eBoot Camp: Proven Internet Marketing Techniques to Grow Your Business

Part II. CREATE A WEB PRESENCE TO DOMINATE THE SEARCH ENGINES AND DRASTICALLY INCREASE TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEB SITE

INTRODUCTION

Gone are the days of using your web site as your sole Internet marketing tool. Instead, small businesses are creating what's known as a "Web presence" to funnel people into their web site from all different directions. A Web presence is a group of online resources that can individually drive traffic to your web site. Some of these resources include networking sites like myspace.com as well as blogs, press releases, and enewsletters (an electronic magazine or newsletter).

Here's how it works. Picture a spider web with your web site in the middle of it. Your objective is to attract as many people to the spider's web as possible. Each time you create a different resource, like a blog or enewsletter, you're expanding your web. And by including a link from each of your resources directly to your web site, you're funneling all traffic directly to the center of your site, as seen in the picture below.

Funneling traffic to your web site is only the beginning. You will also want to direct your customers to other parts of your Web presence. You might refer to your blog in your MySpace page or ask people to sign up for your monthly enewsletter from inside your blog. The point is to keep people engaged with your valuable content. This will help you build credibility with your readers and create lifelong customers! Here is how the ultimate Web presence should look like.