Improve Your Search Engine Rankings With Email Newsletters
Getting other Web sites to link to yours is an important activity for gaining good positioning in the top search engine rankings, as is regularly publishing new, quality, keyword rich content – especially content that others will want to link to. One cost-effective way every business can to do this is via electronic newsletters.
Some electronic newsletters have a bad reputation as unscrupulous spammers use them for questionable means. However, a recent US study has shown that 57% of consumers have positive opinions about companies that send them regular (permission-based) emails, and two thirds of respondents said they were more likely to click on a link to a company's Web site via an email versus typing in the URL.
Most newsletters are created with the goal of selling a product or generating Web site traffic, but you can also use them to enhance your rankings if you also keep these tips in mind:
1. Build Trust
The key is to aim for willing and receptive targets. You're trying to build a relationship with your prospects and to encourage them to use your newsletter on a regular basis as a resource. To do that you need to increase credibility and gain their trust. Therefore, it's a good idea not to try the hard sell or to include third party adverts in your first few newsletters.
That said, every issue has the potential to sell, even if it's not explicit. By reminding your readers that you're out there and keeping them up-to-date, you're likely to earn more business, which is also your key goal. But even if your readers don't act upon your email, it's a good brand awareness exercise and a great SEO tool – as long as you follow the remaining steps.
2. Make It Compelling
Ensure you write quality content that will benefit the audience – make it relevant and compelling or risk turning off your audience and loosing them. Provide information that solves their problems, helps them keep on top of industry developments, and saves them time by distilling information into practical advice.
If you make a name for yourself as an authoritative source on a given topic or in your field, you're much more likely to get other Web sites to link to your newsletters as a source of information, and the more sites that link to yours, the better your web rankings will be.
3. Optimise Your Content
It's not only your human audience that you need to consider when writing your newsletter. To ensure you gain those all-important search engine rankings, make sure you optimise your content – think of it in the same way as your Web site. Use an email subject and keyword-rich headings that are related to your content and target audience, and add a copy as a separate page on your Web site so it can be indexed by search engine robots and linked to from other sites.
One last piece of advice – include a referral link so your customers and affiliates can easily link to your newsletter from their Web sites.
Create and send targeted, personalised and compelling email messages and measure the impact they're having on thousands of your customers with Rocket Mailing. It's easy to use and cost-effective – you only pay for what you send.
Tidbits
Grab a coffee, put your feet up and enjoy these interesting snippets from the Web.
- The odd couple. This English couple had a Shrek wedding complete with 100 guests in costume. Brits are strange folk!
- Blowing the advertising budget. These inventive adverts in unusual places are very clever. If only we had money to burn...
- Wanted: Giant alphabet. Check out this complete Google Maps alphabet of land formations and buildings featuring all 26 letters.
- Legal drink driving. Aussie researchers have discovered that tequila could fuel cars. From powering a wild night out to powering your motor!
- Science and design collide. For all you design nerds out there, take a look at this cool periodic table of typefaces.
- Scrambled eggs. US man makes a clothes dryer chicken coop using materials he found lying around his yard. I bet he's popular with the neighbours!
