EzineArticles is a matching service – bringing real-world experts and ezine publishers together. Expert Authors like me can post our articles to be featured within the site where email newsletter publishers hungry for fresh content can search for relevant content. We use this to help promote our clients online by not only being good PR, but to also help their SEO.

I originally signed up and as a result of the good quality articles I have posted EzineArticles have upgraded my account to the highest possible at no cost and sent me some freebies. I am very proud to be given this status as this is one of the hardest article sites to be part of. With a page rank of 6/10 the links are also definitely going to be valuable for our SEO clients!

What the letter said:

“Congratulations on achieving EzineArticles Platinum Membership!

Please accept these limited-edition EzineArticles.com items as a token of our appreciation for submitting your best quality original articles. I am extremely proud of our international Expert Authors, like you, who are true authorities in their niche and contribute new, unique articles every week.

The EzineArticles Team and I look forward to your next set of article submissions so that we may increase your exposure and send targeted, qualified traffic back to your website.

Thanks for being a part of the EzineArticles.com community!

To Your Article Writing and Marketing Success,
Christopher Knight

http://EzineArticles.com/”

Absolute Interior Design create elegant and stunning interiors for residential properties and commercial projects. Jason has a keen eye for detail and loves how the site is image based – after all a picture speaks a thousand words.

The image led website required Mancala to ensure the rest of the site could be easily read by search engines to keep its ranking for key searches as well as stay visually appealing to attract new customers. More Info on Interior Design Newcastle.

How often do you see entries in the search engine results pages (SERPS) from companies who, for a princely sum, will submit your website to over 200 search engines. Yes, that’s very nice but what are these 200+ search engines and are they really important.

The majority of people you speak with will name up to three search engines; Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Some of us who’ve been kicking around this space for a little longer will remember the likes of HotBot, Excite, Netscape and Alta Vista.

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What these other companies fail to mention is that getting your website indexed is only the first step, the smallest step, in getting your web pages to display in the SERPS. What these companies are failing to mention is that, if your site is properly structured and includes the necessary links and pages, the search engine crawlers will visit your site and index it themselves, usually within the 48 hours promised by these “submission companies”.

Learn SEO in 48 Hours, only £9.99

So SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is easy right? You’ve read the book but you still don’t know which way to turn or how to get started. Looks like the book hasn’t quite lived up to its own hype.

It’s fairly easy to explain SEO. It’s another matter altogether implementing a good, effective strategy. If you’re investing in SEO then you’re in for the long haul. There is no magic out there that can guarantee to get you to the top of the search results pages despite the claims made by many SEO companies

Retrieve, Sort, Show

The three main steps involved in being “discovered” by qualified traffic (i.e. real people searching for the products and services you provide) require the search engines to:

1. Retrieve information from your website, about what you do and what you offer

2. They sort the information, index the data ready to provide links to relative searches within its engine

3. They show links to your website when the search query is relative to the content within your site

So, if you spent this years marketing budget getting your website indexed on a plethora of search engines that nobody has heard of, let alone uses, then you’re all set to not realise your dreams.

If you want to do SEO properly, you need to invest the time reviewing a keyword strategy. Take a look at the competition and the keywords they’re targeting. Use your analytics software to discover the keywords people are using to find your site. Create landing pages geared around long-tail search queries. Optimise the content on your existing site.

Your site needs to have a proper structure. The code “behind the scenes” needs to follow a format that helps guide the search engines towards the most important content and keywords. While search engines are well travelled, it’s in your interests to guide them through your site to make sure that the content that is indexed is going to be relative to the searches performed by your potential customers.

It’s a minefield out there. It’s easy to be taken in by the scammers. At Mancala we encourage long term relationships with our customers. Some of our best customers started by “trying the waters” with us – they invested only a small amount of money in marketing and when they saw the results for themselves, the confidence in the relationship grew.

We like to show you all of the options available to your business and there are plenty of options to choose from. What you need to understand is what each option is, how effective it’s likely to be and how each option suits your budget. By sitting down to discuss your plans and objectives we’re able to help you develop a strategy that suits your business and growth. None of the options we discuss are set in stone and we’re able to adjust the work we’re doing to react to the various situations that are often thrown at us.

Keep control, be wary of those companies promising results that they can’t deliver. Dip your toe in the water to start with if you’re not convinced. A long journey begins with a few steps.

