75 Takeaways and Tips from OME May Workshop: Web Marketing for Startups

Team YS 15263 Stories

Sunday June 05, 2011 , 9 min Read

Research

Research and gather information about You, Your Competitors, Your Brand and your Industry using tools
Google alerts : www.google.com/alerts
Google Insights: www.google.com/insights
Google Trends: www.google.com/trends
Back Type – [ Lets you monitor keywords in comments]: www.backtype.com
Google Keyword research tool: http://bit.ly/9FqW8F
Research keywords: Think of what users who want to visit your site will search for, using the tools get more keywords ideas
Google keyword tool will tell you the number of searches done in the last 30 days, the volume , number of search, level of competition, related keywords
Google keyword tool will let you search from specific country
The Captcha that you see in website to verify is used to digitalize book, smart crowd sourcing
Include SEO, Web Marketing even before coming up with a website. Include it in your business plan, marketing plan
Keyword research will also let you pick the right domain name which can be relevant
Get alerts for your name, you will be surprised!! to see some results
Recent study says 53 % of employers are conducting background checks on search engines and social networks like Facebook: http://www.pcworld.com/article/186989/job_seekers_watch_your_walls_employers_check_facebook.html
Google Trends will give you trends in your industry so that you can plan your campaign
Trends/ Insights will give information on news, category, geography, help you plan ahead of time, if you are launching a campaign during a particular month, this will help you to research and find out when is a good time to launch
Find Rising Searches, apart from optimizing for related keywords, you can also find what is rising, so that you can plan to optimize and may be start a new line of product/service
Backtype lets you track keyword mentions in blog comments and send an email with link to the comment, if there is anyone comments about you , your business or website
Ask your friends, family what would they type into search engine to find your business, Use those keywords within your website
After research, keep your keywords as a reference for future content or blog post

Website/Blog

You don’t have a cool looking website to get your business started. Blogs are as good as website and its FREE
Case Study : http://bit.ly/ksykMT http://bit.ly/iDc5TU
Blogs are simple, easy and Search Engine Friendly. It takes 5 minutes to create a blog
Use your keyword research to sign up for the blog, Use that keyword as URL
You can also set up a blog for your patents, friends, family and one for your Pet
If you plan to have a website, Register a domain name, it will cost less than Rs 5000 a year to register a domain: Go daddy: www.godaddy.com will let your register a domain
Blogging software such as wordpress and blogger also has an option to register your domain there.
Register a domain and do a redirect from blog to this URL and you can give your URL as your desired registered domain and still manage yourself instead of going for a web designer, developer
156 million public blogs as of Feb 2011
You can add picture, videos, integrate HTML, PPT’s and lots more with blog
If you know how to email, you know how to blog too as simple as email, What are you waiting for start your blog today and your friends can comment as well
This is a Blog: http://navarasa.co.in
Free Blog can be set up here : www.blogger.com or here: www.wordpress.com within minutes
If you like more features and template, go for: www.squarespace.com see examples
You can get paid too if you can get enough traffic to your blog through Google Adsense
Website is static but Blogs are dynamic you can update anytime you want
Customize your blog/website with a consistent theme that can go well with your brand, logo and business

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Begin with Google Web master Guidelines: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769
Start SEO while you plan your website/blog
Use those keyword research document as guideline to write content for your blog/website, keywords within your website/blog is what search engines are looking for
Use keywords in the Title of each page, description , content, Heading, Images, links
If you are a florist in Bangalore, Use keywords such as Florist, Bangalore. Flower shop Bangalore, Send Flowers Bangalore Instead of just Flowers, Florist etc use 2-3 words,(long tail) the visitors will be the right target audience, its called long tail keywords
On average, 22% of marketing budgets are spent on search engine marketing
Use of location; optimize for location if your targeting within a location, local business
Think of keywords that can make them click on your website
Give a call to action with the keywords. Example: Send Flowers to Bangalore, Free Delivery if you call Now !! or Free Shipping Limited Time Offer
Each page of your site should have unique , relevant Title, description with keywords
The Meta keyword tag in HTML is no more used to rank your website
High quality content with relevant useful , resourceful content is what search engines love
If your website have original , unique research, white paper , case studies your website will get additional points in the eyes of search engines
Length of Title word: 60 – 80 characters, about 8 – 10 words, Don’t stuff Keywords, Make it readable for humans
Instruct web designer with the web master guidelines and give a checklist to the designers. Educate them and give the keywords to the content writer or if you write include those keywords within the title, description, Heading, body of the content.
SEO is a process, because the algorithm keeps changes, but the basic guidelines will stay for a long time. Guidelines is basic best practices for humans
Create excel sheet, take all keywords, use all broad keywords, location, related keywords- branding, futuristic keywords, list them all. Use it for all references, categorize into several related categories. document it, fine tune it as necessary
Test all the tools, most of them are Free but you can always try the Trial Version, Test for a month, if you like it then you can go for it, if there are multiple users, each one of you can try for each month till 2-3 months then decide to buy
Raven tools : www.raventools.com
Web Site grader: www.websitegrader.com
Advanced web rankings: www.advancedwebranking.com
Web CEO: www.webceo.com

