So you’re interested in learning how to make money in online marketing. That’s great! I’m betting you’ve come from pretty humble beginnings, and you’ve probably never thought of giving marketing a go, but after reading this article, I’m sure you’ll be convinced that it’s a worthwhile venture.
If you’re looking for a step-by-step guide to learning how to make money in online marketing, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, you’ll discover everything you need to know about making money in digital marketing and how to get started.
Top Techniques for 2017
The SEO landscape is constantly changing, and with the new year rolling around, it’s a good idea to take a look back at the previous year and see how you did. Google search volumes and organic rankings are great indicators of the most popular SEO techniques used in the previous year. As a digital marketer, you’ll be pleased to learn that these metrics tell you what worked and what didn’t work in the past 12 months. Let’s take a look:
- On-site SEO Optimization
- Linkedin Optimization
- Content Strategy
- Mobile SEO
- Brand Awareness
- Pricing Strategy
- Content Creation
- User Experience
- Traffic Generation
On-Site SEO Optimization
On-site SEO (Search Engine Optimization) was one of the most popular search engine optimization (SEO) techniques used in the previous year. The main reason behind this surge is that SEO plays a crucial role in driving organic traffic to your website and boosting your conversion rates. Additionally, Google makes it readily apparent when a website is optimized for SEO. This is why it’s always a good idea to start your SEO optimization strategy on the website’s front page. Here’s what you need to know about on-site SEO optimization:
- Keyword Research
- On-site Optimization
- Content Planning
- HTML Validation
- Cross-browser Testing
- Mobile User Experience
- Redesigning
- Security
In short, on-site SEO optimization is all about doing what’s necessary to make your website accessible to search engines. This includes creating a usable, accessible website that is intuitive and easy to navigate. To take your website to the next level, you can employ off-site SEO techniques, which are covered in the next section.
Linkedin Optimization
Linkedin was one of the most popular social media platforms in the past year, and with good reason—it’s incredibly useful for business people. More and more companies are realizing the benefits of connecting with their customers through this platform, so it would be a missed opportunity if you’re not taking advantage of this already. Having a profile on this platform is essential for any business, and it will greatly expand your network of potential customers. Here’s what you need to know about Linkedin optimization:
- Keyword Research
- Article Marketing
- Video Marketing
- Press Release Distribution
- Customer Relations Management (CRM)
- Content Planning
Linkedin optimization is all about getting your content into the hands of as many people as possible via this platform. To get started, create a business page, set up your profile (which should be optimized for links), and begin building your network. Then, begin distributing your content via articles, videos, and more. Make sure to keep all your content consistent, because duplicate content is likely to upset Google and other search engines.
Why should you consider video marketing for your business? Well, videos are much easier for people to consume than text, and as a result, video marketing is one of the most effective forms of content creation. Simply put, people love watching videos, so why not use this to your advantage? Create short, informative videos about your industry that can be used to educate viewers or to highlight new products and services. Publishing informative, well-researched videos will also earn you a spot in Google’s search rankings.
Content Strategy
Content strategy is all about aligning your different content creations (e.g., blogs, social media posts, etc.) with a cohesive vision and plan. This is different from just publishing content as you would usually do. By understanding the motivations behind each piece of content you publish, you’ll be able to integrate that into your overall content strategy and improve the effectiveness of your content marketing efforts.
An integral part of the content strategy process is to define your target audience, which is arguably the most important step. Without a clear idea of who you’re writing for, it’s hard to determine the right tone and style for your content. Your target audience will help you choose which platform to use and the type of content you should be creating. Once this is established, the next step is to map out the buyer’s journey, which is a visual representation of exactly what they will do (and perhaps, which channel they will use to get there).
Chances are, you’ve heard of content marketing and you know it’s an important component of any marketing plan. But, like many other elements of digital marketing, the true value of content marketing comes from its effectiveness and from seeing the organic growth of a content-driven website. That’s why it’s essential to get this right from the start; before you know it, you’ll be happily reaping the benefits of a content-driven website.
HTML Validation
HTML validation, or code validation, is checking the code of a website’s HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) to make sure it’s valid. One of the things that makes a website look professional is having a clean, well-coded HTML. The best way to achieve this is through proper HTML validation.
Valid HTML code is easy to understand and to replicate, which makes it much easier for other website developers to work with. Additionally, having a clean codebase makes your site much easier to maintain and update. Proper HTML validation ensures that your HTML code is following best practices, has the proper tags, and is free of any errors. Most importantly, it gives you peace of mind knowing that your code is well-formed and error-free.
Cross-browser Testing
Cross-browser testing is all about ensuring that your website works in all the major web browsers. If you’re not sure which web browsers are used by your target audience, you can use a service like CanIHelpYou? which gives you demographic information about your site’s visitors. Testing in multiple web browsers is necessary because not all users will be using the same browser. For example, Google Chrome is the most popular browser, but it’s also the one that’s the most resource intensive. That’s why you need to make sure that your site works well in Chrome, as well as in other browsers such as Firefox or Safari. A good rule of thumb is to ensure that your site looks the same in every major browser, because if it doesn’t, then it’s almost certainly not going to look the same on any other device or screen.
Mobile SEO
With more than half the world’s population using mobile phones, it’s a good idea to consider how you plan to reach your audience on these smaller, more portable devices. After all, not everyone has a large TV screen to play with when they’re online.
The first step in mobile SEO is to make sure that your website is responsive. That is, when a user accesses your site on a mobile phone, the layout should change to accommodate the smaller screen size. Ideally, you want to make sure that your site looks good on a mobile phone and that all the content is easy to scan. The best way to do this is to make sure that all the elements, from the size of the text to the color palette, respond well to changes in screen size.
Then, you need to take a look at your site from a user’s perspective. This entails going through each page, assessing the flow of information, and determining whether or not the reading experience is satisfactory. Ideally, you want to create a better user experience on mobile devices, which is why you want to work on making your pages load faster. Some of the things you can do to improve the user experience on mobile devices include making sure the contrast is good and the text isn’t too small.