Pretty Noticed Online Businesses

HOW TO GET PRETTY NOTICED PRETTY FAST

by: Osama A. Hussein

Last updated on 7 February 2021

FIND THE RIGHT RHYTHM:

If you are serious in your online business, you should exhibit visibility concerns way before launch. Visibility to your target audience is your only window to online success. Likewise, your website quality is a window to your business visibility window. Would you imagine any audience that pays attention to a bad performer? This brings quality issues to the pre-launch table. These are not as simple as they may sound. Quality is related to target audience needs but has your team development potential as an ultimate ceiling. You should define personas beforehand and keep-up the good work to their discretion. Search engines work as intermediaries and hence have their say. To guarantee better quality, you may opt to be slow but sure. But if you run on a tight budget, you may need to rush to reap some revenue. Only the right rhythm can get you pretty noticed pretty fast.

HOW PERSISTENT IS THE BUSINESS RHYTHM QUESTION?

Very; to cut it short. It starts in the pre-launch phase and pops-up all along the way. It actually lasts as long as your web business does. Unfortunately, there is no single, simple or direct answer to this question. It depends on where you are on your business journey. In pre-launch phase? Have been testing waters? Have already covered some miles? About to approach a milestone? Have been cruising on a steady course? Have been enjoying scaling-up? or experiencing scaling-down? Or finally about to quit? It depends also on how you define online success, how you plan for it, work on it, expect it, phase it and finally feel it.

THERE MUST BE SOME WAY OUT:

But it is not all about rhythm. Appreciation of web business facets is a must. This covers website development, publishing and marketing. The better you master such techniques, the more you can avoid stagnation and provoke growth. Naturally, this cannot be realized in a blink of an eye. It needs time, effort and devotion. But an overview would help. As a first time online entrepreneur, you may be quite a master of some industry as it supposedly lies in the heart of your specialty and interest. You may feel unable to get noticed; though. How would you then capture leads, close deals and compete with competitors? Online success may look evasive or end-up alien. If this is how you feel, calm down. You can be assured you can simply re-adjust. Keen to get a clear answer? Read on to go a little detailed.

IT IS ALL IN THE JOURNEY:

In air traffic control, destinations require itineraries governed by global considerations. Achievement needs a wide perspective realized through careful detailed implementation. This is a rule of thumb that seems valid in every type of business; let alone online business. A web business status is the outcome of the web business journey so far pursued. Rather than define where you have just ended-up and investigate your current vicinity, raise questions that can help assess your whole journey right from the beginning. It is all in the journey. Your knowledge, mindset, attitudes, expertise, connections, finances, work environment and maybe other unnamed factors do contribute to your web business path that eventually reflects on your status. So, why search fiction when realities can be pretty clear? Flashback in old Hollywood movies used the past to interpret the present? Let us just mimic this approach.

MAIN BUSINESS NATURE:

To allow for a seamless business launch, you have to be crystal clear about the nature of your business. You may plan to just market a Brick-And-Mortar-Business you already own so as to boost its offline sales? You should then limit your online efforts to generation of pertinent traffic, capturing leads and directing prospects towards an offline sales funnel. Another option is to complement offline sales by new online ones. This might be a step toward completely switching from offline to online as a third option. Needless to mention that available technologies now enable brand new businesses to start online, thrive hard to get exposure and achieve appropriate online monetization. The offline presence would only entail necessary data processing. It should by now be obvious that internet marketing is a common component in all options. It is too basic to skip or underestimate.

PRESENT BLOG OBJECTIVES:

The present blog practices what it preaches. It tries to teach by example. Almost every post applies the main ideas it supports. The blog declares the unnecessary so as to turn informational. A down-to-earth definition would classify it as a not-for-profit business. The topics discussed stem from interest in and passion for knowledge crystallization in internet marketing with focus on organic search and inbound marketing. This could have taken entirely different forms. It may well do so some other time. An info ebook might be an answer. But this time, pure web business is the candidate type of business. The blog again tests and demonstrates; among other skills; some intrinsic writing skills. It sets an example in decent web content creation.

DOMAIN NAME SELECTION:

The name a baby is given upon birth is a lifetime companion. But the person in charge can change it through some defined procedure. Observations show that such changes rarely take place. This is very much the case with domain names. You build your website and hence your business around the domain name you have already selected. It is your basic definition on the web and hence your fundamental gateway to exposure. If you opt to change it midway in your business journey, you will just switch to an entirely new entity. Redirection would then be required to guide your loyal old visitors to the new address. If you attach your old content to a new domain name without redirection, you will risk losing some audience. You may also face content stealth penalties. Only un-renew the old domain name when you feel confident you do not need its traffic contribution.

