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How to Create a Strong Web Presence
Lily O'Halloran
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To become a successful entrepreneur, you need to know that just building an e-commerce website is not enough. You must also create a strong web presence, so that customers are able to find your online business. In this article, you will learn how to optimize your e-commerce website, and how to create a strong web presence that will keep buyers headed in your direction.
Before you being any web marketing activities, your website should be fully optimized for search engines. A fully optimized website will show up in search results, making it easier for customers to find your store. How do you optimize your website? Optimization is achieved through the following techniques.
Meta Tags – are information, inserted into the head element of an html page, which aid search engines in indexing the web page by providing details about the purpose of the website. Meta tags are not visible to website visitors.
Title Tag – provides essential information to search engines about the content of a web page. The title also appears in the browser when a web page is being viewed, and is used as the name of the bookmark when added to a user’s favorites list. A title tag is coded as follows:
Heading Tags <H1> to <H6> - create structure within a web page. The structure of a web page carries more weight than text alone, thus structure should not be taken lightly. Search engines use structure to determine the weight and relevance of keywords and content within a page.
Now that your website has been optimized for search engines, you are ready to begin web marketing. Web marketing simply means marketing your website on the web to create a strong presence. Web marketing is the key to attracting visitors to your website. The following marketing activities will increase your ranking in search results.
Your website will be indexed faster with major search engines if you submit your URL to each search engine.
Search engines favor websites with both incoming and outgoing links, especially incoming links from highly-rated websites. Submit your website URL to directories to increase your ranking. There are numerous free online directories for every type of website and industry-specific websites. One popular directory is The Open Directory Project: http://www.dmoz.org/add.html In addition to free online directories, there are many business directories that you can buy a listing in, such as Yahoo Directory Submit: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/submit.html Reciprocal links increase ranking as well. Search the web for sites that complement your website, and ask the webmaster if they are interested in trading links. Each of you would link to the other website; creating both an incoming and an outgoing link that benefits both websites.
Articles, press releases, and newsletters all help to promote your website by attracting visitors and providing information about your business. Interesting and compelling articles can be submitted to article directories, such as Ezinearticles.com, along with a direct link to your website. Article submissions can generate an outstanding flow of traffic. Press releases work well for communicating the strengths of your business, as do informative newsletters.
Another popular means of advertising includes placing ads and banners on search engines and various websites throughout the Internet. Check out the following links to learn more about what ad placement can do for your business.
Forums, commonly known as discussion groups, can be found online for just about any topic you can think of. Online forums provide a great opportunity to generate traffic to your website. Site visitors can be attracted by posting about your company, and by including your website in your signature line. Every time you post a comment, your website URL will be posted as well. You can also include information about your website in your forum profile. Take note that some online forums do prohibit users from placing ads, so refer to forum guidelines before posting business advertisements.
Blogs can be used to advertise your business, products, service, and to create additional links to your e-commerce website. Customer testimonials and frequently asked questions are both great additions to a Business blog. Blogs that are updated regularly attract more visitors.
Traditional advertising methods are tradition for a reason: they work well. Add your company name and website URL to all correspondence and packaging. Each incidence provides a reminder about your company to all who see it.
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