I think I should spend more time marketing my business. What shall I do next? Hmmm. Perhaps a tweet or two.

You must get your name out there on a regular basis. If not, no one will ever find you. You will be sucked into an internet black hole with billions of other websites.

Don’t let this happen to you! Follow these 7 steps and you will have a better chance of staying relevant.

1. Include title tags, keyword phrases and meta descriptions on all your pages. Also add alt tags on your photos so they show up on searches. If this doesn’t make sense to you, call your neighborhood webmaster for help (or Chuck at Creative Juices 310-791-5803… just saying).
2. Submit your site to the major search engines, primarily Google, Bing and Yahoo! It takes time for search engines to register this new information.
3. Create a site map for your site. It helps the search engines and your visitors find all your pages.
4. Write valuable, relevant content on a regular basis. Give tips, write reviews, how-to’s, etc. Give people a reason to come back to your site.
5. Add videos and photos. People like visuals. Don’t forget to tag them with relevant keywords. Perhaps add a 6 second Vine or Instagram 15 second video.
6. Set up your social media marketing. That means Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and LinkedIn, for starters.
7. Collect Email addresses. Email marketing continues to be very effective.

• Social Media marketing involves creating constant new and helpful content. That’s what will get your site noticed and ranked high. Google and other search engines look for this new content. People search for sites that can help them meet their needs. If your site just sits static it will disappear. No one will find it because there is nothing new.
• It is important to build relationships with others, especially those in your niche. You must create a sense of community with your audience.
• Unfortunately there is no easy and quick answer. Google is always tweaking their algorithms. Recently they changed the way links to your site are viewed. It’s important that you have outside links to your site, but they must be good, natural links, not links you paid for.
• The take-away is to update your website often. Keep it alive and relevant. It’s not easy, but with that kind of information, people will find you!

Do you use social media? Has it helped your website and marketing?