When you’re just starting to promote your business online, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. There are literally hundreds of questions to answer and dozens of important decisions to make. Today I want to single out a quick-list of what I consider to be the 10 most important web marketing questions. Here are the top 10 questions with my straightforward, no BS answers…
Which Platform Should I Use To Build My Website?
WordPress is the single best platform for small business websites. It’s easy-to-use, user-friendly, and very advantageous for SEO performance. If you’re not already using WordPress, I strongly encourage you to hire a programmer to convert your existing website into WordPress format.
How Can I Get Higher Google Rankings?
Ah yes, the holy grail of web marketing — SEO. There was a time when SEO was formulaic and even easy. But today you’re going to need a lot more than just a little optimization to get long-lasting and meaningful SEO rankings. If you want higher Google rankings, you’re going to need Blogging, Social Marketing, Landing Pages, Rank Tracking, and On-Page Site Optimization. And you’re going to need to do it all at once.
Which Social Networks Should I Use For My Business?
We call the most important social networking sites “The Big 5.” They are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, and Pinterest. These are the most essential networks and every business needs at least some presence on all 5. But for your specific business type, you can probably choose just 2-3 to create your most active social presence.
Why Isn’t My Website Showing Up In Google?
When people ask me this question, it’s usually because they’re just getting started with web marketing. If your website isn’t showing up at all in Google search results, you either have some kind of Google Penalty (your site is old and you’ve used some questionable SEO tactics in the past) OR you have a brand new website and Google still hasn’t ranked your website just yet. Setup Google Webmaster Tools and keep following best practices — you’ll eventually get out of either trap.
Should I Pay For Links To My Website?
No. Never. Forget about it. Period. 🙂
Which Email Marketing Software Should I Use?
I’ll make this one quick too. If you’re just getting started and you have a small budget, I recommend Aweber (about $20/month). If you’re well established and/or you have a good marketing budget to work with, I recommend Infusionsoft.
How Often Should I Publish A New Blog Post?
If possible, you should be posting every single day. If this is not possible, you should be posting at least 2-3 times per week. But quality is more important than quantity in this regard, to a point (you don’t want to obsess over quality if it means you never get even one post up).
Should I Use Google Adwords Pay Per Click?
Yes. If you have the marketing budget and the time to invest to learn the ropes (Adwords definitely has a learning curve), then you should spend time/money on PPC. It’s a great way to learn a lot about your marketplace very quickly and then use that information to improve your Landing Pages, your SEO program, and your overall marketing strategy.
Should I Use Facebook Advertising?
Yes. This is the same answer, essentially, as what I provided above for Google Adwords. Facebook Ads are almost essential today if you’re company relies heavily on Facebook for social success.
How Can I Capture More Leads From My Website?
The first thing you can do to dramatically improve your conversion rates is add some sort of Lead Magnet to your website. Offer something for free in exchange for name & email address. Remember: prospects and customers are much more protective of their email information than ever before, so you need to give an incentive.
What other questions do you have that I can answer? Please let me know in the comments box below.
