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Web site marketing
Traffic-building strategy and procedures
We help web site owners with strategy and the nuts and bolts procedures for building traffic to their sites. Below is some basic information:
Time and money considerations
The amount of time and money needed to generate viable traffic to your web site is influenced by numerous factors. We can help you evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your marketing position, and help you determine the most cost effective approaches. Here are just some factors:
- How competitive is the market for your products or services?
- Have you identified a niche market?
- Do you have relationships with influential leaders in your niche market?
- Do you have a price, quality, service or reputation advantage over competitors?
- Does your product or service solve a problem?
- Is your desired audience local, national or international?
- How much demand there is for your products or services?
- If your product or service new/unknown?
Approaches to marketing web sites
Marketing approaches can combine natural search, pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, email advertising, affiliate advertising and other online approaches —as well as conventional media advertising and public relations.
What is natural search?
Natural search refers to the unpaid ranking obtained in search engines, primarily Google.com and Yahoo.com. Someone types a search query in Google, for example "Mexican restaurants Orlando" and the search engine displays the web site addresses, web site titles, and a brief chunk of text from sites in which those keywords appear. Usually there is about 10 listings per page. Your goal is to be among the top ten results, so people will click on your web site link, see your mexican restaurant info, and come eat your tacos.
Improving ranking in natural search
The initial steps for improving natural search ranking are keyword research and implementation. Keywords are placed within page titles, headlines, subheadlines, body text, image descriptions, domain names, "alternate" tags and both external and internal links. Additional steps include:
• writing effective headlines and site descriptions
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making the page structure search engine friendly
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investing time in a link exchange campaign
• submission to search engines and directories
Pay-per-click advertising
Pay-Per-Click programs involve keyword research also, but ranking is obtained by a bidding system as well as relevancy, where web site owners pay to have their listing (a short, keyword-heavy text ad) show up in one of the top positions identified as "sponsored links," at the top or right margin of the search engine results page. One of the most popular is Google's AdWords program. Banner ads may also be used on Googles content partner network (independent web sites).
Cost of Pay-per-click
The web site owner is billed anywhere from a few cents to $2 when a viewer clicks through to the owner's web site. The click-through price is determined by the competitiveness of the keyword (which is usually a key phrase, not just one word) and how much someone is willing to bid for placement at the No. 1 spot or lower (i.e., a No. 1 placement may cost $2 per click through, while a No. 5 placement may cost 10 cents, but may generate less traffic). On Google , the relevancy match between your ad and your landing page is also a factor. The art and science of managing an adwords campaign is to get the most traffic at the lowest cost. If you already an AdWords customer, here's a Google article that will help you make your campaign more successful.
Pay-per-click vs. natural search
Pay per click advertising is growing in volume every year, and can generate results (sales) immediately; natural search ranking takes longer to establish but has long term value and may be be given higher credibility by web visitors. Many companies use both strategies.
Promoting web sites in newspapers and magazines
Conventional media is often used successfully to target specific market segments, for example, a small ad in a flight magazine may bring many visitors to a Web Site about travel destinations. Public relations notices (unpaid coverage in the media) can be used to announce the publishing of a Web Site or to announce new ideas, products or services. For example, a web site about concept cars may get a substantial mention in Car and Driver magazine.
Targeting your audience
With conventional media, because of the high cost, it is best to target your audience if you can. Look at books like the Writer's Market, which identifies thousands of specialty publications.
Promoting web sites on radio, TV and billboards
If you have the budget and are going after a very broad audience for your web site, you can also generate interest and "brand" your web address through radio spots, TV ads and billboards. If your site is non-profit, you may qualify for free spots. We can help you decide what will work best for you and create the ads or artwork for you. We look forward to helping you market your Web Site!
Google site indexing demystified
Google now helps webmasters learn how thier pages are being indexed by
Google, what problems if any Google spiders encounters on your pages,
and how to resolve them. These tools also tells you which queries drive
traffic to your site, and exactly how those users arrive there.
Further, you can tell Google what pages on your site are most important
to you, and how often you update your content. Further, you can tell
Google how you want the URLs Google indexes to appear!
This is a FREE service if you have a free Google account. Google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login
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