Marketing 4 Contractors

Don't get Too Flashy - Some flashy based websites or flashy links can by ignored by Google, they may look amazing but if nobody can find your flashy website what is the point of having it. Also, when visitors arrive at your site if they have to wait whilst your flash intro loads they may soon be off searching other websites. Be sensible, do you want a lovely animated site with bells and whistles so you can show it off to everyone you know 'oh look at my site, it is amazing?' or do you want a serious business website that is going to become a great marketing tool for your business and earn you money.

Google Tricks - We say don't even go there. There are many people who claim to have secrets about getting to the top of Google using various secret tricks, whilst some of these may work in theory Google is constantly spending millions on improving their software and if your site is part of a scam you may just find your site is excluded from their search results. If this happens all of your hard work will be wasted. Follow the steps above and gradually build up your incoming links and you will soon get your site on the 1st page of Google.

In the meantime - Want to get your site on the 1st page of Google today? Try Google AdWords (pay per click advertising on Google).  If you set up a Google AdWords account you could have your website listed on the 1st page of Google within a few hours. These sponsored listings often appear right at the top of the screen or down the right hand side of the screen (to the right of the free listings). It may cost you £1 per click or you may even get away with paying as little as 10 pence per click for your chosen keyword, it all depends on how many other people are bidding for your chosen keywords. It will cost you nothing to appear in the listings, it only costs when someone actually clicks your ad and goes through to your website. It is a bit like advertising in the local paper for free, and you only pay a small fee to the paper when someone contacts you as a result of seeing the ad in the paper. You can determine a daily budget and you can even target a specific area in the UK.

If you want to discover more marketing strategies that will help you to grow your business, download our free ebooks. 

Because Google is continually visiting your website checking it for new links, pages, content, etc. you will be rewarded if you keep it fresh.

Content is King - Google still loves websites that are fresh and up to date with plenty of quality content. If you regularly update your site with keyword rich content it is going to keep Google and your visitors happy. Remember people primarily search the internet for information so give them a reason to stay on your site, keep your site easy to read (black text on white works best), easy to navigate, and regularly update your content.

There are many different ways you can include new content on your website. You could have a news section, blog, customer comments section, special offers, hints and tips etc.

If you get stuck for something to write about simply search the internet for companies similar to yourself and see what they are writing about. You can add product specification, frequently asked questions, there really is no limit to what you can include.

Why not ask your satisfied customers for testimonials and every time you receive one add it too your website, before long your website really is going to be full of useful information for your visitors to digest.

To get more value for your efforts you could email your existing customers every time you add new content to your website, so not only are your search engine rankings improving as a result of your new content, the amount of visitors you receive will also increase. You could also ask your customers if they would like a link on your links page, if you include their company name, web address and company description this is another way to increase your content and also cement relationships with your customers.

If you want to discover powerful marketing strategies that will help you to grow your business, download our ebooks.

For the purpose of this article, imagine your name is Joe Bloggs and you are Builder based in Chelmsford, Essex.

Fine tune your links - Look at the following examples:

To visit Joe Bloggs Builders website> click here

To visit Joe Bloggs Builders website click > Builder Chelmsford

The text used in the underlined text links above, is called the Anchor Text and these are links you click to visit other pages or websites, these links usually appear in blue. The wording you use in these links is extremely important. If you had say 25 incoming links to your site with the anchor text reading Builder Chelmsford it would be far more useful than having 100 incoming links reading click here.

Where possible try to ensure that all incoming links to your site contain your keywords. Even within your own site you should have text links on every page linking back to your own home page with your keywords as the anchor text. For example you could have the following links on the bottom of every page:

Builder Chelmsford  Builders Chelmsford  Builder in Chelmsford  Builders in Chelmsford

Put all of the above links on every page and link them back to your home page. Google indexes web pages as opposed to websites and Google may not pick up on the fact that the above links to your home page are coming from your own site, and these would be treated as if they were coming from elsewhere. Be proud of your links, if you hide them Google may ignore them.

If you want to discover more powerful marketing strategies that will help you to grow your business download our ebooks.

If you have read Parts 1 - 4 in this set, you will now have the basic knowledge to get your website ready for the next step. You really need to implement all of the previous strategies to take full advantage of the strategy contained here.

