SC Online Marketing Questions & Answers

1. Is your business listed online?

Whether you have your own website or not you should have some sort of presence online.  If you don’t have a website you should at least be listed on Google maps, have a Hub page, have a Blogger account, and have a video about your services.

2. Are you listed in your area under your keywords?

The most important aspect of being online, is attracting the correct clients.  For example: If you are a Used Car Dealership that mainly focus’s on Buy Here Pay Here in Greenville SC, then when a person does a search for Buy Here Pay Here in Greenville SC you should come up on the 1st page with multiple positions.  If you don’t you are missing your target market.  You may be listed under Auto Finance in Greenville SC.  That may pertain to your business, but not exactly where you need to be to be selling cars.  Let’s take it a step further.  Let’s now do a search for used Honda’s in Greenville SC.  With the right marketing strategy you should have some presence on this search.  It more than likely will not be your main site, but at least a Hub page or video.

3. Is my website setup properly?

There are many factors that go into setting up your site.  We touched on one of them above, keyword.  It is important for your site to show up on Google in your targeted area and market.  Lets say your site name is www.scps.com scps meaning South Carolina Pet Store.  If your site is not set up properly you will come up in the search results under scps.  Who is going to do a search for scps.

Does your site have something to keep your clients coming back to see what your offering.  For example: If your a pet store, do you have daily or weekly pet care and supply articles for your clients to get advice from.  We want our clients to have a reason to come back on a daily/weekly basis.

Do you have a way to track the amount of traffic your site is getting and even more important what are they looking at.  It is important to know how many visitors your site has as well as what they are looking at.  If a clients is looking at your Honda’s and not your Nissan’s than knowing that is power.

4. Is my website showing up in the search engines?  If so, is it in a good position?

Like we touched on before, does your site show up in search results and is it in the correct area.  If it does show up it needs to be on the first page.  Lets face it, if a client does a search and your not on the first page than chances are your not going to get their business.  Also like we said before if a client does a search for your services and you are not listed there, then you lose them to your competition.

5. Do you know what Google Pagerank and Alexa rank are?  If so, do you know how to effect them?

Google Pagerank is Googles way of ranking your popularity.  Your site is ranked from 0-10, with 0 being a new site or a site with little popularity in the eyes of Google, to 10 being the most popular or the big dog on the net.  Google of course is a 10 as well as Facebook, Youtube is a 9 and Ebay is an 8.  When your site first comes online it will have a rank of N/A, meaning it has not yet been given a rank and will move to 0-10 when Google does their next Pagerank update.  Updates are unknown, but our best guess is once a quarter.  The higher your Pagerank the better the search results for your keywords.  What system Google exactly  uses to come up with a sites Pagerank is unknown, but 3 of the biggest factors are internal linking, external linking and backlinking.

Alexa rank is a little different than Google Pagerank.  Alexa also rates your site’s popularity, but it is mainly focused on your site’s traffic.  Your site is ranked from 1-the millions.  Your site is compared to every other site in the world.  Google is ranked  #1 of course, Facebook is #2, Youtube is #3 and ebay is #23.  Alexa uses site traffic to rank your site, so even if a site has a good Pagerank it may have a low Alexa rank (Remember a low Alexa rank means in the high millions.  A high Alexa rank means 1-thousands.)   Alexa is a good judge of a sites traffic where Pagerank is not.  So if you want to get a better Alexa rank then you need to increase your site traffic.  As we said above, having an element on your site that keeps clients coming back like a blog or a forum will ensure site traffic and better your Alexa rank.

6. Do you know how to use Social Media like Youtube, Facebook and Twitter to market your business?

Social Media is taking marketing to the next level.  Like We said above, Facebook has a Pagerank of 10 and an Alexa rank of 2.  Why do you think they have the best position on the net next to Google of course, Traffic.  They have an enormous amount of traffic, which you need to be tapping into.  Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube are your biggest tools when it comes to marketing online.  With the proper use of all 3 you can have targeted traffic seeking you out for your services.

7. Do you know how to use Article Marketing?

I will list 3 sources you should be using when it comes to Article Marketing.  Ezine, Hubpages, and blogger are 3 good choices when it comes to placing articles about your services.  We mentioned above about having an online presence in more than 1 position on Google.  When a client does a search for Dentists in Greenwood SC wouldn’t they have a great chance of selecting your business if you have 3 positions on the 1st page.

Don’t be afraid to promote your business, your competition is not.