Get Your Web Site Noticed!
6/9/2005
by: Michael Rock
The three responses:
#1: If I put a web site out there it will be one of millions! So it's useless for me to have a website!
Usually when I get this response I reply that like everything else your web site has to be marketed. Would you start a business and never advertise? It's like signing a death warrant. Even though a web site is used as advertisement for your business in some cases it (the web site) still has to be marketed as well. I usually don't spend to much time with these people and let them get on with their lives.
#2: If I put up a web site I can sell out all of my inventory that's taking up space!
I just came across this one today, and had to let
customer know that just putting up a web site is not going to magically help him get rid of all of his excess inventory. He had to know finer points of how to get a web site noticed. One thing about these type of customers I noticed is that they don't realize it takes money to make money. Below I will give numerous examples that are very cost effective for getting your web site noticed. But to do job fully and correctly, you'll have to expect to spend some money. In end it is always worth it. (Except if you are trying to sell ice cubes in Antarctica. Then I would highly suggest hiring an excellent salesperson.)
#3: Great! I can have a web site up to display my items 24/7! Can you point me in right direction on how to market a web site?
These are kind of responses I like! Someone with good business sense and knows a little bit on how to succeed in business. These kinds of customers I can speak freely to and give them different kind of options that they can take. And this article will touch base on some of details on what to do. It would pay to do research on marketing from internet, marketing books, advisors, etc. There are many sources out there if you look.
Not all web traffic is equal!
One thing that you have to remember is that not all web traffic is equal! I added many pages detailing how to set up a SSL certificate on different control panels. Plus a FAQ page on SSL certificates and details of options you have for picking a SSL certificate. (SSL certificates are things that give you a padlocked secure site for shopping carts and what not.) As a result of this I get MUCH traffic from people using search engines looking for information on SSL certificates. At least a few hundred per month. This type of traffic generally already have a web site and are looking for instructions on how to install a SSL certificate they already have. I generally only sell SSL certificates to people that I designed their web pages for. It just makes it simpler for me. Although anyone is welcome to visit my site and purchase one for a web site somewhere else.
So you can see how this type of traffic is not very beneficial for making me money, but I am glad that I can help public out in some way. I also get a fair amount of traffic from software that can be downloaded from my site. And again this does not generate much business. But one thing to remember is that this type of traffic does make your site more known and remembered, and someone may remember your site when someone talks to them about needing this or that.
How do you get web traffic that counts?
To get web traffic that counts and to make your web site known to public you have to market your site to let people know that it is there. After people know that your web site is there you will have a portal to your business where people can visit 24/7. It's like having a salesperson at your beck and call 24 hours a day, and having someone to sell your merchandise online 24 hours a day. In long run with right marketing plan this can really pay off, and here are some tips on how to do it.
PPC Advertising!
You can set up a pay per click advertising campaign to however much you want to spend per month. A great deal of keyword research should be done on this and there are some courses on web that will help you learn how to get most benefit from this. Pay per click campaigns are results of sponsored listings in search engines. The search engines have to make money some how to stay up and running! Don't they? This is why you see meta search engines slowly dying out. Here is Wikipedia's definition of PPC:
Pay per click, or PPC, is an advertising technique used on websites, especially search engines. Pay per click advertisements are usually text ads placed near search results; when a site visitor clicks on advertisement, advertiser is charged a small amount. Variants include pay for placement and pay for ranking. Pay per click is also sometimes known as Cost Per Click or CPC.
The most popular pay-per-click search engines are Google AdWords and Yahoo! Overture, followed by Findwhat, Shopping.com, NexTag, Bizrate and Pricegrabber. Depending on search engine, minimum prices per click start at US$0.01 (up to US$0.50). Very popular search terms can cost much more on popular engines. Abuse of pay per click model can result in click fraud.
PPC engines can be categorized in "Keyword" engines and "Product" engines.
SEO or Organic Listings!
SEO (search engine optimization) is more costly at first, but pays off in long run. Organic searches are used 80% of time, while sponsored searches are used 20% of time. As an example of what SEO can do for your site. If you typed in 'web development contractor' into MSN or Google you'll see my site, www.theinternetpresence.com, at #1 position. And it is currently #18 in Yahoo! These stats were taken on 6/9/05. Some of things that I am going to list below will both help get your site noticed and help your web site rankings in search engine. Be looking for www.highwebrankings.com coming soon to help you achieve these results.
