Marketing | Website Usability | Architeture

1. Website Optimization
Firstly, your website should be current. For the best results, a balance of good "real-world" marketing, design creativity, functionality, informative content and search term targeting is vital. You should research search terms relevant to your site and find those keyphrases that are the most searched online, but the least targeted by other sites. You should ensure that these keywords appear as much as is practical in the content of your site, and in special tags which should be included in your site for search engines only, called the "Title", "Description", and "Keyword" tags. Other places to repeat keywords are in image ALT tags (pop-up image labels), image and page filenames, status bar text and in your domain name. Search engines often change their methods, and reveal little about them so experience and research is very helpful.

2. Email Marketing - Ezines
Email marketing, such as Ezine is an excellent way to keep in touch with prospects and customers, and remind them of your offerings. This is not the same as "spam", which is not requested and can be very frustrating for the recipient. Instead, only those who have requested to be kept up to date receive the emails. Lists must be carefully managed and it must be easy for a customer to opt-out of the mailing list. It is always best to begin by giving free advice, help or news to keep readers' interest up and give information on your offerings should they wish to know more.

3. Link Exchanges
The more links to your site from the Internet, the better profile you will get on many search engines. This is especially true of Google, currently the world's number one search engine. Links from similar sites to yours are best, but almost all links are valuable. When requesting a link we recommend that you suggest the linking text which would be displayed - getting your keywords in the link further helps your ranking. Usually you would offer a link from your site in return. Link exchanges won't cost you anything, though to get good results often quite a lot of time is invested. Also consider other ways to get links, such as in forums (see Profiling below).

4. Profiling
A very good way to establish yourself online is to join discussions on the Internet, such as forums, which are used by your target customer. While giving valuable help you also establish yourself as an expert and encourage users to use your services. Many forums allow you to include your website address in your messages, which can also count as an extra link to your site.

5. Directory Listings
Directories are similar to search engines but edited and approved by humans rather than being automated. Therefore they are often slow to get listed on, but very powerful for searchers since they are fully moderated. Our search engine submissions get your site submitted to the most important directories as well as search engines. Special directories and associations specifically for your business type will almost certainly exist and are very valuable (such as hotel directories, accountants' associations or site design company listings).

6. Banner Advertising
Banner Advertising gets your brand, message or special offer shown on other sites. When a user clicks on the banner they are taken to your site. They come in many sizes from small buttons nestled in a site's borders to large tower adverts displayed vertically along with a site's content. Banner campaign costs vary hugely, usually dependant on the profile of the displaying site.