Key word optimization, meta tags, and back links are all great methods for optimizing the amount of traffic that gets generated to your web site. However, many web sites have gone “search engine crazy” and have moved away from the real purpose in which they were created.

Sure, you want people to visit your site; without visitors what good would it be. On the other hand, what are all those people seeing when they get there? There’s no denying that hits are good, but catches are better. Web sites that not only draw traffic, but also leave a great first impression are a much better form of effective advertising.

A web site should be a useful tool for the viewer that is organized efficiently, informative, and impressive to look at. Web sites that have a home page with more words on it than the dictionary do not demand much visual attention. The goal of your site shouldn’t be to impress a lifeless search engine more than a potential customer.

Relying on search engines alone to promote your web site is a big mistake. Nobody has control over Google except Google, as well as the other search engines. Spending lots of money to boost search engine status isn’t always the best way to get the most results per marketing dollar, and you still could find yourself digging your way out of the “sandbox.”

Try actively promoting your site. Be sure to put your URL address as many places as possible as well as asking customers if they’ve seen your web site. Even if it is for just a simple critique, it will help get them more familiar with your online display.

Give people a reason to continually check out your site. Blogs, Current Events, Promotions, and Newsletters are a great way to keep customers coming back. Try not to always promote, but to give genuinely helpful information. Take more control over getting the right people to visit your site and give those search engines a rest.

Shot-in-the-dark email advertising has become one of the best ways to annoy a potential customer. As a ridiculous amount of SPAM emails have rendered most email advertising attempts useless, they have almost threatened the very use of email as an effective form of communication. Let’s face it, who likes to look through 30 to 40 SPAM emails to find one that may be of importance. Most of us realize that we will not be winning anything from South Africa, the mortgage rate is not right for us, we are not going to meet singles in our area, and that credit card applications are not hard to come by. Yes, erroneous emails can be annoying, that’s why a more creative approach needs to be used when advertising.

We have started offering custom designed email newsletters to advertise your business or provide useful information. A newsletter is an interesting way to update and promote your business that has much better results. Throw in a sharp looking design and you have a great inexpensive tool to help get the word out.
Some other great advantages of our email newsletters:

• Through a special program, we can keep track of who opens your email newsletter and how many times. So if you have a potential client who looks at your newsletter 3 or more times, you know whom to target.
• We can also place a link to your web site on the newsletter. With this link, we can track how many people looked at your web site by clicking on your web address. Not only does this draw traffic to your site but it boost with your search engine status with google, yahoo, msn, and other web search programs.
• Email lists can be automatically uploaded to the program so that when you hit send, it will deliver the newsletter to all recipients within seconds. These lists can be added to or reorganized to different groups or types of clients.
• Special precautions are built into the program so your newsletter has a great chance of avoiding the junk box or being tagged as SPAM.
• A newsletter sign-up can be places on your web site even drawing additional traffic from those browsing your site on the web.

Why Email Newsletters?
* No printing costs
* No postage costs
* Track results for more efficient target marketing
* Links to web site helps search engine ratings
* Inexpensive form of advertising
* Reaches more customers faster

Contact L&B Design today to let us help you get started with an effective email marketing program, and let’s try to make email the useful tool it once was for everybody.