The 5 Worst Ways to Market Your Business Online
Given that being online is a requirement for nearly any type of small business these days, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that there are many different ways to advertise and market your online presence. From blogs to search engine ads and article marketing sites, there are literally dozens of options for getting the word out about your company. Naturally, some of them are better than others.
It might seem like a good idea to do whatever you can to attract visitors and hits to your website, but here are five methods you should avoid. That’s because each of them is annoying, counterproductive, or both:
Using pay per click advertising without doing the math. Ever since search companies first figured out they could make money off businesses competing for the top spots, marketers have been tripping over themselves to bid for online traffic. Some of the most popular keywords can cost you $5, $10 or more for single click, so be careful about spending a fortune on generic words and phrases that might not be worth the cash.
Junk articles. Posting a bunch of keyword-stuffed gibberish to your website doesn’t do anyone any good. For one thing, search engines have caught on and aren’t likely to reward you with a good ranking. If you’re reading this page, it’s very likely because one of Google’s spiders found it for you. Trying to outwit the web’s most thorough readers is never a winning strategy, and at the same time, visitors to your site are going to be turned off by sloppy writing.
Link farms. In the same way, numerous search engine companies offer thousands of links for a small fee, supposedly helping you reach the top of Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Unfortunately, having thousands of adult sites, shady online casinos, and pages that exist only to link to other unknown domains can only have one effect on your search engine rankings, and it’s not a good one.
Pop up ads. It should go without saying that employing these kinds of tactics is a bad idea; after all, if people are annoyed with you, how likely are they to buy from you? Still, I see marketers try to get away with this all the time. It doesn’t work, so don’t waste the money.
Obnoxious designs. Like the man at the singles bar who wears a suit that looks like it’s been made from an imitation cheetah, some business owners broadcast that they are out of ideas with really obnoxious “strange” design choices. Being different isn’t always a great way to attract customers, and if you are not careful … it’s more likely to backfire by driving visitors away.
It’s almost written in stone that more traffic and better search rankings are good for small businesses online. But as you look to enhance your Internet marketing efforts, stay with the tried and true methods and avoid these pitfalls. Not every visitor to your site is a good one, and most options that look like an easy way to get customers are a waste of time.
