 Advertising on the Internet is a good way to make a small advertising budget reach a large number of people. There are several ways of advertising a Website. These techniques include advertising banners, text link ads, traffic exchange networks and reciprocal linking.
First off, every Website should be submitted to the major search engines and directories. The largest of these are Google, Yahoo, Ask, Bing (Microsoft), AllTheWeb, AOL Search and HotBot. While Google and some other search engines scan the Internet for Websites, submitting a site will produce faster inclusion.
Before submitting a Website to search engines it's imperative that each page have a unique title, description and keywords in the meta tag area. Meta tag code is inserted between the <head> and </head> section within code view. Meta tags tell web indexing robots what each page is about and play a part in many search engines ranking of a site in their database. The meta tag title should be typed in Title Case (or Proper Case). Every page should have a unique title. The title should be less than 64 characters in length. The description element of meta tags should be kept under 156 characters, about 20 to 25 words. Keywords are simply words (or combinations of words) that describe the product or service you wish to promote within each page. Keyword meta-tag length should be between 200 and 500 characters and never exceed 1024 characters, Many search engines will not crawl Websites that are missing meta tags.
Content in a Website is king. Provide good content and sprinkle a combination of often-searched keywords (and combos). In addition, add keywords that have global searches between 1,000 and 5,000 per month. This SEO strategy will get you higher rankings in search engines. Also, all images should include ALT tags. The ALT attribute in HTML will help in search engine optimization.
One way to promote a business is to visit special interest Websites and blogs and write articles. It gets your business name out and brings in visitors when you include links to your Website. Another option is to use a Myspace or Facebook account to promote a product or service.
Here are many terms related to Web advertising. They include:
PPC or Pay Per Click Advertising - PPC or CPC (Cost per Click) is the most popular method of advertising online. With pay per click you bid on the keyword(s) that relate to your website. You can find out in advance what other sites have bid for a particular keyword and then decide if you want to outbid the number one spot or bid less per click and get a lower position. Try to stay in the top 10 listings since many people will not advance to a second page of search results. The PPC networks system is not perfect. It can be abused either by competitors who click your ads to cost you money or by unethical web developers who click to increase their ad profits. Claims of click fraud though has been widely exaggerated. Internet ads can be targeted to specific groups and to a local audience, if needed. The largest pay per click (PPC) advertising and marketing network are Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter.
CPM or Cost Per 1,000 Impressions - In a CPM campaign, an advertiser pays for how many times an ad appears. If an ad performs well and a lot of users click through to a site, each click-through costs less. On the other hand, the lower the click-through rate the more each click costs. This differs from PPC or CPC where an advertiser pays only only for actual clicks.
CPA or Cost Per Action - CPA is performance based and is common in the affiliate marketing sector. An advertiser only pays for instances where someone completes a transaction, such as a purchase, a lead, or a sign-up. CPL or Cost Per Lead advertising is identical to CPA advertising. It's based on a user completing a form, registering for a newsletter or some other action that the merchant feels will lead to a sale. The CPA category also includes CPE (Cost Per Engagement) and Cost Per Conversion.
Text Link Ads - These text only advertisements consist of static html links. A text link ad is cost effective because it drives targeted traffic to a Website and helps Website popularity which is a top factor in organic search engine rankings. Unlike Google link units, a text link ad is priced at a flat rate per month per link. In most instances, an advertiser prepays for a 30 day run of an ad. During that time, the ad cost will not increase or be turned off no matter how many impressions or clicks the link receives. Of the hundreds of advertising providers who facilitate text link advertising we use and recommend
Banner Ads - These are embedded advertisement in a web page intended to attract traffic to a website by linking to the
website of the advertiser. Targeted banner advertising is good for branding and generating traffic.
Banner Ad Tips:
1) Advertise on Websites which fit your market;
2) Try a variety of banners being sure to track their click-though statistics;
3) Use a phrase like "Click here" to entice immediate action;
4) Grab attention through animation, bright colors, etc.;
5) Instead of advertising your business name, advertise a direct link to a particular product or special offer;
6) Try to keep the banner file size under 15KB.
Reciprocal Linking - A reciprocal link is a text or banner link to a site that, somewhere in its pages, carries a similar banner or text link to your own site. Reciprocal linking helps a Website in a couple of ways. It will boost rankings on search engines and increase traffic to a Website. Beware of those who approach you through email to exchange links. Many of these operations are placing your link on pages with several hundred links where it won't be seen and in return want a link to their Website in a page with far fewer links.
Traffic Exchange Networks - This service involves a Webmaster submitting their website and in return browsing other member sites on the exchange program to earn credits, which enable their sites to be viewed by other members through the surf system. Almost all traffic exchange programs are free with some offering special features to paid members.
Social Media Advertising - This can be something simple such as setting up a Facebook account to communicate with existing customers. You can also pay social networks like Facebook to advertise for you by placing ads on users' homepages.
When choosing one or more of internet advertising avenues, take into account the size of your ad budget and the habits of your target audience. Try a few different methods to compare the effectiveness of each. Visit here to learn about Internet marketing.
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