Imagine your website is a shop in the world’s biggest shopping centre and everyday thousands of people breeze straight past it without coming in because you’ve gone and left a ‘closed’ sign in the window. Now imagine that you can’t even see your ‘closed’ sign and even if you could you wouldn’t know what it would mean. Would you be surprised that no one came in?
Not understanding the importance of a well designed, well optimized website in this consumer ‘click’ era is as excusable as being the son of a British fascist leader who enjoys dressing up in German military uniform and wonders what all the fuss is about.
Whether your website is a provider of information, goods, entertainment or services, there are a number of online marketing tactics you can employ to greatly increase your traffic. Hiring an expert is an option but with the investment of your own time, you can literally save thousands of pounds in applying something that is no longer becoming a choice but an unavoidable composite of trading online.
To make it simple, here is a basic list of SEO (search engine optimisation), usability and online marketing P&A’s (problems and answers).
A lot of time, effort and investment went into your website but your traffic hasn’t improved?
You might be surprised to know this but many web companies have little more marketing prowess than you do. Don’t mistake a company who want to redesign your website for a company who can grow your business. Just because they have ‘marketing’ on the label, many will have little to no real experience of gaining actual results. Doing it yourself however is just as hazardous, as much as you think you may know what your target audience likes it inevitably gets caught up with your own desires, likes, dislikes, budget limitations and schedule.
The answer is to research the capabilities of the design agency you choose. Who have they worked for, what can they offer and what are their success stories? Will they conduct market research before the build and design of your website? Will they develop a strategy for the future of the website? Are they aware and capable of implementing successfully technologies that could expand your business such as video streaming and mobile download versions of your site? A great web design company can do all of this and more.
I haven’t got an online marketing budget, what can I do?
If you can’ t afford to employ a company who will develop your brand strategy take the simple step of creating a survey to at least push you in the right direction- ask questions about navigation, titles of your pages, any additional features they may find usefuland how easily they find information. SurveyMonkey have an excellent survey format- you just add your questions.
Once you’ve created a survey that you are happy with, add it to your current website and email it out to your mailing list. You can see an example here (which you may fill it in): http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=L2NWOabxEZX2OP0_2fNdDmHg_3d_3d
Creating indirect links and expanding your web presence will quickly drive targeted traffic to your website. Writing articles, contributing to blogs and sending press releases to the right websites will spread your message quickly if done correctly. To begin, make sure you have registered your location in Google Maps as results in Google maps feature above all other results (except for sponsored advertising). It is an excellent tool for location searches such as ‘web design Maidstone.’
Next, consider joining a good business directory. Directories have the potential to achieve excellent results for your keywords due to their sheer size and scope for keyword repetition. One business directory that provides an unmatched service is AJP Online. This business to business portal invites you to send any news you have to its dedicated editorial team, which once published on their website, is then spidered by Google News- meaning your news is exposed to a very large audience. It will also create valuable indirect links to your website and AJP Online have no limit to the amount of press releases you can supply them with.
Other article submission sites are Glass Temple and ezine articles. Make sure your website has also been submitted to all the major search engines such as Google and Yahoo. If your website is regularly adding pages, submit your sitemap to Google on a regular basis.
How do I monitor the number of people visiting my website and discover how they are finding it?
Make sure you have a stats package that measures the traffic to your website. Google Analytics is free and lives up to Google’s reputation for reliability and ease of use. Create a Google account, sign up for analytics and ask your design company to include the tracking code on each page. You can access ‘who, what, where and when’ results easily and also learn the keywords that are driving traffic to your site. The ‘Site Overlay’ tool is also extremely handy for finding out where people click on your website- the results may be surprising and invaluable when palling improved usability.
Next, identify what your keywords are and be aware that there are three types of searchers;
There are people who know exactly what they want and intend on acting upon it. They search for exact searches such as ‘organic baby socks’.
Then you have what could be described as the ‘middle lane drivers’ they have something they need but they aren’t too worried about how get it. They might search for something more vague sych as ‘baby socks.’
Then you have the ‘Sunday surfers.’ Their searches are similar to window shopping- there is no real intend or purpose but are valuable traffic just the same. This type of searcher would search for ‘socks’… or if they’re from the generation text, maybe ‘sox.’
With this knowledge in mind, use a keyword tool such as Google Adword Keyword Tool and discover keywords that could potentially deliver a large amount of targeted additional traffic.
How do I find out if everything is working as it should be behind the scenes?
Google Webmaster Tools will help you identify any problems the Google Bots may be having with reading (crawling) your site. Any issues such as Meta tags that are too long or duplicate title tags will be identified. Ask your web company to analyse any issues if you are not sure. Remember that if you don’t know the significance of something, you can use the internet to gain a deeper insight just by searching for the issue in-question.
Is it worth creating a blog?
Blogs are about as popular as Senator Obama and for good reason; they provide you with a platform from which you can shout your expertise, gain valuable insight into the mood of your audience and provide you with an opportunity to optimise key words. Not to mention that blogs in themselves can win a number of accolades if done well- providing you with valuable accreditation and another avenue from which to gain more traffic. Be imaginative, relevant and original. Lead your blogs with introductions to topics that encourage debate, discussion and opinion. If you don’t feel ready to invest in a blog designed to match your website, use a free blog programme that will be independent of your site and give you an opportunity to try it out before you commit yourself.