DOMAIN NAME POTENTIAL:

Now, let us wonder what if a domain name has a potential. Wouldn’t it reflect seamlessly to its related business? This is why you should exert some decent effort in the process of Domain Name Selection. It is the first milestone in your web business journey, provided niche is already established. Some may argue here that good web content followed by professional internet marketing would compensate for any deficiency in the selection process. Well, this may sound logical. But a high initial potential should save a lot. A low initial potential on the other hand may impede progress or cost extended efforts to compensate for.

TWO MAIN DOMAIN CATEGORIES:

Early in the process of Domain Name Selection, you may have a prior inclination towards one of two main domain categories; brand domains and keyword domains. A brand domain either inherits potential from an existing brand or generates it from scratch. Alternatively a keyword domain derives potential from one or more keywords. If no keywords are envisaged in some particular domain, it should be classified as a brand one. Time then tells whether it could be well branded or not.

BRAND DOMAINS:

Again, a brand domain either represents an existing offline brand or empowers a new online one. It derives its power from the offline power of the brand if it existed before online launch. Consider Coca-Cola as a profound example. It has been a very well-established business well before the advent of the internet. No wonder its online presence has inherited deserved power. The Coca-Cola brand domain estimated value exceeds $14.3k as per GoDaddy. Its website value exceeds EURO 52.9k as per Check Website Price, $91.5k as per $iteprice and $1.8m as per worth of web the day this post is edited. Different values reflect different metrics adopted. Reflection of offline values onto online values can be regarded as forward branding. Backward branding takes place as businesses return the favor to offline predecessors.

KEYWORD DOMAINS:

A keyword domain on the other hand includes a keyword by definition. It derives its power from the keyword included and sends some back when acquiring power. So, brand domains exchange power with corresponding brands while keyword domains exchange power with included keywords. This conceptual framework is just now proposed by the present blog post. The author deems it genuine as it never came to his knowledge through his readings. However, any interested or concerned party may argue or prove otherwise.

BACKING-OFF FROM INITIAL CHOICES:

An online startup may fall in the trap of feeling sorry about his Domain Name Selection some months or phases later. Should he stick to his first choice and keep moving on? Should he back off and select another Business Domain Name? This is a little delicate dilemma to handle. If he moves on, he may lose opportunities he might have had upon correction. If he backs off and re-starts a new business site, he would eliminate the potential his first choice has acquired. It is quite normal for a domain name to gain potential as you continue to publish content around it. Keep in mind also that domain names get more accredited by search engines as they get older. They never age.

DOMAIN NAME FORWARDING:

Now, back to business. How to re-consider Domain Name Selection if deemed necessary. First, re-consideration must be done once and for all. You either move on and keep building on your first choice or you select a new URL, build on it and redirect your old URL to your new one. You thus lose your accumulated first domain potential and begin with the new one’s. You also keep your content value unless tightly linked to your first Domain Name as is the case with the post “How To Properly Choose Keywords For Successful Digital Marketing“.

ABOUT THE PRESENT BLOG DOMAIN NAME:

The present blog exercised a bit to rationalize its Domain Name Selection process. Having been targeting wise traffic generation strategies, it opted for a keyword domain that spells out Prettynoticed Dot Com. To my knowledge and apparently to Google’s, the combined word PRETTYNOTICED does not represent an existing offline brand. It is not an online brand either since it was available at time of registration. So, it is neither a branded domain nor an offline brand representative. But nothing prevents it from turning into an online brand if well branded over a sufficient length of time. Actually, it is more likely to be branded in view of its keyword implicit power. This is why this domain name was selected in the first place. It consists of two marketable syllables. The blog title exploits this duality by separating the two syllables to form a meaningful phrase. Really meaningful indeed.

PREPARED FOR TAKE-OFF?

This is about the last right time to review the basics. Apparently, Domain Name Selection is on top of the list. Would you go for a brand domain to utilize or a keyword domain to nurture? Do you have a fairly good insight of your potential domain? Have you investigated its worth? Have you compared it to those of your local, regional or global competitors? Keep in mind that the right selection saves you the inconveniences of re-selection.

UNDERCARRIAGE RETRACTED?

New to online business? Let us resort to some preliminary flight analogy. Plane doors have been closed. You are well seated, just watched the hostess instructions, fastened your belts and stayed alert. The pilot starts the plane engine, the plane runs all way along the runway, stops by its end and the engine roars loudly. The plane takes off, retracts its unneeded undercarriage and pitches toward some target level trajectory. Though not yet cruising, you are already flying. You just left the ground and need to resort to other physics. This is an analogy for an online start-up. Once you launch your business site, you had better use online mechanisms. Don’t ask for forced landing unless things go out of control. Resort to the flight skills you already master. It is just the right time for Digital Marketing. Keep an eye on your SEO Strategy and target appropriate Back Links.

