Start your engines, an internet presence is more than meta tags
Published on the 30th November 2010: Sunshine Coast Daily
So, you are a business with a website.You might get one or
two emails a week from people who have found you on the
net.
Then you engage a search engine optimisation
specialist and all of a sudden you are booked out every
single day.
Mark Edwards is used to this type of scenario.
He creates it with his team of programmers and designers at
Noosa business iEnhance every day of the week.
He started the business in 2008, but even in
two short years, there have been endless
blink-and-you'll-miss-them changes to the way businesses
promote themselves online.
"When I first started, online marketing was
fairly simple. There was no social media just a few years
ago, no Facebook or Twitter.
"Search engine optimisation meant adding a few
meta tags; now it is increasingly complex and keeping up
and ahead of change is vita.
"Internet business use is expanding rapidly
too, across generations, cultures and physically across
countries too. Competition online is increasing
accordingly. Businesses really must have practical, not
just pretty websites and online marketing plans to compete
effectively 24-7."
Mark Edwards works with a range of businesses
on the Sunshine Coast and overseas including resorts,
private detectives, car yards and small businesses.
"We worked closely with Noosa Riviera, a
boutique resort in Noosaville, who cam to us after
laboriously managing their Adwords (pay per click)
campaign," he said.
"We used the data they had gathered through
Adwaords, the researched a strong keyword set for them and
began our search engine optimisation campaign.
"We quickly drove the same amount of quality
trafic to their website for less cost. We recently launched
their new website and since then they've noticeably
converted more potential customers and their rankings have
risen dramatically so people find them and book fast,
because they are at the top of the search list."
"Mr Edwards said the most important SEO tip
was to ensure any website content was relevant,
interesting, regularly updated and substantial.
"And make sure other sites are acknowledging
you (if they use your content)," he said.
"Search engines are here to stay, so it should
absolutely be part of a marketing or advertising budget to
help online customers out there come to you."
By Rebecca Marshall - Business Editor of the Sunshine Coast Daily