Why am I getting no sales and what can I do about it?

Firstly, is your website receiving traffic? Do you have the tools to measure the traffic?

Traffic to your website can be measured simply and for free. Installing Google Analytics will provide you with all of the information you need about how people are finding your website, how they’re using it and how they’re not.

Once you’ve established that people are visiting your website it’s important to regularly review how they’re using it and to enhance your website in the areas that the analytics show are not performing well.

Okay, I’m getting plenty of traffic but no sales. What are the options?

Are you getting the right traffic? If you’re selling socks and your visitors were looking for cheese then these are not qualified visitors. You need to be attracting those people with an interest in the products or services that you’re offering.

Is your content optimised for your target audience? Take a look at your homepage. Does it speak clearly about your products and services? Does it use the key phrases that people looking for your website would enter into a search engine? Is it clear to navigate? Can I find products quickly and easily?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a process of optimising your existing content for search engines. When a search engine indexes your site you need to make sure that it’s picking up the correct information, that it understands the content and that it’ll be able to make the association between your content and relative searches. It’s not rocket science but it takes time and work to get it right. Even then, this is going to be an ongoing process and the goals you set need to be longer term. SEO is not for those seeking quick returns, it’s for the longer term investor.

Pay per Click (PPC) advertising is used for quick returns. In return for a budget (that you control), you’re able to create targeted adverts that appear in search engine results pages (SERPS). The benefit of this model is that, with a carefully managed PPC campaign, you’re able to target your real customers, those looking for your products and services. From the PPC advert you’re able to direct them straight to the product page, removing the need for them to trawl your site to find what they’re looking for.

Email Marketing is an excellent way to speak with your clients if you’ve already built up a customer database. A good email marketing campaign will avoid being spammed, will appear clearly to all of your recipients and will provide good, interesting, click-provoking content to drive qualified traffic into your website. Many people speak of being able to do this but not many can do it properly.

So, the qualified traffic is landing on my site but still no sales. Is my marketing wrong?

If you’re receiving qualified traffic then the likelihood is that your marketing campaign is doing its job. What you need to do is review what people are doing when they get to your site. Using your analytics software you need to understand how people are entering your site and where they’re existing.

If a large percentage of the traffic is leaving your site at a particular page then you need to review that page and understand why it’s causing your visitors to abort. If they’re leaving the site from a product page is the pricing competitive, does it provide the information that the visitor requries, does the “buy now” button work?

If the visitors are largely aborting at the cart page then look at the functionality of the cart, the breakdown of the order charges (products, VAT, shipping, gift wrap).

Is your site secure? Have you installed a security certificate? Many people are now aware of what to look for when buying online. If your website doesn’t tick some or all of the secure boxes – valid security certificate, extended verification, recognised payment gateway provider – they’re likely to be discouraged from buying from you.

If you’ve installed Google Analytics you’ll be able to set up goals within your account to monitor certain processes. A goal might be set up to measure the pages within your checkout. Analytics reports on the progress made by your customers through the tunnel and makes it easy to identify where problems exist in the process. Sometimes the problem is minor, sometimes major. Whatever the severity of the problem, the likelihood is that it’s costing you money.

A website can’t simply be designed, built and then set out on the internet in the vain hope that it’ll make you money.

At Mancala we like and need to work with you. We have the expertise to build and market a website but you know your products and your customers. By working together we can understand your business, your objectives and help guide you through what can become a technical minefield in some cases.

Give us a call or drop us an email. We can offer you help and advice or can arrange a review of your existing website. Whether it’s web development, web design, content management, payment integration, ecommerce, email marketing, internet marketing, social media marketing or something else, you can guarantee we’ll be able to help.

Mancala Technology

email: emailus@mancala.co.uk
phone: 0191 241 6726

Advertisers are realising that in the economic downturn, the key is to work smarter, not harder and with online advertising offering cost-effective opportunities to target audiences specifically, the predicted rise shouldn’t really be that much of a surprise. Afterall, why waste your money on advertising in print when you can use AdWords to advertise your products to a someone at precisely the moment they are searching for them? Why blow the budget on a TV commercial which will be fast-forwarded on the Sky+ box anyway when you can use someones profile information on Facebook to ensure that you are advertising to exactly the right person who will buy your product or service?

To find out more about how your online advertising spend can be put to good use, visit the Mancala Internet Marketing website or contact us today.