Being discoverable is all about being found, the more places you hang out, the more places people are going to find you. Don't hang out anywhere - hangout where your customers are. You need to be found by customers who are looking for the products and services you sell.
The first step to being discoverable is to talk the talk, or mirror the search keywords, and search terms customers use to search for your site in your sites copy. This puts you in sync because you are talking the same language.
This article discusses the steps to take to be discovered off site, a process known by various terms such as online marketing, Search Engine Marketing or SEM.
Now that your site talks the talk and is SEO optimized with search keywords and search terms, you need to walk the walk and get on path. The path marks the way that internet surfers jump from site to site following links. Links that are in banners and buttons - the type that appear on most websites - one minute your looking at cars, you click on a banner and book a holiday. It's called serendipity and we all do it. Banners aren't the only things that catch our attention - articles, blogs and forum post may contain links within the body of a piece of text - called deep links - which we follow for more information.
Getting on path with banner ads and buttons can be achieved by a process known as affiliate marketing. Affiliate Marketing is where you agree to pay sales commission to a third party website when their visitors click through to your website to make a purchase from you. It's like paying a salesman, only the salesman is a website. There are a number of ways of setting up an affiliate marketing scheme. You can do it yourself, or pay commission to a third party, known as an aggregator. Aggregators are effectively banner brokers.
Press Releases - Aren't they just for big companies? Absolutely not, a press release or news releases is a great way of getting on to the path that surfers walk, and they are accessible to all. A well written press release will contain the search keywords and search terms that your customers use - talking the talk - and links to various pages on your website. This is a great way to communicate with your customers directly and drive action such as registering for a news letter, subscribing to a blog, or enquiring on a product. Whatever action you want to invoke - press releases give you that ability. Earlier I used the term 'News Release' as opposed to 'Press Release', for the reason that you aren't really interested in the press. It's not that you don't want the press to write about your company and its products or services, it's because your release isn't aimed at journalists and editors - it's aimed at your customers.
Press releases are distributed by press release hubs that send your news out to news rooms, websites and blogs. This means that your news will travel all over the world and will appear on all kinds of websites who link back to your website with the links you embedded in your news release. Is that cool or what? Aim to send out one press release per week, and you will become very discoverable. You may think that you don't have any news to tell: Rubbish, of course you do. If you have no news nothing is happening, and if nothing is happening - you've got problems, which is news - so you can tell the world about that.
Related Articles
Easy Search Engine Optimization - Talk the Talk
By: Stuart Atkinson | 16/04/2008 | SEO
This is an online marketing guide to cost effective Search Engine Optimization - SEO, and search engine marketing - SEM, that will boost website visibility and drive profit. It's all about discovery and being discoverable. Optimize your website, receive more visitors and make your business grow.
X Files of Online Marketing
By: Erkan Meydanlioglu,Mr | 10/10/2007 | Online Business
A traditional profile of online marketers as:
1)Young people with old appearance and body because of working hard or tracking their competitives.
2)Always busy minded to think new and creative campaign ideas to increase sales and revenues.
3)Always wears black sun glasses, this is not because of spying just to hide the black lines under eyes.
4)They drive luxury cars slowly because their mind is still busy about if his campaign needs some optimization or modification.
4 Effective Search Engine Optimization Practices
By: Cheow Yu Yuan | 17/05/2008 | SEO
Search engine optimization is the most effective way to drive traffic to your website. By maximizing the benefits that search engine optimization bring, you will be able to yield lots of earnings for your business...
The Four Secrets of Successful PPC Campaigns
By: Barbara Fischer | 16/07/2007 | Marketing
Over the past decade, online marketing has become an integral part of most businesses’ marketing strategies. In particular, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) have become one of the most common channels for any business to sell its products and services. In this article, I will share some insights into successful SEM and SEO campaigns.
How to Use your Sem Campaign as a Long Term Sales Tool
By: Barbara Fischer | 16/07/2007 | Marketing
So, you’ve run your one month trial search engine marketing campaign and received your first sales enquiries. Now you can simply sit back and watch the business roll in… right? Wrong! The trial gets you started in the world of SEM, but the first month is just a taste of what is to come.
How to Improve Your Search Engine Rankings and Get More Traffic?
By: Cheow Yu Yuan | 17/05/2008 | SEO
Obtaining high search engine rankings for keywords that are closely related to your business is essential if you want to get more traffic to visit your website. The traffic from search engines are people who are searching for the service or product that you are selling, making them highly qualified leads for your business...
The Importance of Getting Your Website Visible in Search Engines
By: Cheow Yu Yuan | 17/05/2008 | SEO
A beautifully designed website is useless if there is no visitor to find out what you are offering. The main source of traffic for most websites is from search engine. It is the search engines that get your website visible to your potential customers...
Search Engine Marketing
By: ajay | 10/10/2007 | SEO
This article is a complete guide to search engine marketing. All the strategies practiced in search engine marketing.
Got a Question? Ask.
