There are a variety of ways to start marketing your small business website. One way is through search engine optimization (SEO), which helps you promote your business in the unpaid search results. Another way is through search engine marketing (SEM), which lets you buy ad space in the search results.
How can SEO help my small business?
SEO is all about getting your site in front of the right people who are searching for your products and services. The key is understanding what words people actually type in — the keywords. They are the most relevant words to your business. Understanding these will help you improve how you show up when these words are searched.
SEM, on the other hand, is when businesses pay to advertise to people searching for specific keywords online. Most major search engines use an auction system, where lots of different businesses compete to show their ads by bidding on the keywords they’d like to target.
Can social media help my business?
Social media sites like Facebook or Twitter are another option for boosting awareness of your business, and they’re especially useful for building relationships with customers. On most networks you’ll create pages or profiles for your business. You can then connect with lots of people by starting meaningful conversations and sharing content you’ve created whilst growing your business’ online social life.
Before we wrap this up, let’s not forget one more pretty important way businesses can use digital: email marketing. We’re not talking about junk email, or “spam” that clutters up your inbox, but sending relevant information and offers to people who have already said they’d like to hear from you. You can get people to sign up, or “opt in” to receive emails from you. Then the rest is up to you. You can send coupons to people who have made an appointment on your site, advertise special events, or promote sale items.
Knowing all the ways you can find people online — and knowing how they can find you — can help launch your business big-time. The more types of digital marketing you try, the more opportunities you’ll have to reach your most valuable customers, wherever they happen to be in the digital world.