Print Increase Web Traffic

The short answer is that everything you do online or offline should be about generating leads and sales.  Although most SEO firms focus on website page rank in Google, this is important but only if you can be one of the top 3 spots.  To increase web traffic from Google search you will need to be in one of the top 3 spots.The top 3 positions will generate a little over 80% of the potential traffic for the keyword.  Getting to the top spot in Google for a competitive keyword (many people are trying to do the same thing you are) is time consuming (if you do it), expensive (if someone else does it) and not guaranteed to produce results.

Traffic generators are often outside of your website.These are activities that can be done to drive traffic to your website, no matter what page of Google it’s on.

Many of you reading this may not understand the question posed by this article. To explain:website traffic is the number of unique visitors your site gets in a month, a day, or a week.  Rank refers to the position of your website within a search engine.Is it in the #1 spot or the #100^th spot for specific keywords.

Now I’ve gone and brought in another term (keywords) to add to the confusion.  Keywords are simply the word or phrase used by the person searching for a good or service online through a search engine.  Keep it simple.Don’t try to over think this.

Many website design firms in the Charlotte area, offer SEO or SEM services.  For the uninitiated SEO = Search Engine Optimization and SEM = Search Engine Marketing.

According to Wikipedia, “SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results for targeted keywords. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results or the higher it "ranks", the more searchers will visit that site.”

According to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, SEM methods include: search engine optimization (or SEO), paid placement, and paid inclusion. Other sources, including the New York Times, define SEM as the practice of buying paid search listings.

Both of these are effective tools to help you get “seen” online.SEO produces results “for free” through the search engines whereas, SEM also offers paid advertising options.

This is all semantics but important for you to understand.Local companies will offer both services whether they call them SEO or SEM.  You should understand the difference so you’re not signing a contract you don’t understand.

Print, radio and TV media companies have long understood the value of demographics.  If you buy ads in any of the three media, they tell you the size of the audience, their income, where they live, gender, race etc, etc.Online is no different except you get to dictate the terms.

How big?   How long? What position?  What time of day?  are all considerations when purchasing traditional advertising. Simple.

Online is a 24/7 world.You “bid” for specific phrases and depending on how much you bid, you can get one of the advertising positions available in the search engine.  You can even tell them how much you will spend in a 30 day period.  Once you hit that figure, they will “turn off” your advertising. These “ads” appear on the far left side of the search engine results.

The tricky part is in what terms your clients may use to search for companies like yours.You “bid” depending on the keyword phrases you think your customer is looking for.

For most companies, the terms and services offered are confusing and appear to be a “black hole”.  By comparison, print advertising is more straightforward and easier to understand.  Buy ad space, develop the ad, see the ad in the newspaper or other print media on the day it’s supposed to be there.  Simple.

Problem is there are fewer and fewer people around to see your ad.Subscription rates for print media are steadily declining.

Today simple may not be effective.

What has been effective but not so simple to understand is the online world of promotion. In the local Charlotte area, there are at least 50 firms offering one or more online promotional services.  Several of these are top rate but out of reach for all but those with the deepest pockets.

More likely is the website design house that helps you buy online advertising, tracks the advertising and reports monthly on the effectiveness of your efforts. These same web design firms will also help you gain a higher rank in the search engines through “organic” ranking.  Here there is a vast difference in competence and delivery of results.At one end of the scale is effective but not affordable and at the other end it may be affordable but not effective.

The “black hole” of internet marketing or online promotions is no longer optional.Understanding the basics begins with knowing your goals.

What do you want your online promotional effort to do for you?  What do you want to achieve?

Generally the answer is more sales.Good.  Don’t we all and thanks for making my job easier.

But let’s dig a little deeper, is it more important to demonstrate the effectiveness of your product or your own expertise to get buy in from your customers?  It depends on your market.

