The goal of any website is essentially to provide information. Hopefully it’s done in a fashion that readers find useful or compelling. But how do you actually get people to your site to read that information? There are many ways for a website to be found such as though search engines, paid advertising, word of mouth, and social media.
But which way is the best? Well the answer to that is actually all of them. Website marketers are now using the term Search Marketing Integration (SMI) to describe how a site should be marketed. What is search marketing integration? Well is basically the concept of optimizing a site for people, not for search engines.
Previously when Search Engine Optimization (SEO) was all the rage, marketers would go to great lengths to insure a site was ranking high and appearing on the top slots of search engines such as Google and Bing through methods such as organic optimization (keywords, meta tags) and back-linking. While SEO is still a very important element for websites, it’s now really part of a larger picture.
Google has changed a lot of their search engine algorithms so previous techniques of getting sites highly ranked are no longer as effective as they once were. Social Media has come along and changed the face of website marketing. Google now tries to determine what the ‘authority’ of your website is. What’s taken into consideration is how relevant the content on your site is and how trusted. One method they use is finding out how much your information is ‘liked’ or ‘shared’ through various outlets such as social media. They find that sites with content that is shared or often talked about on blogs and other sites must contain good information and is therefore more relevant and trustworthy.
So in marketing your website, it’s important to use a balanced approach. Make sure your content is unique , fresh, and naturally describes what your site is all about. Make sure you are not just stuffing your site with keywords that you think people will use to find your site as this can actually hurt your site’s position on Search Engines Results Page (SERP). Use your social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest) to direct people to and promote your site. Share information on your site in your daily conversations. Allow people to subscribe to your site so they will receive notice when content is updated. Find relevant directories and review sites (Manta, Google Plus, Yelp, etc..) and post your information there. And finally, if you have the budget, consider buying ads on Google, Facebook, and other online outlets.
If you need help marketing your site, please contact Sadler Web Design.
