Internet marketing is a relatively new concept, which leaves many people scratching their heads as to just what exactly it is. And even those familiar with the term may not be aware of what’s involved and how it works. So, let’s see if we can shed some light onto something that’s become indispensible if you’re a business owner and want to get your business noticed on the internet.

The Basics

Boiled down to its bare essence, internet marketing is basically all about getting visitors (or traffic) to your web site, and, once they’re there, to generate enough interest for them to want to return to your site, or, better still, take some kind of positive action that results in a relationship being established between themselves and the web site, or business.

But, how exactly do you get to the point where you’re getting sufficient visitors who take the action you would like them to take? The devil is in the details as far as internet marketing is concerned, so let’s take a high-level view of the details to see what’s involved.

Internet Marketing Methodology

There are several internet marketing methodologies that can be followed, some of which can be applied simultaneously, but all of which share the common goals of driving traffic to your web site and converting that traffic into customers. These methodologies are:

• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
• Pay Per Click (PPC)
• Web Analytics
• SEO Web Design
• Online Branding

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Search engine optimisation, or SEO as it’s commonly referred to, is the art of getting your web site set up so that it ranks well in the organic search results of the major search engines for specific keywords.

The first step of any good SEO campaign is to determine just who your target audience is and what they’re searching for. After all, if you don’t know who’s interested in what you have to offer, how are you ever going to get your web site in front of them? This involves using the right keywords strategically placed throughout your web site, with each page optimized for just one or two keywords.

Having selected your keywords, the next step is to create unique content based around those keywords. Bear in mind that search engines don’t rank web sites based on the site as a whole but based on the quality of unique content presented on individual pages.

The structure of your web site not only determines how easily your visitors can navigate around it, but also how easily search engines can find your site and index it. One thing you should definitely do is submit a sitemap, which represents an outline of your entire site.

Setting up a blog or forum on your site helps keep your content fresh, and, therefore, the search engines happy. It also helps establish your site as an authority in your particular field.

Finally, one of the most important factors in search engine optimisation is creating backlinks, or links from other authoritative sites back to your site. The number and quality of such links play a major part in the algorithms of all major search engines, and will reward your effort and attention.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

Whereas the goal of search engine optimisation is to rank highly within organic search results for specific keywords at no cost, pay-per-click (PPC) involves paying for the placement of your site within the sponsored section of search engine results, while competing with other advertisers.

The difference between a visitor clicking on your site in the organic search engine results and clicking on your site in the sponsored results is that the former is free, whereas you pay for the latter, regardless of the outcome.

A combination of both SEO and PPC is recommended, but PPC should be approached initially with care and with a strict budget limit, since you’ll be charged for clicks in real time, so you must stay on top of your campaigns. PPC campaigns never sleep, and neither should you (well, maybe 40 winks here and there!)!

Web Analytics

Web analytics sounds a bit intimidating, but no need to panic – it’s not really that scary at all. It’s all about tracking all the activity connected with your web site, including traffic and user interaction, providing you with the ability to check the sources of traffic coming to your site and allowing you to improve your traffic generating strategies, including search engine optimisation, pay-per-click, etc.

As a result, you can tell which keywords are sending traffic to your site and which aren’t, and make adjustments accordingly. Analytics can also be used to set goals and track the results.

SEO Web Design

In the early days of the internet, you could almost throw together any old site and achieve a reasonable amount of success. Nowadays, not only have search engines become much more sophisticated, but so have users. As a result, much more care and attention needs to go into the design and construction of your web site to please both users and search engines.

• You must know who your target audience is and ensure your site is set up to cater to that audience
• Check the competition and what they’re doing and see if you can improve on it and/or offer something that makes you stand out
• Decide on an appropriate navigation strategy that will allow users to move freely and easily within your site, while ensuring the strategy also makes sense for the search engines (having a link that goes nowhere will bring the search engines to a screeching halt – not good!)
• Which technology will you use to build your site? HTML? Flash? Ajax? PHP?
• Create high quality, informative content that establishes your site as a subject matter expert
• Test the site thoroughly, checking for ease of navigation and that all links work correctly

Online Branding

Building your brand has become one of the most important aspects of building a successful business, both offline and online. As far as online brand building is concerned, internet advertising plays a huge role. Again, this begins with knowing your target audience and determining their needs and desires.

Once you know what your audience is and that they need what you have to offer, your aim then must be to get your company and its name and everything connected with it in front of that audience by every means at your disposal, including your signature, web site, blog, logo, newsletter, etc.

Though it’s a very difficult goal to achieve, branding is regarded as one of the most important marketing strategies since it can be the thing that separates you from your competition and can turn a visitor into a customer. Everything a user sees that’s connected with your company should carry a stamp of quality that the user associates with your name, and thus your brand, ensuring they’ll remember you and your company and will come back to you again and again.

Whichever methodology, or methodologies, you choose to implement, the ultimate goal, when all said and done, is to get visitors to your site and convert them to customers who will hopefully return time and again, since that will be the measure of the success of any internet marketing methodology.

Choose the methodology that’s right for you, and get started on your journey to online success via internet marketing.