Get your website connected.

What does connected mean? Well, you need to get connected to other websites, please read on.

It is all about the links - If you are not well connected to other websites Google may not even include you in their searches. Google wants to give the best service to its users so they will prefer to index websites who are well connected to other websites.

The best way to get connected to other websites is to get as many incoming only links to your website as possible. Reciprocal linking (I link to you and you link to me) is OK but to really help your search positioning you want incoming only links. You can get these links from online business directories, your customers or suppliers etc.

Another great way of getting links to your site is to write some articles relating to your business and get them published online, and at the end of each article you include a link back to your site.

When I was struggling to get a specific website to the top of Google I concentrated my efforts on writing a handful of articles, I submitted them to an online article directory called Ezine Articles, and within a few weeks my website was at the top of the 1st page on Google and has been there ever since.

If you want to discover powerful marketing strategies that will help you to grow your business, download our ebooks.

So you are serious about getting your site listed on the 1st page of Google?

If you have read the previous articles in this set, you now have more knowledge about Search Engine Optimisation than your competitors do. Read on to find out how to help Google to recognise all of the pages on your website.

This simple strategy not only helps Google but it can be a useful tool for your visitors to get access to your pages quickly.

Get yourself a Site Map - To help Google reach all of the pages on your site you need a site map, which is basically a page with links to all of your other pages. If you put a link on your home page to your site map this will make it easy for Google's software to find all of the pages on your site.

If you are unsure about how to create a site map simply create a new page called Site Map and put a link on your home page linking to your new Site Map page. Then, go to your Site Map page and put links on that page linking to all of the other pages on your site. Now, when Google's software comes to your site it will click all of the links on your home page including the link to your site map page. Google's software will then click all of the links on the site map page, so after 2 clicks it will know about all of your pages on your site.

If you have implemented the strategies in the previous articles in this set and you now combine that with a Site Map page, your site is well on its way to the 1st page of Google.

I often hear people say you need at least 10 pages on a website for Google to even think about listing it. This in nonsense, I have a one-page website on the 1st page of Google for my chosen keyword.

If you want to discover more powerful marketing strategies, download our ebooks.

If you can get your site listed on the 1st page of Google and the other major search engines, it is going to give you a never ending stream of website traffic. You do not need the help of Search Engine Optimisation companies to get your site on Google. You just need to spend a little time in the right area.

Here is one simple strategy to help get your site listed.

Promote your keywords on the pages of your website. Keywords are the words you use when you search on Google.

Make sure your keywords are at the top of page, in the middle and at the bottom of the page. For example, you would start your page with something like:-

 "Welcome to John Smith Builders, we are a building company based in Brentwood and we have been supplying quality building works in the Brentwood area for many years. All of our Builders are fully trained and qualified".

As you can see your keywords are repeated a couple of times in the opening paragraph, this is very easy to do and should be done a few times across the whole of the page.

Google is the most successful search engine and the reason why is because they have built their search engine on relevancy. If your webpage is relevant to what is being searched then you are far more likely to end up on the 1st page of Google.

If you combine this simple strategy with the other strategies in this article set your website will start to move its way up the Google listings.

If you want to discover more powerful marketing strategies to help you grow your business, download our ebooks.

For use of an example in this article, imagine your name is John Smith and you are Builder based in Brentwood, Essex.

In this article we really start to look at the things that are going to make it possible to get your website on the 1st page of Google. After you have decided to target a local area (see part 1 of this article set, where we basically talked about the fact that it is easier to target a town rather than a county) you need to then concentrate your efforts on getting your page titles sorted.

What does page title mean?

Have you noticed the page titles at the top of every webpage (the blue bar at the top of the webpage). When you search on Google for the keywords Builder Brentwood, the first thing that Google looks at is all of the page titles of the web pages in its database. If the words, Builder Brentwood are in your page title this will make it easier for Google to find your site. If your page title consists of only your company name, John Smith Builders, it is not going to be much use to Google when someone is searching for the keywords Builder Brentwood. Make sure your page titles include your keywords; you can also include your company name after your keywords. For example your page title could be as follows:

Builder Brentwood - John Smith Builders Brentwood - this title includes your keywords and your company name, Google will be happy.