PRETTYNOTICED

AN SEO CONSULTANCY

How To Properly Choose Keywords For Successful Digital Marketing

by: Osama A. Hussein

Last updated on 10 January 2021

DIGITAL MARKETING:

It should by now be obvious how public health hazards affect business forms. Many businesses have partially or totally gone online in response to the current pandemic. What about you? Are you an offline business addict who hates to conduct online business no matter what? Are you uncertain whether you would be able to overcome expected obstacles. Are you unaware of the Digital Marketing Techniques that work? If so, read on. While aviation may not get back to normal before 2022, flights to the online world are fairly easy to make. Those who made it use techniques such as Search Engine Optimization, Back Linking, Content Marketing, Social Media Marketing and List Building. You do not have to master all such techniques. No one does. As a stubborn survivor, Search Engine Optimization helps businesses survive. This is why it is given precedence in this blog.

DIGITAL MARKETING COTTAGE:

You might have been wondering if this virtual cottage can be of any help in your search for a hub that supports your business. You might have landed here by mere luck. It happens. One may be hanging around when he sees a place in the neighborhood that gets him captured by its modesty. It looks so different from other luxurious places that he promptly decides to give it a shot. Does modesty imply degraded value? Of course not. Is there a chance that you find what you have always been aspiring for? This you should find out in a minute or so. You may turn out to be lucky or it may prove otherwise. No regret. Life requires some decent experimentation so that clues end up indicative.

ENDING-UP HIGHLY NOTICED:

You may alternatively be a returning visitor who has landed here on purpose out of some previous experience. You are of course welcome. This blog was actually built to receive those who need to get noticed online but lack the relevant resources and knowledge. As is the case with any other type of business, web business cannot succeed on a fire and forget basis. It needs persistence, control and self guidance. It may also require a boost from some knowledgeable companion. In case you feel enough comfortable with your visit, stay tuned. This should help you get pretty noticed. To your surprise, you will not be too far from getting highly noticed. It would only require some more effort and a critical vision. The more you excel in this art, the better you can manage the web medium reactions to your online business increments. It is basically a mental game.

WHERE DOES YOUR BUSINESS DEVIL LIE?

Now back to business; real business. If you feel abandoned or unnoticed, review your business trip. The devil is known to lie in the details. But, he may well just opt for the big picture to ruin. There is no point in exerting extra efforts unless you trust your road map. Check your main business concepts. Carry out a top down analysis of your strategies. Get enlightened by available online business literature. If you are new to digital marketing, allow for some time to learn about the techniques disseminated throughout the present blog. New concepts will be carefully and delicately injected. Old ones get mature over time through due updates. You may also reach out and ask for advice. Every effort will be made to analyze your business trip, diagnose its inherent deficiencies and get your business on the right track.

MARKETING FOR LIFE:

It may be unusual to question the value of marketing. But to me it is rather historical. I recall when I attended a lecture on the subject delivered by an engineer who had switched to business administration. He started his lecture by asserting how much he had been hostile to marketing before he finally realized its value. I actually abode by the first standpoint of the lecturer. I deemed marketing as distraction from focus on work as key to excellence. Quality should speak for itself; I reckoned. After so many years, I now tend to assert the fellow was probably right. To survive, you may have to get your work blended with your potential. This would be your true image. Nothing else can be a better marketer. This I learned the hard way. I feel now proud I can make up for it by offering digital marketing services.

A NEW KNOWLEDGE BURDEN:

Then came the internet. Needless to explain its positive impact on human life. But its pluses came with new burdens. Let us just hint the marketing burden. Previously, humans had to market businesses to humans through conventional media. Such media have now been replaced by some sophisticated software called search engines. These turn trickier over time to allow for new concepts that can survive the competition. A digital marketer should help a business satisfy its target audience needs using available and ever-evolving search engine characteristics. Not all such characteristics are declared. This adds a new marketing knowledge burden. Marketers of similar businesses compete for a reasonable share of the same market against uncertainties. Different digital marketing techniques have been developed to resolve this issue. A wise digital marketer should be able to use the proper set of his choice. This requires an appreciation of all available digital marketing techniques.