Content

Content is always King. Give unique, useful, resourceful, meaningful content online in website, blog, newsletter
Content should be relevant to the users
Give solutions in content, people visit your website for a reason and to solve a problem, your content should give answers, provide solutions to their problem. Think of how a searcher who is looking for same day flower delivery to his Fiancee, might look for same day delivery, your content should be relevant for him. Include keywords such as
“ Send Flower to Bangalore-Free Delivery same day within 100 kms Guaranteed ”
Give Call to Action, Your content is like a Giant Bill board, Visitors are busy, you have few minutes to grab their attention, Instruct them and give value for clicking, ethical bribe
Phone Calls/ Receptionist will be a great resource for content- Questions that people ask when they call you could be great content d.
FAQ’s are great content for your website
Employees, developers, subject matter experts can be great content generators.
Forums/groups discussion is another way to come up with content. Look for questions asked in your Face book group, LinkedIn Groups
Content Best practice - Don’t Copy, Create unique content
LinkedIn Answers, Yahoo Answers, Face book groups, Quora – For content

75% of C-Suite Executives said they watch work-related online video at least weekly. 65% of C-suite Executives report visiting a vendor’s website after watching their video

Source: http://www.forbes.com/forbesinsights/video_in_the_csuite/

Find your industry category in LinkedIn Answers and you will find a RSS feeds, subscribe to that RSS feeds and provide answers there and write content based on answers for website
In Social Media follow SEO, Use keywords in Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Slideshare, Flickr, You Tube
Optimize Images, You Tube Videos by using keywords in Title, description, tagging
When uploading images, videos, submit to the right category and tag with keywords
Create an account and have consistent URL in all social media sites

Other Tips

71. Local Business: Local business listing; Google local maps FREE [no need for website]
www.google.com/places Blog post on Google places: http://bit.ly/cYF9M0

20 % of Google searches are for local information

Use PPC , Social Media Ads: LinkedIn , Facebook Ads, Google ad words
You can set up Google Ad words within 30 minutes with Rs 500 and pay only when someone clicks on the ad
Keywords & Conversion; depends on strength of site
Use PPC to test and research with minimum budget

Bonus Tips

The importance of Online Marketing for Entrepreneurs: http://bit.ly/kxgGU2
Search Engines cannot read Images, Videos, Provide alternate text , descriptions to images, videos
Have keyword in the beginning of the Title, Description, Headings
Use your brand keywords at the end of the Title
Google Places (maps) you can add upto 10 images of your product, services, 5 videos. Be creative add Brochures, pictures of store etc

Get answers and advice for FREE from our experts. Post your questions and get answers from Industry thought leaders: http://on.fb.me/mLJ8BO

Pictures of OME May Meetup: http://on.fb.me/mu3Xje

75 + Web Marketing Takeaways and Tips for Startups from OME May Workshop

http://webmarketingacademy.blogspot.com/2011/06/75-takeaways-and-tips-from-ome-may.html

Minute of Meeting of OME May Workshop:

http://webmarketingacademy.blogspot.com/2011/06/ome-community-may-minutes-of-meeting.html

Web Marketing Academy is coming up with a one full day workshop June 18^th and 19^th with all the practical training for Start Ups. One full day packed with all the fundamentals of web marketing for your business including