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WHY HAVING A WEBSITE IS ONLY THE BEGINNING?

I often see companies or professionals who build a website and then, once everything is done, they stop. Yes, the Internet is an incredible source of traffic, but with approximately 1.88 billion Internet sites in the world in 2021, it is clear that you are not alone with an online presence.

The website is not without similarities to the good old corporate brochure that we used before the internet to make ourselves known. Once this brochure was created, we had to make efforts to distribute it: mailings, trade shows and exhibitions of all kinds, networking activities, displays, etc. The goal was to put it in the hands of your potential customers. It is similar for your website; once online, you have to make it known to your potential customers.

What are the strategies to get your website known?

SEO (an acronym for « Search Engine Optimization »)

If you had a professional do your website recently, this aspect should be taken care of. But if you are at the stage of having your website made, or if it is a bit dated, these are aspects that must be constantly updated. If there is one dimension that changes regularly, it is that of SEO. Why is SEO important? These are the elements that are mainly used by search engines (Chrome, Bing, Yahoo) to list and present your website to web users searching for topics that are in line with your company or your products/services. There are a lot of things that can be done to improve SEO, but we will focus on some that may be more within the reach of someone who is not an expert.

1. « Open Graph Protocol »: this is a series of tags placed in the header of your Internet pages that contains the information necessary for a good presentation of your pages on various social media. If these tags are filled out correctly, your page will display properly on social media, and the SEO robots crawling your website will send a positive signal to the search engines. The “OG” contains the title of the page, the type of information on it (article, video), the hyperlink of the page, and a photo associated with the article. To go more in-depth, here is the link to the explanation.

2. « Meta Tags »: this is information that describes your website to search engines and your visitors. They appear in the header of your web pages, under the “head” section. The two you should focus on are “Title tag”, and “Meta description”. There are others, but deeper knowledge is needed. For these two “metas”, there are apps that can be found on WordPress and other CMS (Wix, SquareSpace, etc.). Otherwise, try to have well visited and representative keywords of your products/services both in the title and in the description. For keywords, “Googleads” is good. It gives several options with search volume and some alternatives. However, there must be alignment between what you write in your "metas" and the text of the page. Otherwise, you risk being penalized.

3. The links. There are two types of links. Links within your site and links to your site.

a. Links within your site are a way to reference yourself. You have an article that goes deeper on a given topic, link it in your text. This type of “internal” link is good for your SEO.

b. Links to your website. These links come from other online presences and point to your site. The more quality links you have, the stronger the signal is to search engines that your site is important for the subject you are covering. The simplest part of this strategy is social media. If you are on certain platforms with a good amount of subscribers, then publishing your content on these is a good way to create these links, as long as you do not put the full information and the reader must click a link to your site to see the rest. After, there is the work of creating real links with others in your sector. You are a real estate agent, mortgage lenders, notaries, moving companies, interior designers, etc. are all businesses/professionals that can link to your site. How is it done? You have to ask them. If there is relevance and generally reciprocity, then they may accept. But beware, search engines discourage link “exchanges”. So do it in a relevant section of your site.

4. Content marketing is vast. We are not just talking about articles here, but there are videos, podcasts, audio files, photos, infographics, surveys, and more. But it is important to know that the indexing robots visiting your site do not see the unwritten information (until now). It is therefore an excellent SEO strategy to write the information you have on your video, audio, photos, images, etc. An app that generates a nice infographic, but as an image, might not give you the SEO signals you want. Write what you communicate as a graphic in the image. This will take some time, but it will help with your SEO.

Online advertisements

For online advertisements, there are several options.

1. Advertisements on search engines like Chrome, Bing, and Yahoo, to name a few. Two main categories of ads can be found on these engines: “search” ads and “display” ads.

a. Search ads are generally more text-based. But this is changing. Images are currently possible in “extensions”. These ads respond to a request in the search bar. You, therefore, reach potential customers who are looking for your products/services. Pricing is in the form of bidding on keywords associated with your products and services. There is a lot more information that could be said, but here is a summary.

b. “Display” ads are more “passive”. They will appear in the margins (usually) when a search is done or someone visits something related. The more artificial intelligence evolves, the less difference there is between the two types of advertising (“search” and “display”) because “display” ads use your search history to recommend products/services that may be of interest to you. For example, if you are looking for flights to Mexico, you may be interested in Spanish lessons. But, there is still some way to go. Also, these ads allow more options for what can be used. Eventually, they can end up with ad partners. For example, with Google, you can have advertisements on YouTube.

2. Social media advertisements. Here too, several options are available to you:

a. Visual ads (videos, image, text, carousel, etc.). Generally, these ads can be targeted according to criteria such as age, gender, geographic region, interests, and many others, but they vary according to the social media you are using.

b. Content sponsorship. You made an article or a video and you want to have more reach, you can promote it.

c. Some social media offer access via mailboxes. This can be interesting for B2B social selling or when your product/service is a high ticket item.

d. Some platforms offer an online market, this is the case with Facebook, but there are not the only ones. Amazon also offers the possibility of selling your products online.

3. Influencers. People and companies that have developed a good amount of followers could offer the possibility of advertising to them in exchange for money. This type of advertising is interesting and it is not unlike spokespersons or brand ambassadors like the Georges Clooney and Brad Pitt of this world. Paying someone to get access to people who follow or know them. Influencers have a similar concept. The important thing here is to choose well so that there is a good synergy with what you are doing. There is no point in choosing a charming influencer who has developed a multi-million subscriber channel for economic travel if you are selling retirement products/services. There are surely influencers with subscribers closer to your target customers.

There are several other options, but here are the most popular.

Content Marketing

Your online workhorse should be content marketing. Whether it is written (preferably all options will have a written component as explained earlier, to maximize SEO), in the form of video, audio, infographics, questionnaires, courses, white papers, etc. All options make your website a destination. This is the ultimate goal. Not only will your interesting content be shared by Internet users around them, but in addition, the signals to search engines will make you appear as a reference site for the topics you touch and which have been popular. So, start producing now.

Networking (online and offline)

Meeting people has never been easier. Whether online or offline, a multitude of options is available to you (for more information, here is an article on the subject).

1. Online. Join interest groups, publish your content, answer questions and comments, participate. It is a great way to get yourself known. You have these groups everywhere, but Facebook and LinkedIn are the ones I use the most.

2. Offline. Participate in networking activities. Several platforms offer the possibility of finding activities around you. Facebook and LinkedIn have "activities" sections that let you know what is going on. Plus, sites like EventBrite and MeetUp are also great options for finding networking opportunities.

Communication tools

1. Put your website information everywhere:

2. Your email signatures.

3. Your business cards.

4. Your car.

5. Promotional items.

6. Etc.

Here is an overview of the actions necessary to promote your website. There are several more, but the previous actions are the basis. Start with these. Eventually, you can add more.

If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Stéphane Elmaleh-Riel, B.Ed., MBA
Marketing consultant