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OPTIMIZING & MARKETING Your Website
Beginners’ Guide
Copyright Gabriel Dica
First things first!
Read this document carefully, take your time with it, and don't read it all at once. It is structured and compartmentalized so you can find just the information you need, when you need it. No need to put too much stuff in your head too fast when you can always just come back here and read exactly what you need.
So...
What's this booklet and how will it help you?
Call it a guide or checklist. It condenses all the information you need to know about turning your (future or existing) on-line business in a profitable venture. It shows you the options you have, the choices you need to make before you have to make them. It informs and educates you about all the different things you need to understand to have a successful online presence and make a profit. And it presents all this information in an easy to read, easy to understand manner.
It provides value to both beginners and experts alike.
Before we begin...
This entire document is written under the assumption that you already have a website or plan to have one built.
If you don’t yet have a website and don't know where to get one, you can check:
Any on-line service that lets you build your own website with no coding knowledge required:
- www.wix.com
- www.webber.com
- www.godaddy.com
- www.buildyoursite.com
Sites that help you find programmers to build the site for you:
- www.freelancer.com
- www.upwork.com
- www.elance.com
- www.guru.com
Companies that build your website according to your specification, companies like:
And you can always do a Google search for local companies that build websites.
Contents
Choosing the revenue system
More ways to monetize your site
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
On page SEO
Off page SEO
Top SEO trends
Google AdSense
Other tips for increasing your revenue with AdSense
Google Analytics and Google Webmaster tools
Google Webmaster Tools
Google Analytics
Marketing
Social media and your site
Google AdWords
General marketing tips
Choosing the revenue system
In this step you will learn about some of the different choices you have for monetizing your website
One of the very first things you need to do is make a rather important decision: how will you earn money? This may seem like a no-brainer for some, while for others it will be a tough question to answer. But this decision should (ideally) be made before you even start building your site because it shapes its structure, the way information should be presented to the user. However, even if the site is already built and established, it's never too late to make the important changes!
Let's take a look at some of the monetizing options you have and how your site should be structured around them.
Sell products or services
This is the first (and obvious) choice for anyone who actually has something to sell. It doesn't really matter what: it can be a product or a service, it can be an idea or maybe just some piece of information. And if you don't have your own products to sell, you can always brand t-shirts, pens or coffee mugs.
Regardless of what you plan to sell, you should follow these simple guidelines:
- Big and clear pictures should dominate the homepage accompanied by clear text that describes what the pictures are about (a product name or a very short description).
- The best-selling products or best promotions should go near the top of your homepage (inside the field of view a user has when first accessing your page) while the most useful information about your products (or company) should be placed around the middle, right under the most important products and promotions. You can add a few more products at the bottom (maybe randomly chosen to increase diversity).
- Keep the homepage short and relevant (don't stuff hundreds of products on it), always think about what the user wants. On the homepage you should always “tease” users, make them curious about your products, enough to click and go to the product page.
- On the product page you should have big and clear pictures, but equally important you should always have a well written product description! Never place just the picture and the price – that's bad for both the user and Google (more on what Google likes in the SEO section).
Sell ad space
Regardless of what your site provides you can always make some money with on-line ads. There are two ways to go about doing that: you can work with an advertising placement service like Google AdSense or Chitika or you can choose to sell the ad space yourself.
Working with an advertising placement service is great because it provides your users with targeted ads, relevant to them (so there's an increased chance for them to actually click an ad).
The downside is that in order to get any significant income you need to have thousands of visitors daily. More on this in the Google AdSense section.
Selling the ad space on your own can be difficult because you h...
