Internet Marketing

Gator Web Design specialises in providing an immediate and ongoing internet marketing service.

We can evaluate and improve existing websites or ensure that your new website is set up to maximise you internet marketing potential. Please also see our SEO - Search Engine Optimisation section.

Why do I need to market my website?

If you were to open a shop that wants to secure a lot of passing trade, you would choose a popular location where a lot people actually pass by. You would not open a shop in a remote location, in the middle of nowhere as very few people are likely to go near your shop, let alone enter it and give you business. The same attitude should be taken of websites.

The purpose of a website has to be to add value to your business, make money and increase profits. This could be directly through eCommerce, increasing the sale of your products. Alternatively it could be by providing potential customers with information about your product or services or be used for marketing purposes. As with shops, you might get some visitors who make a special trip just to your shop. For example, a friend of mine who is a keen cyclist, often travels hundreds of miles to specialist bike shops. With your website, you might get such visitors, with them typing in the exact URL website address. Such visitors will be previous visitors/customers or people who have obtained your website address from sources such as a business card, a sign, an advert, product packaging or word of mouth. In order to get direct visitors and customers at the outset, you will need to have the ability to circulate and publicise your URL website address. If you have an existing business this will mean that you need to add your URL website to all business material, packaging, signs etc... Everything you give to customers should contain your website URL address to make them aware of your website and to encourage them to directly visit it.

When you are starting up a business it can be harder to circulate your website address and attract direct visitors. It may even be hard for existing businesses, who don't want or can't afford to replace existing material such as shop signs or headed paper. One of the best and most popular ways is through search engines. When I am looking for something on the internet, I normally start with Google, Bing, Yahoo or another search engine. There are many different search engines but Google is currently still the most popular search engine by a long way. Most people choose a search engine result on the first page of Google, normally the top 3 Google positions. If there is nothing obviously relevant or useful on the first Google results page, we might go to the second or third page of Google, but rarely beyond that. There is normally a relevant result that can be found on the first page or failing then the next few pages. Therefore the goal of all websites has to be to to appear as high as possible on Google, with the ultimate goal of number 1 on Google. This can be easier said than done, but it is best to employ the services of search engine positioning experts, such as Gator Web to get as high a position on Google and other search engines as possible.

How do I get a top ranking on Google? Put simply, there are lots of different factors that affect your positioning on Google and other search engines. Google changes its algorithm, the formula/rules it uses to rank websites, on a regular basis. It may change the weighting it gives to certain things, which could see your position on Google rise or fall. Therefore it is very important to keep up to date with the changes to ensure you are obtaining the best possible position on Google. This is an area Gator Web specialises in and can advise you on if you select one of our on going internet marketing packages.

Essentially Google seeks to rank sites highest that are the most popular and useful to people. It applies various techniques such as: monitoring the visitors to your site via its search results; which sites link to your site; the number of sites that link to your site; the quality/importance of sites that link to your site; the relevance of your site to the search performed; the relevance of the content of your site and lots of other parameters, which change regularly. This ranking process is becoming more and more sophisticated and more competitive as more sites compete for the same top Google spots. Creating a site and submitting it to the search engines is not sufficient to obtain and maintain good Google ranking positions for most sites. Ongoing tweaking and adjustments are required.