Having a strong online presence is imperative for all businesses. Increasingly, Australians are turning to the Internet, and search engines particularly, as their first point of call for researching businesses, products and services. Over 11 million Australians are now online – for an average of 14 hours per week. And they are hungry for information. Online marketing can work for any business – large or small – provided you have carefully considered your online strategy and business objectives.
Before investing in an online presence, assess where your website fits within your overall marketing objectives, who you want to reach with your online campaigns and how you will measure the success of your online strategy. If you don’t have a website, think about developing one.
Here are some quick tips on how to increase your web presence using Google, as well as a description of some of the free useful tools that Google offers to help you boost your web presence and succeed online.
Search Marketing
The quickest way to increase your web presence is through search marketing. This refers to the “Sponsored Links” which appear on a search engine’s results page. On Google, the Sponsored Links appear in a yellow shaded box on the top of the search results page and down the right hand side of the page.
You can choose to have your ads appear when users search for particular keywords, write your own ad text and determine the geographical region to which you will target your ads. When consumers in your selected region look for information using your keywords, your ads will show up on the search results page. When consumers click on your ads, they will be taken directly to your chosen website. You can make contact with customers at the precise moment that they’re looking for information about you. Think of it as a great matchmaking service.
This all works on an auction model – you bid against other advertisers for your selected keywords, but only pay when a prospective customer clicks on your advertisement. You also choose your maximum daily spend.
To get the best return from your ad spend, ensure you select keywords relevant to your business and, that you write compelling ad text.
Improve Your Rankings in ‘Natural’ Search
Another way of increasing your online presence is through search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is the process of building your website in a way which enables your web pages to rank highly in the ‘natural’ results pages of the search engines. The basic rule is to make your site is relevant and clearly structured and labeled. The more relevant to users that your site is, the higher it is likely to rank. A mathematical algorithm determines natural search results. You cannot pay to improve your position.
For more information, see the Google Webmaster Help Centre at google.com.au/webmasters.
Improve the Effectiveness of Your Website
Attracting more visitors to your site through search advertising and SEO is only one component of online marketing. Your website also needs to provide a good user experience. The more user-friendly your website design, the more likely that the user will take an action that is important to your business – whether that be a purchase, opt-in, sign-up or page view.
Google offers a couple of free tools which can help you make continual improvements to your website and increase the effectiveness of your ads: Website Optimizer and Google Analytics.
Website Optimizer allows you to test which content on your website results in consumers taking desired actions. You can test multiple variations of a page and compare customer behaviours. Then you can implement the site design, which works best. To test this tool yourself, go to google.com/websiteoptimizer.
Google Analytics provides you with useful information such as how your visitors are finding and interacting with your site, which keywords bring them to your site, and where visitors are leaving your site. You can use this information to make site changes to convert more visitors into customers. To start using Google Analytics, go to: google.com.au/analytics
Get Online Today
It is important for businesses to have an online presence these days, as the Internet has become such an integral part of everyone’s daily lives. Whatever size and stage of evolution your business is at, you can effectively and efficiently find customers and raise awareness of your business by participating in the new online environment.
