Online Marketing

“You want to get as many links to your website as possible because Google and other search engines are popularity engines and every link you have linking to you is considered a vote, and the more votes you have, the more popular you are and the higher you’ll rank in Google,” Rom says.

However, those links have different weights and values, so he stresses the importance of “quality” links. Google, for example, gives every page on the web a ranking out of 10, and this will determine not only the quality of your own site but the quality of the link coming into your website.

For an idea on the value of links, Rom says Net Starter’s website has a ranking of seven-out-of-10, and one link from their website is equivalent to about 100,000 one-out-of-10 links, so quality is key. Downloading the free Google Toolbar program at toolbar.google.com and activating the ‘page rank’ tool, will help you establish the actual ranking of pages on the web.

In terms of getting quality content onto your site, Rom recommends having an information centre on your website, and within this having a minimum of 50 pages of content, such as feature articles, help and advice, or guidance on topics to do with your area of expertise.

Paul and Jenny Geelen are a brother and sister team running a business in WA making artificial eyes, and since using this strategy, with the help of PublicityShip, have seen significant results through online marketing. Their new website features true stories about how people have dealt with eye loss, as well as advice on how to maintain an artificial eye, which has significantly boosted their ranking in the search engines.

“A lot of websites will tell you what the business wants people to know, but you’ve got to provide information that people looking on your website want,” explains Paul Geelen. “By giving people something they really need, and in our case it’s providing support for people who have suffered eye loss, it creates a more interesting website, and that will get more attention.

“Our business came from a point where we didn’t market at all (except through word-of-mouth and in the Yellow Pages). Since we’ve started online marketing, it’s been incredible. Our turnover has increased by 80 percent in the last year, and as a direct consequence of the web page I expect we’ll double our turnover.”

The way content is written is vital, adds Rom. “You can’t just have the one word repeated over and over again, you have to word that content so the major keywords for that page are written a few times per paragraph. I would also veer away from writing about the business, it should be helpful articles for people. I’d probably recommend getting that content copyrighted as well.”

Using keywords in your heading tags is also important, as is the actual title and address (URL) of each web page on your site.