Business Growth

Internet
Marketing Systems

In today's world of connected customers, some degree of Internet Marketing is essential for all businesses to grow, no matter what your industry or who your target audience is.

To accomplish this, internet marketing needs to be thought about in SYSTEMS, as opposed to the traditional and out-of-date thinking which is based on SEO, SEM, PPC, Link Building, etc, etc, etc.

Systems should be developed for every aspect which effects your company's online brand. Those systems should be built as instructions for others to carry out. Your goal is to be able to hand each system to one or more employees or vendors to manage for the benefit of your growth.

Our team of experts writes custom, detailed, proven system for each of our clients in the full business growth program.

Standard Operating Procedure Example

Purpose

To bring old websites up-to-date; to organize websites using current tools; and to remove all conflicting, out-of-date, or counterproductive code, text and/or technology.

Process

Step 1: Backup

  • Backup the current website, placing a full backup onto the storage server in a folder labeled "{website URL} backup (todays date}". Do not make any changes to this copy once it's on the storage server.

Step 2: Focus

  • Determine the top 3 keywords the site should rank for.
  • These are the top 3 keywords or keyword-strings your target audience would type into a search engine when looking for a product/service like yours.

Step 3: Remove

  • Locate all duplicate pages.
    • Keep the newest version on the website.
    • Delete duplicate versions of pages.
    • When deletion is not an option, change all 'duplicate versions' of that page to a redirect, aiming at the newest version of that page.
  • Use conical links when necessary.

Step 4: Use Google Guidelines

  • Use Google Webmaster Tools, plus the following…
  • Use copyscape.com to confirm that ALL content is unique content that cannot be found on another site.
  • Each site must contain a minimum of 20 articles (see Adding Content Pages below)
  • All articles must provide substantial/valuable/relevant information
  • All articles must follow the Adding Content Pages guidelines (see below)
  • On the landing page, put:
    • The logo
    • Tag line (what the company does)
    • Opt in box
    • Testimonial
    • Company information
      • Company name
      • Address
      • Support email
      • Phone number (when supplied)
    • Copyright information
    • All legal links
    • Link to customer service page
  • On the bottom of all inner pages, put:
    • What the company does
    • Contact information
    • Opt in box
    • Legal Links (privacy policy, terms, etc)
    • A link for people to opt out of our newsletter
    • Link to 'Articles' page
  • Put the website logo on the top left of all pages
  • Put navigation tabs on the top, and navigation links at the bottom of each page.
  • All pages must load quickly (test pages on a 3rd party site like: http://webpagetest.org)
  • All content pages should include RSS, and Google +1 tools when appropriate
  • On all sales pages
    • Confirm that there is a picture of the product for sale on that page.
    • Put the price of the product right on the order button.
    • Offer 3 payment option
    • Use SSL, and trust seals whenever possible
  • Don't use pop ups, exit pops or exit redirects
  • Pages should include Anchor Text
  • All pages need to be W3C validated
  • All pages need analytics on them (such as google analytics)
  • All sites need a video page with at least 16 google videos on it, all videos must be related to the keywords which the site is optimized for.
  • After any page is added it should be pinged (using a service like: http://pingler.com)
  • After any major revision, the site needs to be submitted to google

Adding Content Pages

  • Naming the new page. Put an underscore between words in the url. Each page name should contain a keyword phase from the supplied list. For example: One article might be called "9 Tips To Have More Energy". Our page name might then become: have_more_energy.
  • Put the name of the article in the <TITLE> tag
  • Update the meta name description to include the name of the article.
  • Update Meta-keywords to include the keywords in the article name, plus think of two additional keywords related to the article to add to this line.
  • Make sure the keyword phrase is used properly 3-4 times throughout the body of the article.
  • When the page is done make sure you add a link to it from the main article page.
  • Make sure every page has a unique HTML title, meta description, and keywords.
  • All content pages need 1-2 images, which have the keyword phrase in the image alt tags
  • On all content pages, 2-3 keywords used in the copy need to hyperlinked to other pages on the website which include those keywords in the file name.
Related Reading Simple Business Website Conversion Strategies → Related Reading List of Paid Traffic Sources For Your Website →
Chris Guerriero Entrepreneur, investor, and business advisor. Founder of Club 28, a private advisory program for growth-stage CEOs and founders.
Common Questions

Frequently Asked
Questions

Why do business systems for entrepreneurs outperform individual tactics in internet marketing?

Tactics are one-time actions. Systems are repeatable processes that produce consistent results without the owner being involved in each execution. When your internet marketing is built as systems with written instructions, you can hand each component to a team member or vendor and have it run without you. That is the only way to scale online marketing beyond what one person can personally manage.

What are the most important business systems for entrepreneurs to build for their online brand?

At minimum: a content creation system, a website optimization system, a traffic generation system, and a lead nurturing system. Each one should be documented as a step-by-step process that anyone on your team can execute. The content and traffic systems build visibility. The optimization and nurturing systems convert that visibility into revenue. Without all four working together, growth tends to stall.

How do you build a website that ranks well and converts visitors into customers?

It starts with identifying the top three keywords your audience searches when looking for what you offer. Then remove duplicate content, follow Google's technical guidelines, and build a minimum of 20 well-written articles that provide real value. Every page needs unique meta data, fast load times, and trust elements on the landing page. Conversion comes from structure and credibility, not just traffic volume.

What is the right way to add content pages to a business website to drive organic growth?

Each content page should target a specific keyword phrase in the URL, title tag, meta description, and body copy. Use the keyword phrase naturally three to four times in the article. Include one to two relevant images with keyword-based alt tags. Link internally to related pages on the site. After publishing, ping the page and submit it to Google. Done consistently, this process compounds into significant organic traffic.

How should a business owner think about internet marketing as a system versus as individual tasks?

Every internet marketing activity should be documented as an instruction set that a team member or vendor can execute without asking you questions. Your job as the owner is to build and approve those systems, not to run them manually. When you are executing marketing tasks yourself on a regular basis, that is a signal the system does not exist yet. Build the process, assign it, and move your focus to growth decisions.

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