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Newsletter / Blog


2014-10-01
SEO Alternatives


The topic of this month's newsletter is "Other ways to market your website"

Before we do that let us discuss a few other important issues which precedes the actual marketing of your website by SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and other means.

Introduction :

Web Design Client Expectations

In general website owners expect a website to bring them in business. Why else would you invest money in getting a website done in the first place? Our web design clients expects us to deliver good SEO results. This however is a joint effort between ourselves and our clients. We provide a solid structure which search engines can easily navigate, we include SEO training, submit your website sitemap to search engines but all of this means nothing if our clients do not ad content to their website and not just any content.

Ultimately the test of what constitutes good content is done by search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing are the major search engines) . They are expected by their clients (their website visitors) to deliver content which is relevant. Their clients are the people searching the internet for products, services and general information or entertainment.

I am discussing Search Engines and On-Site Seo at the moment. Things that can be done on your website to attract more website visitors. I have written a whole book and created a website on this topic which i continue working on. This can be found at www.seobook.co.za .

I am hoping that the people I will be emailing this monthly newsletter to will stop and take time to read this newsletter and then to actually contact me so we can start with their website project. But what am I actually asking you to to?

Give me your time and money!

This is the main reason people do not have effective websites because these resources of time and money is scarce. That's the real SEO problem. It costs money to get a website and it take times to have a website in the first place and then to work that website to page 1 of Google takes effort. The time I am spending writing this newsletter could also be spend phoning for new clients or actually building a website. So it is for our web design clients as well.

Phone Francois or Melanie today and we will show you how  a website can actually save you time and money.

Francois 0745470221
Melanie 0768470492

When you view this previous sentence on our website you will notice that i changed the colour a bit to make it stand out. That is called having a call to an action e.g.. I am asking you to phone me now and I want it to stand out a bit. You can do this with buttons as well. Our software have tools to create these buttons all over your website. All of these things are important once you get people to visit your website. But SEO takes time and in some industries it takes a very long time. Most businesses will go out of business if they only rely on SEO as the only marketing technique to market their services.

What other ways are there to market your website?

  1. Business cards, flyers,newspaper adverts, magazines. (This costs money but how much is your time worth to you?)
  2. Google AdWords (At the end of the day probably one of the most cost effective ways of advertising - get found while people are actually searching for your services)
  3. Google my business - A free resource which stand apart from your business and quick and easy to set up
  4. Facebook groups (Be careful not to overspend time if you do not understand the nature of Facebook groups and posts)
  5. Community involvement (We are actively involved in communities in the virtual word (Marloth Park and Kruger National Park)
  6. Vehicle branding could pay your vehicles monthly installment (Our product gives you one free SMS Short Code eg SMS BUDDY to 37995)
  7. Create a YouTube Channel - Free and have a big worldwide audience
  8. Email potential customers - Avoid Spam as filters are very strict (Even my bona fide monthly newsletter sometimes ends up in Spam filters.)
  9. SMS Marketing - Our websites come with a free built in SMS tool 
  10. Use other Social Media like Twitter (If you understand twitter and if suited for your business)
  11. Advertising on online directories in your field of business
  12. Monthly newsletter like ours (Facility comes with your website)

Note on Social Media Marketing:

Most small and medium business owners either like or hate Facebook and Twitter. And there is no budget to pay someone else to build your online relationships. Your secretary could end up doing a lot more damage than good. It is about real online relationships so do not consider it if you do not already enjoy these platforms. It will not be cost effective. The younger generation will laugh at me now. I see my kids of 10 and 11 are already on Instagram, Piniterest and What'sUp . I too should not wake up one day too late when they start having the buying power. Currently they have my buying power - lol!

We can help you with SEO but it's more a case of giving you a fishing rod and you helping yourself. Your competitors are already doing so. Our technology has made having a CMS website much more affordable and managing your content easy.

It remains important to be realistic of the time frame. The time it takes to get business via your website and it remains important to consider things like your website layout and enticing potential customers to interact when visiting your website. Trough SEO it will take some time (2-6 weeks minimum) but trough other means it may happen instantly.

We need to be ready for those customers.

It is a warm and sunny day here in Cape Town today. We wish you a happy Summer!