DIGITAL MARKETING DEMYSTIFIED:

This is simply marketing web businesses over the web. It leans heavily on available web technology. Well-known digital marketing techniques include search engine optimization often referred to as SEO, advertising, content marketing, affiliate and e-mail marketing plus social media marketing. Search engine optimization is usually thought of as only boiling down to a process of keyword research. A broader perspective extends to inbound marketing that practically reduces to back-linking. It is worth noting that not every business uses all available digital marketing techniques. Picking a specific technique is a matter of belief and expertise. The underlying belief behind the present blog is that search engine optimization is a cornerstone not to overlook. It should be the first technique to use. It should also be revisited from time to time to assess and enhance whatever other techniques are in place.

A BUSINESS BLESSING OR CURSE?

A key concept that governs the internet is its reliance on search engines. They simply form its backbone as they make information available upon request. On top of search engines comes Google. Its advent has revolutionized and is still revolutionizing the rules of the game. Major and minor updates of search algorithms are being constantly developed, declared and put into effect to allow for better capture of information. Some features are made publicly available while many others are kept proprietary. It is almost impossible for web businesses to be aware of all publicly available Google algorithm features let alone the proprietary ones. But it is really worth exerting the effort. The more you grasp Google algorithms, the more you can generate traffic and avoid being penalized. As many other things you experience in life, a search engine can be your business blessing or curse.

BASIC INTERNET SEARCH MECHANISM:

How would any business find its way to its target audience on the web? Some minimum understanding of the basic internet search mechanism should help. Three parties share the fun. A web business offers its products and/or services for a potential target audience. On the other side, the audience seeks a potential business that satisfies its needs. Then comes the role of search engines to achieve the required matching. Being basically anonymous, the business and the audience must have some common language. It is a keyword/search term game. The search term is used by search engines to locate the businesses that utilize the same term as a keyword. Every search engine then responds to the search process by publishing the most relevant businesses in the Search Engine Results Pages(SERPs) as per its preferences. This highlights how smart a search term should be and how intricate keyword selection is.

HOW REPRESENTATIVE A KEYWORD IS:

Web businesses should use representative keywords so as to find the right audience. This is a two-step process. First, keywords should represent the web content. Second, content should express the target sales profile. No online entity can manage the second step as the sales profile is a business property. But both content and keywords are available online and are hence manageable. This allows search engines to set representation metrics. Best representation is difficult to define and SEO is used in a jungle of uncertainties. Actually, SEO on its own does not form any systematic, solid or unique technique. It rather forms an umbrella of constantly changing techniques the significance of which is questioned from time to time. Being indispensable to business success, it should be adopted as early as possible. This provides enough time for enhancements. Other digital marketing techniques may then follow.

CLOSING DEALS:

On the other side of business, someone might have supposedly entered his search term in his preferred search engine and got to the SERPs. Your business might have made it on the first or second page out of a unique vision and a perceived mission. Now comes the turn for the customer-to-be to opt to visit any of the businesses available including yours. It would be up to him to narrow the options available through direct negotiations before he gets totally committed. Moving down the sales funnel is a different story in which effective interaction has a prominent say. To get there, you have to get focused on getting noticed.

KEYWORDS:

Technically speaking, a keyword is simply a word or phrase that is supposed to represent some published web content. It can figuratively be regarded as an organic interface between some specific content and the web in the large. Search engines play an exclusive role of content dissemination through a rather sophisticated process. A factor to be taken care of by businesses is how representative of their published content keywords are.

PROPER CONTENT REPRESENTATION:

Content representation should be realized on different levels. On a frequency level, moderate usage turns the keyword candidate for proper representation. Both excessive and insufficient usages cause harm to the very representation concept. Excessive use is actually more harmful as it is seen as an illegal means to bombard the text with target keywords. This may amount to self spamming. On a different level, the content should flow naturally around the keyword. An expert author should keep keywords in the background of his mind rather than stick them on his forefront. No keyword enforcement should be observed by any human or software reader. It may be otherwise interpreted as artificial tweaking of content. A copy writer must avoid being artificial while minding the frequency of keyword usage. This is a minimum requirement for proper content representation.

KEYWORD SELECTION:

Keywords are used to help extract the target audience out of a niche market. Unless referred to through a link, web content can only be reached through keywords. Businesses are then compared and favored through their content. While the right keyword rightfully represents the content it is used in, this in turn should rightfully represent the business it stands for. To begin with, keyword selection may look easy. But it is actually rather sophisticated given the large amount and variety of data available on the web. This lays more burden on content managers. They would not be doing a good job if they just stack tons of content missing a critical vision. A good piece of content should be able to find its way in the crowd, surpass potential competitors, reach its destination and prove relevant and useful. Such content is best guided by effective keyword selection.