If you were in a library looking for a book in the business section you would scan the spines of the books to see which ones were relevant. Make it easier for Google by making sure your page titles are in order.

For more marketing strategies to help you grow your business, download our ebooks.

Getting your website listed on the 1st page of Google for your chosen keywords or search terms is actually much easier than you think, you just need to be logical and think about it sensibly.

There is no reason why you shouldn't get your website listed on the 1st page of Google and the other major search engines for absolutely free.

Once you have achieved this you will have a constant endless stream of visitors to your website at absolutely no cost.

Just by taking some very easy to follow steps you will be able to get your website listed on the 1st page of Google and knock your competitors off the page in the process.

What is the first thing you should do to get on the 1st page of Google?

Do not be greedy.

If you start by trying to get your website listed on Google for loads of different keywords (keywords are the words you use when you search on Google) across the whole of the UK or even across a UK county it just is not going to happen.

For example if you were a builder based in Chelmsford covering the whole of Essex and you tried optimizing your website for the keywords Builder Essex you will face some very stiff competition from some very established and well optimized websites and your website will not be found by anyone.  However, if you optimize your website for the keywords Builder Chelmsford you are in with a much better chance of being listed on the 1st page of Google.

If you are not ending up on the 1st page of Google downsize your target area until you do, once you have nailed this you can start aiming at a wider area.

Do you want more powerful strategies to help you grow your business?  Download our ebooks.

This is so good, so easy and completely free.

Email marketing may seem complex but it is extremely simple to do and very, very effective. I just can't believe that most businesses don't use it.

What does Email marketing mean? Very simply, it means emailing your existing satisfied customers.  When I email my customer list I always receive orders or inquiries from customers who did not get round to getting in contact with me.

Heres one strategy of how to grow your business, for free, using email:

Imagine you are a hairdresser:

You have just finished cutting someone's hair and they are at the till paying you. Whilst you are sorting out their change, you hand them a form and ask them for their email address, you tell them that you have some offers coming up and you would like them to be one of the first people to know about the offers.

A week later, you send a personalized email to your client thanking them for their custom and asking them if they were happy with the service they received. You could also tell them that you would appreciate it if they could recommend you to other people they know.

3 weeks later you could email them about a special offer that you have coming up and also tell them about some new hair products you have on your website or in your salon.

6 weeks later you could find another excuse to email them about anything relating to hair and you could also mention that you are getting booked up so if they want an appointment call to book.

What we are doing here is reminding people of your existence, offering new products & asking for referrals etc. all without spending any money.

I once sent an email to my customer list about the weather and I received a purchase order within 60 seconds. It really does work, and it is free.

If you want to discover some more powerful marketing strategies, download our free ebooks today.

I previously advertised my brand everywhere, to get my logo out there so people would see it and then come and buy my products.  I nearly went bankrupt!; I was acting like Virgin or BT. Brand advertising is for the big boys, not for small businessess. You should include your logo or brand in your advertising but the main focus for small business advertising has got to be lead generation.

What is meant by the term lead generation? Well, lead generation is simply getting people who are interested in your product or service to contact you.

In my experience the best way to get interested customers to contact you is to offer them something free.

Here is how to really make the most of all of your advertising:

Come up with some freebies you can give away to your potential customers like a free report, survey, sample products, CD, DVD. The key here is to come up with something of perceived value relating to your products or services.  E.g. If you are a builder and your target audience are home owners, you could write a free report  called '10 Ways to Increase the Value of your Home' or 'Top 10 D.I.Y. Tips for DAD'.  The information to go in these reports is already out there on the internet, you just need to go online and get it.

You then need to offer this free product in all of your advertising as follows: Call today for your Free Report - 10 ways to increase the value of your home or email today for your free report - Top 10 D.I.Y tips for DAD. 

What we are doing here is getting interested leads to give you their contact details in return for a free product.  You can contact them shortly after to ask them if they received your information and to ask them if they would like to buy from you.  Following this you can keep in touch with them constantly, letting them know about new products, news, offers etc.

I recently increased my response to an e-mail out by 3000% just by offering something free. It really does work.

Do you want to find out some powerful marketing strategies that will help you to grow your business without spending any money?  If so, download our free ebooks today.