how a website can work for you

How a Website Can Work for You

by Ash [email protected]

www.trainsem.com

Copyright © 2007 Ash Nallawalla. All rights reserved.

mailto:[email protected]


03/05/23 www.trainSEM.com trains ‘em! 2

Introduction – Ash Nallawalla

Full-time SEO / PPC practitioner since 2002 (worked on nearly 2,000 websites)

Qualified Google Advertising Professional On the web since 1987 Background:

Traditional and online marketing at Unisys, Hayes, Tennyson, *Selectica, *Macromedia, *sem911.com, *Melbourne IT, and now trainSEM.com

* = web-related companies



Fundamental Principle

It’s all about:

Traffic



Step 1. Plan Your Site

Objectives, e.g. More sales More sign-ups More participation

Audience, e.g. Nursing mothers Mothers of toddlers, teenagers, etc Young couples

Marketing Strategy How will you target them – online, offline etc Domain name – branding and SEO aspects



Step 1a. Research

Competitors (from a website perspective) Who is ranking high? What are they saying? What are their offerings? Research their keyphrases.

http://www.axandra.com/go.to/ibp9

http://www.axandra.com/go.to/ibp9



Step 2. Design the Site

More text, fewer pictures and Flash More relevant text, less marketese

Searchers don’t use superlatives e.g. “best baby clothes” or “preeminent importer of baby toys”

Use the language of the audience in your site Position the words prominently

Title tag, H1, first para Do not overuse the same phrase: 2-3 times max

Avoid Javascript for drop-down effects. If you must, be sure to provide a sitemap for the spiders so they can find all your pages.



Step 2a. Give the Spider Some Food

Examples of four PR company websites:



Step 3. Content is King

Creating content is easier said than done. Create the core content – more text, etc Fresh content – how?

Blog with news about your business Tip of the day Visitor participation? – forum, blog comments etc

– use with care



Step 3a. Example: blogworks.in/blog

Rajesh Lalwani – New Delhi based consultant.



Step 4. Build a Mailing List

Everything else then becomes easier. Heed the Privacy Act Double Opt-In Newsletter subscribers Blog readers

= Traffic



Step 5. Become Visible

Step outside your website. Find complementary sites, e.g. blogs, forums,

and participate. Mention your website in your signature, which appears below your post.

Submit your URL to quality directories and the main search engines (not necessary but might as well do it)

Get written up by the news media. Mention the URL on all collateral and anywhere

else if it looks right.



Example: After some forum participation

About 5 postsmade in 3forums

More thandoubled thetraffic!



Step 6. Become More Visible

But that’s not enough. Consider Affiliate Marketing

Pay a generous commission for a sale Two-tier structure – encourages top tier to find

more affiliates Long cookie duration Protect your brand – affiliates cannot bid on your

keywords



Example of Affiliate Site

Amazon aStore at www.zuneusergroup.com

http://www.zuneusergroup.com/



Step 7. Pay for Traffic

Sometimes, you have to pay to get traffic. Google AdWords/Yahoo Search

Marketing/Sensis BidSmart – pay-per-click (PPC) – mislabelled “SEM” by some.

Easy to implement, targeted, cheaper than Yellow Pages, fixed daily budget

Also easy to blow your money: Poor keyword research Poor targeting Paying too much per click Click fraud Lack of time to do a good job



Step 8. Search Engine Optimisation

Involves: Reworking some of the text. Reworking some underlying code. Obtaining quality links from other sites, esp

“authority sites” in the same industry.Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Anyone, it seems, can say they “know SEO”,

including web designers, but their sites show few signs of SEO best practices.

SEO is a marketing discipline, not an IT one. Check your SEO’s marketing credentials.



Some SEO Tips

The title tag is the most important part of your web page. Don’t waste it with “Welcome to XYZ Pty Ltd” or “~~::ABC Company::~~

Lots of relevanttext high up onthe page.

Headings Get links from

authority sitese.g. Vicnet

Thank Youwww.trainsem.comWe can help with:

TrainingSEO & PPCWeb Design

[email protected]

http://www.trainsem.com/

how a website can work for you

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