ONLINE SURVEYS.Online Surveys and Paid Surveys Success and More…

The web design and development process can be a lengthy one. Between working on the right look, the layout, and functionality of your website, the time it takes to get all this done, not to mention the costs, can put a person off anything else even remotely web related.

Unfortunately, I have to say that merely having a website is not enough these days, most especially if you are counting on using your website to get more customers or clients.

If you are wanting your website to be a major source of business for you, then this article is for you.

Please bear with me, as I introduce the topic of online marketing to you. It is a relatively new form of marketing in South Africa, and I have yet to see many small - medium sized businesses actively and aggressively using it to expand their online reach. However, more and more people have been making enquiries with us about online marketing, and I have found it necessary to write a series on the topic.

Online Marketing, in a nutshell, is the process of marketing your website on the web. There are many avenues you could explore, but there are a few proven methods out there that almost any business could benefit from.

Firstly, getting to grips with online marketing, requires an understanding of some basic concepts:

SEM - “Search Engine Marketing” is a blanket term which covers the many forms of internet or online marketing, including search engine optimisation (SEO) and search engine advertising (SEA). The aim of SEM is to improve a website’s visibility on the web and in the search engine results pages (SERP’s) via the online marketing methods available to us today.

SEO - “Search Engine Optimisation” is the ongoing improvement of a website’s organic search engine rankings. This process usually requires professional assistance, unless you have experience in web development. The results are not immediate and SEO should rather be seen as a long-term investment, and not a quick fix.

SEA - “Search Engine Advertising” is the placement of ads on the web, particularly within the search engine results. Most of the major search engines offer advertising products to the public, enabling literally anyone to make use of “paid search”.

Organic Search results - These are your search results which appear in the left hand side of the page. These results are organic, because they appear there “naturally”. For example, you cannot pay Google to have your website appear on the first page of organic results, and the only legitimate way to improve your web rankings, is through the use of SEO.

Paid Search results - These are the search results that appear in the top left and right hand side of the search engine results pages (SERP’s). These results are placed there by advertisers, who have paid or are paying to have them there.

And this is the crux of this article, Paid Search. The ability to drive traffic to your website by placing ads within the search engine results pages.

These ads are paid for, and because of this, you as the advertiser have control over when your ads appear, how often they appear & where they appear in the paid search results.

The beauty of paid search is the fact that you are advertising your website to users who are already interested in your services. How you may ask?

When you create your ad, you will be required to build a list of “keywords”, or “search phrases” which you think users would type into the search bar to find your services or products. Every time someone performs a search query using these keywords, your ads will be displayed in the paid search results.

Every time someone clicks on one of your ads, they are re-directed to a page on your website. If they click on your ad, it means that your ad is relevant to them and what they are trying to find on the web. If 100 different people click one of your ads everyday, that translates into 100 unique visits to your website everyday day. These visits are coming from people who know what they are looking for and who already have an interest in what you can offer to them.

If it is not already obvious to you, this is a sure fire way of driving traffic to your website. Not just random, click-happy users, but people who are genuinely interested in your services & products. Half of your work is already done for you when someone finds your ad. There is no cold-calling required, just potential clients who have come looking for you.

Stay tuned for the next installment in this series - coming soon!

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