In trying economic times there are those who’s first instinct is to cut back on marketing and then there are those who believe that marketing is just about the last thing that should be cut back. This author believes in the later. While everyone else is thinking we can’t afford to spend that marketing money, that’s what you do when you have extra cash, I’m thinking I can’t afford not to spend money on marketing… especially when the economy is down. Although, how you spend that marketing money is where critical thinking comes into play. I look at this downturn in the economy as a tremendous opportunity. Just as there are tremendous opportunities to buy real estate; this is the time to get a leg up on the competition. I can run around like a chicken with its head cut off smiling and dialing and knocking on doors for business or I can shoot for a much broader audience and put in the work to make the business lines ring. While there are many ways to do this, what I am targeting for this posting is related to online marketing and involves already having a website or blog for your business that you need customers to see. Specifically I’m talking about social bookmarking as a method of driving people and the search engines to your site.
So what is social bookmarking?
Social bookmarking is the use of websites that allow you to create a user account and submit links that you find interesting and then share them with your friends, or the entire web. When others see and like the links you have submitted they tag them and/or vote for them or they save them to their own bookmarks. The more activity a link gets, the more popular it becomes on the bookmark website.
Popularity of a bookmark shows how a website is valued. It also demonstrates to the search engines what people think about the quality of a website. In there lies a powerful tool. Yes a potential client may find your site through a bookmark, but if bookmarking drives up your organic search results in a search engine, your business is more visible to the world. When a customer needs your products or services and does a search online, the goal is for your site to be found over the competition. Assuming you have a quality website, hold onto your socks because that’s when the phone will start to ring.
Social bookmarking is something to get pretty excited about…that is if you like having your phone ring for new orders. The next big question is how do you get it done? There are literally dozens of websites on the web to choose from for bookmarking your site. Below are 133 bookmark websites where you can create an account and start listing your favorite sites. Or you can try to hit as many sites as possible, bookmarking your own link…talk about tedious. This rather feels like knocking on doors again and telemarketing. However there is another option. While taking the time to do some of your own social bookmarking, if for no other reason than understanding what it is all about, is good, you can also hire a company to do it for you. One such company of reputable name is Majon International. As of this writing they have an introductory offering to post two links to 125 bookmarking sites for $79.00. While this is one of many, a little searching online will give you other options that may better suit you needs.
This approach to marketing is widely used in the entertainment and computer industries, but really holds value for any company. So weather you are selling a book such as "The Pandora Plague", moving industrial machines such as "American Industrial Werks" or running a blog for up and coming entrepreneurs such as "The Small Biz Pro" be smart with your marketing dollars and consider social bookmarking as one of many approaches to making the phone ring.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Help Businesses Find Your Website With HTML Sitemaps and XML Sitemaps
Having a website is a huge part of doing business these days. But just putting up a website doesn’t cut it. That business you are trying to sell your products and services to is going to search using Google, Yahoo, MS Search, etc. to find your website. So if you haven’t done the work to get listed with the search engines, your competition is going to get the business.
Now there are a lot of methods to boost your listing with the search engines not one of which will accomplish what you need alone, so consider HTML Sitemaps and XML Sitemaps one of many things on your To Do list.
Create an HTML SiteMap
An HTML sitemap is nothing more than a landing page (web page) on your website, where viewers can find all of the pages you want them to find. You can think about this as a family tree or file manager as in Microsoft Windows®. While large websites may dictate multiple pages for an HTML sitemap it is better to put everything on a single web page if you can. Many may be asking why in the world do I need this extra page when I already have a navigation bar? From a viewer perspective if your navigation bar has depth, meaning a single page goes several pages deep, this can be a pain for viewers to get to the page they really want. An HTML sitemap gives an overview that lets viewers cut to the chase. However there is more benefit to this approach than just pleasing the viewers. Setting up an HTML sitemap helps the search engines find all of your pages. The search engines like HTML sitemaps because all the links can be picked up from one page plus you gain valuable additional links to your pages. It is important to understand that links on your website to other areas of your website help your search engine ranking. So get it out of your head that you only need one link to your “products” or “services” page. Also, don’t forget to update your HTML sitemap when you add new content to your website. This is a great way to direct site visitors to new content and it lets the search engine spiders know there are additional pages to index.
XML Sitemap
An XML sitemap on the other hand is not for the viewer. It is a file specifically designed for a search engine spiders. This is one of many tools you need for search engine optimization (SEO) of your site. In order to ensure that the search engines can find all of your content, you want to post an XML sitemap that lists all of the pages you have listed on the HTML sitemap. This too is an important file to keep updated so the search engine spiders find your new pages. It is a roadmap to your content and the search engines look to see if and when you’ve made changes. The more new content you have the more important your site appears to the search engine.
Now there are a lot of methods to boost your listing with the search engines not one of which will accomplish what you need alone, so consider HTML Sitemaps and XML Sitemaps one of many things on your To Do list.
Create an HTML SiteMap
An HTML sitemap is nothing more than a landing page (web page) on your website, where viewers can find all of the pages you want them to find. You can think about this as a family tree or file manager as in Microsoft Windows®. While large websites may dictate multiple pages for an HTML sitemap it is better to put everything on a single web page if you can. Many may be asking why in the world do I need this extra page when I already have a navigation bar? From a viewer perspective if your navigation bar has depth, meaning a single page goes several pages deep, this can be a pain for viewers to get to the page they really want. An HTML sitemap gives an overview that lets viewers cut to the chase. However there is more benefit to this approach than just pleasing the viewers. Setting up an HTML sitemap helps the search engines find all of your pages. The search engines like HTML sitemaps because all the links can be picked up from one page plus you gain valuable additional links to your pages. It is important to understand that links on your website to other areas of your website help your search engine ranking. So get it out of your head that you only need one link to your “products” or “services” page. Also, don’t forget to update your HTML sitemap when you add new content to your website. This is a great way to direct site visitors to new content and it lets the search engine spiders know there are additional pages to index.
XML Sitemap
An XML sitemap on the other hand is not for the viewer. It is a file specifically designed for a search engine spiders. This is one of many tools you need for search engine optimization (SEO) of your site. In order to ensure that the search engines can find all of your content, you want to post an XML sitemap that lists all of the pages you have listed on the HTML sitemap. This too is an important file to keep updated so the search engine spiders find your new pages. It is a roadmap to your content and the search engines look to see if and when you’ve made changes. The more new content you have the more important your site appears to the search engine.
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