Search Engine Marketing is a combined application of the following methods. The objective is to build incoming links to your Web site. The more incoming links you have the higher your site will rank in the search engines.
Make your site work for you. It starts with optimizing it which is a whole other subject and is the cornerstone of marketing to bring drive traffic to your site.
There are article submission sites that will publish for a nominal fee or for free (one site will submit your article to 50 article directories for $20). Free directories take a great deal of time and you aren’t guaranteed publishing. Other directories such as Yahoo charge a premium. Not only do your articles gain back links to your site (many links that you include in your article), you will get traffic as a bonus. The big benefit to Article Submission back links is they are 100% relevant — which search engines love.
We are all experts. Your blog will provide the opportunity to show your expertise and link to many pages on your site. You can use your published article plus other topics. Your chosen key phrases have application throughout. Be sure to visit other blogs and comment so the audience gets to know you.
A blog is a key stepping stone for using Social Media Marketing. The premise of SMM sites is they are personal, not business. So you have to subtly offer a solution by suggesting a visit to an article on your blog. A FREE resource for creating and publishing Blogs is Wordpress.com.
Social media, more than any other vehicle, has the potential to spread a message far and fast. This is networking on steroids. The catch is, if the networks or the members think you’re abusing them to promote yourself, they’ll penalize you or ban you altogether. An example of social network spamming is to make friends with hundreds of strangers and then start sending them coupons or offers. That’s cause for getting kicked off the network.
The acceptable approach is to participate in conversations (search to find applicable topics) and make a pitch only when someone states he or she is looking for a product or service you provide. And even then, the best practice would be to direct them to an article on your blog which suggests your expertise and links to you site offering your range of services or products.
A great example would be Marla (an interior designer) participating in a conversation about concerns of bamboo flooring. She would join in with a link to her blog article about the comparisons of various flooring including bamboo. Those impressed with Marla’s article tell their friends, who in turn share with more friends with the potential of hundreds of people now thinking Marla knows flooring.
All of this combined marketing will move your site up in search engine rankings.