Course Description

Course Outline

Marketing Your Business on the Internet

Find out how to market your business on the Internet, even if you have little or no money to spend! In this practical, hands-on course, you'll discover proven methods that will help you establish an Internet presence and build an online brand identity. You'll learn how search engine optimization (SEO) works and how to track your site's performance using web analytics. You'll understand how to use online advertising, email marketing, and social media (including blogs) to drive business to your website. Finally, you'll learn how to keep your visitors coming back again and again!

Throughout the course, you'll learn to think strategically about marketing your website, products, and services using Internet technologies. You'll explore how to use an Internet marketing checklist and other tools and materials to develop a sound online business strategy. Before you know it, you'll have the skills and knowledge you need to develop a winning Internet marketing plan for your own business.

Using Social Media in Business

One of the biggest challenges for most business owners is to find a continuous supply of new customers. Over the past decade, some have differentiated themselves by leveraging the Internet and social media to do just that. Whether you consider yourself a social media novice or a seasoned veteran, this course will give you a solid foundation and thorough understanding of what social media is and how you can use it to grow your business.

As you progress through the course, you'll master a simple process for making social media work for you. You'll learn about the five most popular social media platforms—Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+—and study secrets for using them and other social media platforms to promote your business. You'll also see how you can build a social media team and automate your social media activities so that you can leverage the power of social media without adding another full-time job to your plate. And finally, you'll gain techniques for measuring and tracking your social media success.

In today's fast-paced and globally connected environment, social media is a game changer for businesses and business owners who use this powerful medium in the right way. So whether you're looking for a new way to market your business or simply hoping to gain a better understanding about the excitement that surrounds social media, this course will empower you.

Achieving Top Search Engine Positions

The vast majority of web traffic comes from search engines. That means the most important thing you can do to increase your website's traffic is to improve its search engine ranking. To do that, you have to understand both the art and science of search engine optimization (SEO).

In this course, you'll gain the knowledge you need to boost your website's visibility. You'll discover how search engines crawl the web, rank websites, and find previously undiscovered sites, and learn which HTML tags are key to getting sites on a search engine's radar. You'll also explore how to select keywords, why you should amass as many potential keyword choices as possible, and which keywords hold the most potential.

In addition, we'll discuss why you should complete a pre-submission analysis, how to do a post-submission analysis using tools such as Google Analytics, and how to manage the SEO cycle to maximize results. By the end of the course, you'll have mastered proven, step-by-step SEO strategies that you can implement right away.