One of, if not the primary reason to have a website is to generate leads for your business or organization. If it doesn't then it's like buying an expensive Italian silk suit and never wearing it. You're making a significant investment for your site but without an internet marketing strategy, you'll never get a decent return on investment (ROI).

Driving traffic to your website is the first step; converting that traffic into sales is the next step. Don't make the mistake of simply spending money to get a web site online (however beautiful or technically impressive) and leaving it to its fate. Make it work for you!

If you're looking to get a good understanding of online marketing, we've provided several whitepapers (to the left) from our collection for your parusal.  These come from some of the best minds in the business and are provide free (YES even without registration) to help you gain an understanding of how to get the upperhand over your online marketing efforts.

Where Do You Start?

There are numerous ways to use the web to increase your business. You can send out an email in HTML or plain text format, or send coupons or special offers to your email list. You can post articles on your website, or distribute them through web-based article distribution services, or both. You can start a blog or post a comments board. You can write an e-book and require registration to download it. These are all "soft-sell" options that can reap large rewards. We can help you figure out what will work best for your needs.

You may also decide to do some paid advertising on the web (discussed in the section about SEM).

Finally, you begin analyzing your web logs and hosting reports and based on the data, make adjustments to your site to improve performance.

SEM (Search Engine Marketing)

SEM is paid advertising for the web. You can't buy a spot in a search engine's Organic Listings (discussed below), but you can bid for spots in their Sponsored Listings and post ads on other websites that will drive traffic your way.

Currently the two most prominent paid advertising avenues on the web are through Google and Yahoo. (Microsoft is aggressively attempting to improve the usage of their search engine with the recent release of Bing, but at the present it is still a distant 3rd to Google and Yahoo.) The beauty of their offerings is that they are measurable. If you post an ad you will get reports telling you how many click-throughs your ad generated (and a lot more).

SEM has been shown to be very successful for companies and organizations that have a regional, national and international reach, or that provide products or services that people need to research. Companies that serve "local" areas can benefit from running small-scale campaigns focused on appearing on the page when a searcher is seeking a local provider.

Any SEM campaign is 2-pronged - you need to set up your website so that the landing pages relate directly to the information from the referrer then you need to run the campaign through Google.

For example, if you sell Wines and someone searching for Rieslings clicks on your ad, they should be taken to a page that discusses or at least includes Rieslings. When your page content is directly applicable to your ad, you increase conversions.

Like everything else on the web, the information is out there and you can do anything on your own. The questions become: "how much time and energy can you apply to learning about how to be successful with your SEM campaign? How much time can you spend building or modifying landing pages and writing ads? If you have the time, interest and aptitude, go for it! If not, we can run your SEM campaign for you!

What are Conversions?

Conversions are when site visitors convert to customers. That is the goal.

Conversions result from a variety of efforts that include but aren't limited to people arriving at your site through a search engine. People may come directly to your site or come through a link from another site. When they arrive, they want the site to provide the information they are seeking. Using Web Analytic tools to analyze your site's traffic patterns can help you evaluate it's performance and make improvements as needed.

What is Web Analytics?

Web Analytics is the interpretation of data collected by the servers where websites reside. As more and more businesses seek to develop a greater presence on the web, it has become increasingly important -- particularly for businesses engaged in e-commerce activities -- to get specific answers to some basic questions: How many people visit the site on a yearly, monthly, weekly, daily or hourly basis? From where did the traffic originate? How long do they stay on the site? Are visitors navigating to the right pages where critical information resides? What's your site's the conversion rate (visitors to sales generated ratio)?

With these types of analyses and working in conjunction with an informed web development/design team, you can tailor your site to work in concert with all of your marketing efforts.

Let us help you figure out how your website is doing and how it can be improved!

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a process that makes a website search engine friendly and helps the site rank well in the search engine's organic listings. At Higher Spectrum Media, every website we create utilizes SEO principles for construction and content.

What does it mean to be "search engine friendly?"

When a site has been constructed with optimization in mind, search engine "spiders" (also called "bots", short for robots) can find the site and "read" its pages easily. The information gathered will then be transmitted back to the Search Engine and the website will be properly categorized in the Search Engine's database.

What are "organic listings"?

Organic listings are the search engine's "free" listings. Search engines also serve up "paid" listings. Google's paid (or sponsored) listings appear on the right-hand side of the browser window.

What does it mean to "rank well?"

To rank well means that your website appears at or near the top of the organic listings that come up in response to a search engine query.

The organic listings' results are completely automated. You can't pay for a Number 1 listing - your site will rank based on it's merits. Furthermore, Google imposes a waiting period for new sites or newly optimized sites. It typically takes 6-9 months for your site to rise to it's natural position.

What are SEO Principals for Construction and Content?

The basic elements of SEO to consider in an website developement project include:

• Clean Coding
• Top-Heavy Content Placement and Site Architecture
• Solid Content that is optimized for Keywords and Phrases
• Use of relevant keywords in Page Names, Content and Alt-Tags
• Use of Alt-Tags for images

In addition there are steps that should be taken either by you or by us. A link campaign is an example.

Link Campaigns

The search engines have a variety of automated techniques that they use to select the results they serve up in response to a search query. One of the variables they measure is the quantity and quality of incoming links to your site, i.e. websites that have linked to yours. The theory is that if outside sites have chosen to link to your site it must mean that your site's content has merit. Google in particular "favors" information-heavy sites.

A link campaign is a process of researching relevant and complementary sites and requesting a posting or link exchange. (Relevance is critical - getting a whole bunch of unrelated sites to link to yours will not yield positive results.)

Link campaigns take time, and their results aren't instantaneous. But over a period of months a good link campaign will help raise your site's rankings for your selected search terms.

So SEO involves both the construction of the website and its content.

Would you like to start a campaign or want more infomation about SEO, SEM, Web Marketing? Give us a call at 866-829-4557.