graphic about a particular topic with great data people will share it.

3. Be emotionally engaging, nothing helps trigger sharing and likes more than getting inside your ideal client’s minds and hitting them right in the feels. Think about pain points and what keeps them up at night.

– Chris Labbate