You’re excited about trying some Social Media Marketing. You’ve got your Facebook page and Twitter profile ready to go and you can’t wait for all those hot new leads to come pouring in.

Whoa….hold on there just one minute. If your website is screaming 2003 it’s time to go back to the basics and fix your foundation first.

Here are a few questions you should ask yourself before launching your Social Media Marketing campaign.

1 - Is my website visually appealing? - Do the colors, layout and images look like a nice, new Web 2.o site…or is it plain, rigid and templated? Are there scrolling marquees? Do you have multiple navigations? Are there little pieces of clip art that flash and float around? …There’s your sign.

2 - Is my website set up to “convert”? – Is there a prominent phone number in the top right corner? Do you have a simple contact form on every page of the site? How easy have you made it for users to contact you? Remember, they may land on any page of your site based on their search results. Can they easily get in touch with you from every page?

3 – How well does my site come up in the search engines? – If you’re “Joe’s Crab Shack in Myrtle Beach”…does your site appear in the organic results when someone searches for “seafood in Myrtle Beach”? What other keywords or search terms do you think users would type in when searching for a business like yours? Check all those out also.

4 – Do I have enough content on my site? – Is there robust, relevant content on every page of your website? I’m not talking about a 700 word mini-novel. You need a couple of specific, well-written paragraphs that incorporate those keywords and search terms the search engines will be looking for. (Contact Me to learn more about making sure your website is coded properly for the search engines.)

5 – Do I have analytics installed on my website? - Before starting any kind of internet marketing campaign you have to make sure you’re able to measure results. Google Analytics is free and easy to install on your site. This way you’ll know how many people are coming to the site, what they’re doing while they are there, how they left, where they came from and how they found you. Analytics are imperitive.

Granted, there are tons of other issues and questions we could cover here. However, if you get these basics down your site will be more effective. We can drive tons of traffic to the website, but if it’s not visually appealing, set up to convert and easy to use…we’re wasting our time.

Remember also, fixing your website is probably one of the most cost-effective marketing solutions to your multiple business challenges. Fix your foundation first. Then, build your dream house.

Feel free to contact me with any questions or to learn more.

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Here are a few quick tips that will help you create those links and improve your search engine rankings.

1 – Write and submit articles. You know your business better than anybody else. Take some time and write a few articles that pertain to a certain aspect of your business. Then, create accounts on EZineArticles.com and GoArticles.com and submit your articles to their aggregators.

2 – Start your own blog and link out to other blogs. Linking out as much as possible increases the likelihood that you’ll get a link back. When you start your blog make sure you list yours with the most relevant blog directories.

3 – Post comments on other blogs. If your comments are inciteful and thought provoking there is a much better chance that other readers will click on your profile, which leads them back to your site or blog. Don’t spam. That’s lame.

4 – Write and submit press releases. Make sure they are well-written and interesting. Submit them at PRWeb.com. It’s not free, but the investment is well worth it. Not willing to shell out the cash yet? Try Free-Press-Release.com.

5 – Social Bookmarking. Take the interesting content from your main website, articles, blog posts, etc. and post them on social bookmarking sites like Delicious, Digg, Reddit and Stumbleupon. This will create a churn of traffic back to your site.

Monitor your analytics closely to measure what’s working. There are hundreds of ways to create inbound links to your website. These are just 5 simple ways to get the ball rolling as you work towards taking it to the next level.

To learn how we can help, CONTACT US!

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