If You Build It, Will They Come? Part 5

To make the most of your investment, you need to drive traffic to your Web site. Here are some proven ways to do just that.
July 7, 2008

By Derek Griffin

Driving visitors to your Web site once you've spent so much time and money is the final step you must focus on to improve the rate of return on your investment. After launching the Web site, if you magically expect new customers to appear on your doorstep, you'll be disappointed. The Web site must be promoted — to all of your existing customers as well as any prospects in your database.

You can use an e-mail broadcast as the first line of communication, then follow that effort with a postcard or mailer. If you're selling products, offer a promotional discount for buying online. It also may help to do some local advertising, in print as well as online. All of these efforts are to drive more immediate traffic and gain visibility for the site. There also are long-term strategies for search engine visibility to consider.

Prospective new accounts should be able to find your business in a variety of online ways. Search engine optimization is the most obvious strategy, but you should not limit your efforts to just that. There also are many online directories that can give you targeted as well as local traffic. These include industry listings for companies providing specific services as well as local business directories, such as your Chamber of Commerce. Being listed in a directory has the direct benefit of getting visitors to your site, and also provides an indirect benefit by raising your Google search ranking.

Part of the "black magic" of search engine ranking algorithms includes how many other Web sites are linked to yours, and that is where directory listings have a long-term benefit. Other critical factors to search engine visibility include site traffic, how long the site has been live and keyword density. Web site traffic is easy to quantify and can be increased with print and online advertising. Keyword density is a much bigger bear to wrestle.

Keyword density is all about having the right mix of keywords embedded in strategic locations throughout the site. The words should be terms that search engine users would type in to find the services or products you're offering. These keywords go into multiple areas of each page: The page title, meta tags, information/content and page links all give you an opportunity to make your site appear deeper and more relevant to search engines.

The page title is the blue bar at the top of your browser window and is the most important area to focus on. Meta tags are the behind-the-scenes keywords that are only seen by search engines. Your information is what people read. You may use keywords in describing what you offer, but if you're too aggressive and the keywords have no intelligible flow — which is the equivalent of email spamming to search engines — then search engines will overlook your site.

Page links represent an additional way you can squeeze in keywords and have them picked up in searches. Page links as well as using keywords in your domain name can be very effective. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a long-term strategy. It rarely provides instant success because of all the factors involved. The only way to guarantee instant traffic is online pay-per-click advertising. The results of any search engine generally start with "paid" listings at the top and down the sides, followed by natural or organic listings that have made it to the top through longer term SEO strategies.

Pay-per-click advertising allows you to control your budget and adjust based on the success of certain keywords. You can manage your keyword campaigns through:
• Google AdWords (Google, AOL, Earthlink)
• Yahoo Search Marketing (Yahoo and other partner sites)
• Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions (MSN)

Some firms proprietary systems that can aggregate all of your marketing dollars into a single campaign, eliminating the need to have multiple accounts if you want traffic across all major search engines.

Reach Local is a firm that offers this service and can even target your advertising revenue to specific cities to help your success rate. Even in this information age, it's much easier to land an account if you have a chance to meet face to face with a potential customer.

There are a lot of options when it comes to what you can do for your business through a Web site. Even if you start small, plan for future growth and always be thinking 12 months ahead, so that when you invest in your online marketing strategy, each future investment builds on what you have done so far. The most important decision is deciding to get started and following through on that decision.

Derek Griffin is president and co-founder of SpearTek, an Atlanta-based firm that helps companies make their Web sites easier to manage and more profitable to operate. He speaks at the Imprinted Sportswear Shows on the topic of company stores. You can reach him at dgriffin@speartek.com.


Put Your Business on the Web NOW!, Part 1
 
7 Keys to Web Site Success, Part 2

How to Choose the Right Web Site for Your Business, Part 3

Is an E-commerce Web Site Right for Your Business? Part 4

Profit from Understanding Your Customers' Purchasing Process
Successfully serving your customers requires more than you think. You must recognize where they are in the purchasing process to adequately meet their needs.
To be a successful retail salesperson, you must understand how and why customers buy. Purchasing is a financial decision resulting in the exchange of money for goods. The process itself is very linear. The time it takes to move through this process varies according to each individual and the product or service purchased.
July 21, 2008

If You Build It, Will They Come? Part 5
To make the most of your investment, you need to drive traffic to your Web site. Here are some proven ways to do just that.
Driving visitors to your Web site once you've spent so much time and money is the final step you must focus on to improve the rate of return on your investment. After launching the Web site, if you magically expect new customers to appear on your doorstep, you'll be disappointed. The Web site must be promoted — to all of your existing customers as well as any prospects in your database.
July 07, 2008

Is an E-commerce Web Site Right for Your Business? Part 4
An e-commerce site may be just what your decorated apparel business needs and your customers want, but as in any business decision, it pays to look before you leap.
E-commerce sites typically fall into two groups: the custom-designed site that serves your own business and the company store that serves a business you represent. In this article, the fourth in our five-part series, we discuss the differences between these two approaches.
June 19, 2008

How to Choose the Right Web Site for Your Business
When it comes to Web sites, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. The type of site you choose should be based on the needs and budget of your business.
The who, what and when of building a Web site are all interrelated issues that must be considered as you plan for the launch of your site. The complexity of the site you choose will determine who builds it and your timeline from commitment to launch. Your business model, which includes company size, investment funds, customer needs and future plans, also needs to figure into this critical upfront decision-making.
June 09, 2008

7 Keys to Web Site Success
Creating a Web site involves a number of key strategic considerations that can't be ignored if you want your site to be effective.
Once you come to terms with why it's so important to have a Web site and what you want it to accomplish, you can focus on how you will achieve success with your Web site project.
May 22, 2008