| I always feel a bit embarrassed when I have to | | | | Keywords tag. You then also use these keywords in |
| explain the concepts behind Internet Marketing to | | | | the headings on your home page, as well as in the |
| people who know nothing about it. . The problem is | | | | content on your home page.c) You also use some of |
| that if you have been immersed in the concepts for | | | | the other keywords that you have found that are |
| a long time, you do not always realise that they | | | | relevant, in other places on your home page and in |
| might sound strange and new to people who have | | | | the rest of your website.d) Making sure that all your |
| not been exposed to them before | | | | website pages have unique titles and other meta |
| It is not really possible to cover everything related to | | | | tags (descriptions and keywords)e) Making sure that |
| Internet Marketing in an article like this - but let's see | | | | you have numerous links internal on your site linking |
| if we can cover the most important concepts: | | | | to all the other pages inside your website |
| 1. Your website. | | | | 3. Internet Marketing |
| Obviously you need to have a website in order to | | | | These are the activities that you perform OFF your |
| promote your business. Then you need to promote | | | | website to make it perform well on the Internet. |
| your website on the Internet, so that it gains enough | | | | The most important Internet Marketing activity is to |
| exposure to start attracting traffic and thereby | | | | get websites to link to you. These are called |
| promoting your business! This sounds strange, doesn't | | | | 'backlinks'. You can use the title, description and |
| it? The problem is that there are literally millions, if not | | | | keywords that you have selected for your home |
| billions of websites out there and you are competing | | | | page (see under 'SEO', above) and start building links |
| against them for exposure! | | | | using these. |
| But back to your website. There are only four | | | | You can build links by doing the following:a) Submit |
| important things that you need to keep in mind for | | | | your website to good quality, SEO friendly directories. |
| your website:a) It must be easy for your visitors to | | | | (NOT search engines. It is a useless activity to submit |
| navigate, with all links and menus clearly marked.b) It | | | | your site to search engines). You can find a list of |
| must be easy for your visitors to contact you - | | | | search engine friendly directories here: Write 8 to 15 |
| display your contact details prominentely on your | | | | good articles about your industry. Submit these to |
| sitec) It must not be ugly. It also does not need to | | | | highly ranked article directories, such as: (search for |
| be excessively pretty! Spending too much money on | | | | these article directories in your favorite search |
| the look and feel design is probably a waste of | | | | engine): |
| money. Why? Because most people look beyond the | | | | - Ezinearticles |
| pretty graphics and pictures to find the information | | | | - Goarticles |
| that they were really looking for. Over-engineering | | | | - Articledashboard |
| your website from a branding and design perspective | | | | - Isnare |
| might just aversely impact its usability (point a) and | | | | - - Articlesfactory |
| the ease with which your visitors can contact you | | | | Also sign up and submit your articles to a number of |
| (point b) and the ease in which you can update your | | | | smaller article directories - there are about 200 to |
| website content yourself (point d).d) You must be | | | | 300 of these. It is worthwhile to sign up for an article |
| able to update your website content regularly! The | | | | distribution service like Article Marketer ( or use an |
| reason for this is that search engines love new | | | | automated tool such as Article Post Robot to submit |
| content and you will definitely attract more visitors if | | | | your articles. Also try and vary the content of each |
| you regularly add new content to your site. | | | | article slightly so that each of these articles are |
| 2. SEO | | | | unique. This will make them stand out more and |
| SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and can | | | | prevent Google from thinking that they are merely |
| be summarized as the activities that you would | | | | duplicate copies of each other and therefore 'not |
| perform ON your website to make it perform well in | | | | important'.c) Build more links by searching for link |
| the Search Engines. | | | | directories maintained by websites in your industry |
| These includea) performing keyword research to find | | | | (although not direct competitors!)d) Place your |
| out which keywords people are using to find your | | | | website link in your signature and take part in |
| type of product and service. You then choose the | | | | discussion forums. |
| 2-3 keywords that are used most often, but does | | | | These are the very basics of marketing your |
| not have a lot of competition (the competition is the | | | | website on the Internet. There are many more |
| number of competing websites that come up if you | | | | topics to cover, such as banner advertising, |
| do a search with that keyword).b) After you've | | | | pay-per-click advertising, email marketing, blogging, |
| selected your prime keywords, you use these in your | | | | video marketing and much more - but these are the |
| website's Title tag, the Description tag as well as the | | | | topics for another article! |