Essentially there are three ways to get people to your website. Search Engine Marketing, Cost Per Click Paid Advertising on other websites, and Direct Marketing.
Search Engine Marketing
The first way to get people looking at your website is through Search Enging Marketing. Search Engine Marketing is the process of using the Search Engines and directories like Google, Yahoo, MSN, Live and Ask to draw people to your website via search results. You draw people to your site by being found in search results SERP or Search Engine Results Page - when someone searches for something in any of these search engines.
To get to your site, the searcher has to click on the link within your search engine entry information. If they come to your site, then you will either have a product to sell them, or some sort of email list to have them sign up for, or clicking on relevant ads for which you get paid if they click on them.
Direct Marketing
The second way to get people to your website is by Direct Marketing. You are already familiar with this way of marketing. This is where you give them something that has your website address on it like a business card or a flyer. At a later time, when that person is in front of their computer they can get to your website by typing your website address or URL into their browser (Internet Explorer or Firefox are two of the most popular Internet Browsers used to Surf the Internet).
Paid Advertising
The third way is through Cost Per Click Paid Advertising. People find your site through links or graphics on either search engines or on other websites. You can think of this like a newspaper or a magazine. When you thumb through a magazine or newspaper you will come across ads. The company whose ad you came across paid to have their ad there. This is what you do on the Internet for ads, you pay for them to be on other websites.
Why is Search Engine Marketing So Important
Of the three ways to market your website just presented, Search Engine Marketing is very important because it is what search engines and directories were designed for: Internet users and surfers go to search engines and directories to find things they are looking for or to buy. When you go to Google for example and type in something that you are interested in like "how do I make money online", what shows up are search results. You could say that those folks whose websites show up in those search results are search engine marketers.
One Big Benefit of Search Engine Marketing
Where your website shows up on search results is a very competitive way to get your site seen on the Internet. However, the efforts you make in search engine marketing for your site will last a very long time. Your efforts will also cost you nothing once you get the "word out" to the search engines and directories about your site.
Once you start having pages of your website show up on search results, those results will last long after the moment that you first put your website, or web page online. You can think of every page that you put online as like a small amount of money in the bank that will keep paying you some small amount of interest every day. Once you have one page online, start on the next and the next and the next.
The other two ways to get your website found on the internet take work too and a pretty hefty marketing and advertising budget. You must pay to have your ads shown, and you must pay money to print materials to give to people. These ways are effective and it is what most of us know from the past. Search engine marketing is a relatively new way to advertise your company. It has only been around since the mid 1990's when the Internet started to really take hold. Fortunately for you, the methods and benefits of search engine marketing are poorly understood by many website owners. Do your search engine work effectively and your site will be found in search results for a long time to come.
Article By Dale Stouffer. Dale has been an Internet Marketer since 1999.
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