Ask the community a question about this article:
Frequently Asked Questions
Child Pornography on Craiglist
By: Marcie | 02-07-2008
Child pornography is arguably one of the worst things that enjoy the internet and the web 2.0 rage. If Craiglist insist on having a pornography section, are they in part at least responsible for perpetrating the porn trade? Are they doing enough to redeem themselves?
What the top 3 contextual ad platforms?
By: Nolan Bayliss | 30-06-2008
What the top 3 contextual ad platforms?
What are the top 3 contextual ad networks?
By: nbayliss | 30-06-2008
What are the top 3 contextual ad networks?
Firefox
By: Kibbutz | 20-06-2008
What are the advantages of the new Firefox browser (please don't get technical)?
I work as software engineer. Can I build my own web site without being fired?
By: Ranimi23 | 16-06-2008
I am going to open my own web site and also write there a column, but I'm afraid my boss won't like this hobby. It will be a big application and I will need to work on it on my spare time. I like my work and I like also to program outside my work. Can I do that or it will be talking a big risk?I don't want to hide this web site, because I do believe it will be a great success, I just don't know if this collide with my work. I do progarm web sites at my work, but not like what I am planning to do. This web site may be some day a real company, I don't know what will happen but I love the idea of doing it. Please advise how to behave. I do know big companies started from people who had worked while they started their own thing.
Internet Metering
By: Adier | 16-06-2008
Internet Metering? Do you Agree or not NEW YORK, June 15 (UPI) -- Three of the largest U.S. Internet service providers are threatening to restrict their most active subscribers' online activity, companies say. Time Warner Cable, Comcast and AT&T are considering charging those who use their services more than the average user, The New York Times reported Sunday. http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2008/06/15/ISPs_consider_bandwidth_surcharges/UPI-89811213560027/
Q&A Powered by:
Latest SEM Articles
Struggling to Find a Niche? Get 40 Keyword Suggestions
By: JR Lang | 19/07/2008
If you are struggling to find a niche here are 40 keyword suggestions that will generate tons of ideas for niches and micro niches. Also included are some guides and research tips for finding good and profitable niches.
Why CMS Is Just Becoming Popular
By: Mark Kimathi | 19/07/2008
For the longest time, CMSs have not been SE friendly. This means, if you were to use a CMS and your competitor used the plain old HTML pages, they would out-rank you in SEs every time.
Search Engine Marketing: Let's Make New Customers
By: Naman Jain | 18/07/2008
Internet is the center for getting information regarding anything. And search engines play a major role in it.
What Is Page Rank
By: Mark Kimathi | 18/07/2008
High rankings in natural listing of Search Engines a (SE) is one of the most coveted positions for the popular keywords.
Denver Search Engine Marketing Companies
By: Konrad Braun | 17/07/2008
Just remember if you cant do this by yourself or have no idea how to do this yourself, then there are people out there either business's or individuals that know how to do all this and not just how to do it but how to do it so your site is set to get the optimum amount of visitors to view your site.
Adsense Tips, Layout Optimization Tricks for Higher CTR
By: Konrad Braun | 17/07/2008
Google Adsense is most likely the best way to attract advertisers from across the planet to your blog or website. Submitting your blog to Google for approval and if google approves, you will get you to place their ads codes linking to products/services likely to appeal to the viewers of your blog or website.
Background on Search Engine Marketing
By: Alan Lim | 17/07/2008
Wondering where it all began? You don’t have to wonder any more. Take a look at the history of search engine marketing in this article.
Getting Ahead Of The Game With Speed PPC
By: Alan Largo | 17/07/2008
As an online marketer, I am well aware of the time and effort it takes to put together just one PPC campaign, let alone multiple ones. I also know the amount of money it costs to bid on Google Adwords if you use competitive keywords that are high in demand. Amazingly, I discovered pay-per-click management tools...
More from Stuart Atkinson
7 Things to Consider Before Renting Out Your Real Estate Investment
By: Stuart Atkinson | 18/07/2008 | Real Estate
At a time when the real estate market is down, it's easier to buy property than it is to sell it. That leaves investors wondering if they should make the leap and become a landlord.
The Pros and Cons of a Real Estate Investment Business: Home Buying
By: Stuart Atkinson | 11/06/2008 | Real Estate
Many people are looking for ways to earn an income either as a part-time gig or to replace their jobs and work full-time as an entrepreneur. One of the hottest and most popular ways of doing this is getting into real estate purchase and resell.
How to Find Property Listings in the United States
By: Stuart Atkinson | 05/06/2008 | Real Estate
One common way people are finding property listings is through the Internet. The Internet makes it so easy to search for a broad area of property and narrow that right down to a particular town or even subdivision.
Buying Real Estate in a Slow Market
By: Stuart Atkinson | 20/05/2008 | Real Estate
If you want to buy a home but plan to wait until the real estate market hits rock bottom, you may want to reconsider.
Easy Search Engine Optimization - Talk the Talk
By: Stuart Atkinson | 16/04/2008 | SEO
This is an online marketing guide to cost effective Search Engine Optimization - SEO, and search engine marketing - SEM, that will boost website visibility and drive profit. It's all about discovery and being discoverable. Optimize your website, receive more visitors and make your business grow.
Internet 