KEYWORDS AS COMMODITIES:

Think of a keyword as a commodity. Using a keyword in your web content is equivalent to offering it in a virtual keyword market. If you offer a commodity that has no demand, you will not find a buyer. So, check for the demand beforehand. You need some minimum amount of demand for a keyword to become marketable. There is no point in using a keyword that has never been demanded. This brings up a basic keyword dilemma. Upon demand increase, competitors realize the keyword value and hence offer it in their web content in hope of high return on investment. This turns the commodity more competitive. You may be then unable to withstand the competition. A wise compromise allows for keywords with demand level of affordable competition. It is up to each business to determine whether it can afford any perceived competition. Tricky but feasible.

NEED FOR TOOLS:

You certainly hope your business would be consistently able to show-up in relevant organic searches. To this end, you should be ready to revise your keywords periodically; a burden that may require outsourcing. Now, consider this example. Have you ever been to a car maintenance agency? You most probably have. Have you observed how simple it was for them to proceed swiftly in the repair process? Well, it should be their pertinent experience, the business network they keep and the tools they use. This is not any different from outsourcing your on-page SEO to a consultant. You should outsource to someone who is knowledgeable enough in digital marketing and who keeps a network that helps leverage his potential. But neither knowledge nor network would suffice to complete the job without adequate tools that help assess web response to proposed keywords. This is where the real work is done.

KEYWORD RESEARCH TOOLS:

Traffic generation is not magic. It is a legitimate output of the smart and hard work someone does to get noticed. Actually, you will never be able to penetrate the web without understanding its behavior. Well, not its global behavior but the one it exhibits in response to your conceived path. You simply intend to use keywords that already have history you know nothing about. Here comes the role of the Keyword Research Tools. They work as probes that expect the performance of a keyword based on its previous performance. The previous performance is estimated using publicly available data. you can accordingly assess your keyword potential. This type of business targets organic search; a synonym of unpaid search. Many online businesses take it as a main line of business. The present post paves the way toward a basic appreciation of the subject and provides an introductory SEO explanation.

NEITHER UNIQUE NOR DEFINITIVE:

It should by now be clear that the conclusions drawn from a keyword selection process are never unique. You may research the same keyword list and end-up with different conclusions. It is all in the approach not the list. The vision you adopt governs your choice. The degree to which you accept competition; to start with; is firmly related to the quality of content you think you can create. How fast you escalate competition is another factor. You may also select a keyword just to beat a competitor. Other factors may intervene. Consider chess as an example. Hundreds of books and online references explain its tactics. The information is there. But one single chess puzzle can be handled differently by different masters. So goes keyword selection. It is never unique. It is never definitive either. Keywords should be revised from time to time to adapt to inevitable web market changes.

A KEYWORD OVERVIEW TOOL:

The present blog introduces and sets an example in digital marketing. With this in mind, the present post uses the free Ubersuggest tool developed by Neil Patel to carry out basic SEO. Once a proposed keyword or domain name is entered, the tool overviews its web market and returns; among other data; data pertinent to organic search such as monthly search volume and SEO difficulty. It is advisable to use easy keywords in early posts. Those are keywords of low SEO difficulty. If you can afford to be competitive, introduce less marketable keywords. Learn about other tools as you proceed. If you keep practicing and testing, you may be able to make it in a decent period of time. Think of the day when you can comfortably post marketable content. This would be the day when you would have mastered digital marketing and your web business would flow at ease.

PINPOINT OR DIVERSIFY?

From disbelief in conventional marketing by non-marketers to offering diverse digital marketing advice, the author switched. This blog is meant to provide enough insight on how to help the unnoticed get noticed; pretty noticed. Care is taken to touch on that through diligent presentation of principles even if it comes at the expense of post length. Actually, any post enhancements may extend indefinitely if not wisely managed. So, cut it short once post length and quality turn sufficient to rock the web. Well, part of the web. An infinitesimal part. There is no point in pinpointing one single detail in your niche while neglecting or postponing others. Diversify and move on. Post at a frequency you can easily afford so as to preserve sustainability. Wait for the say of the web. It responds to listeners.

IS IT ANY RELEVANT TO YOUR NEEDS?

If you now end-up a bit enlightened, the information presented herein must be sort of relevant to your needs. Stay tuned for more posts covering SEO in particular and digital marketing in the large. Learn this art the easy way. Never underestimate the apparent role of marketing. This is how your target audience can become aware of your content and hence your business. In case you are in trouble, don’t hesitate to contact pretty noticed for general advice or a particular tweaking consultation.

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AN SEO CONSULTANCY