What does your average customer look like?  Not physically but what do they look like in their demographics and buying habits.Is your business consumer based or B2B?How much of your business is dependent on referrals from primary contractors (are you a sub-contractor for someone else?).

If you are a consultant or other service provider, you should be thinking about ways to demonstrate your expertise online.Not only through your website but also through other off site activities such as articles, blogs, comments, etc.

Online promotion is really no different than print advertising.  The same rules apply.  Online advertising can be more cost effective than offline promotional activities because it is better suited to reach multiple subsets of customers inexpensively.

We still haven’t answered the question about which is more important, traffic or rank… but we will.

Let’s look at an example:You have a local carryout or eat in restaurant.  Potential clients are not interested in your restaurant expertise, they are interested in how good the food is.

All online promotion should be about the food (your product).In this example, traffic is the key consideration.  You want more visitors to your website so they can see what you’re offering.  Being in the top 3 spots for Google will also get you traffic but it will likely take 6 months to a year to move you their on your primary keyword phrase.

Another example:  let’s say that you are an electrical contractor.  Much of your work will be as a sub-contractor working under project managers.  Getting the chance to bid on work is often a function of knowing about upcoming projects through your business network.

Your “product” is your expertise and the expertise your people bring to a project. Do you want traffic or rank?  The obvious answer is that rank would be most important.  Busy executives are not going to search the internet for similar suppliers.  Not so fast.

What if busy executives saw articles that you written appear in online trade journals, in articles that you have written and posted, mentioned in blogs, etc. all of which may appear on the first page of Google?  What would that be more important to the executive, the rank position of your website in the search engines or numerous articles that he sees that you’ve written about current topics in your industry?   Is he interested in paid advertising?

Now that we’ve spent a great deal of time giving you the basics of traditional online promotion, let’s talk about the “not so traditional” methods to gain recognition for your company.

We believe that the all important factor for any company is to generate traffic.  The ultimate goal for most companies is more traffic.  How that traffic is generated depends on their customer’s profile and the goals that are expected to be accomplished.Page rank is just another way to gain traffic, but not the only way.

Using the example of the electrical contractor, we believe he should save his money on advertisements and get someone to write a lot of articles on a continuing basis.  Hire someone to make sure those articles get placed in relevant topical areas and that these articles rank highly in Google.  The goal in this case is to demonstrate expertise as his value position.  The “expert” status is achieved by surrounding competitors websites with a plethora of well written articles that demonstrate his company’s expertise in a given area.

It is much easier to get an article on the first page of Google than it is to move an entire website.

By “pushing” traffic to his website, no matter where it’s ranked, the contractor has more control over where the traffic comes from, how well it’s pre-qualified, what terms were used to locate the information, and the effectiveness of the platform.

These should be components of any well thought out strategy but implementing organic search is time consuming and paid search advertisements can be expensive if you don’t know precisely which search terms are best for you.

A less expensive alternative to these is to drive traffic to your website while testing the effectiveness of the keywords BEFORE using paid search.

Because clients don’t understand search terms or keyword phrases, many SEO/SEM firms will rank their clients for low volume/low competition search terms and often on lower traffic search engines.  A first page listing on Yahoo is only 1/4^th as valuable as one on Google.A first page listing on MSN is actually almost worthless.Google has about 70% of the search engine traffic, Yahoo 20% and MSN less than 10%.

The answer is that between Rank and Traffic, traffic is what we all want for our websites.  Gaining rank position in Google is only another means to gain traffic to your website.  There are other just as effective means to bring traffic to your website as rank position in Google.

Almost 80% of traffic goes to the top 3 spots in organic search.  If you can’t be in one of the top 3 spots for your keyword phrase, look for other means to gather traffic to your website.

Understand what your customers value about your business and what terms they will use to search.  Whatever terms you believe they will use test those terms.  Ask customers if they found you online what terms they used to search for information.

Know what you want to accomplish before you set out for two reasons;

1) to set your expectations and

2) to set the test parameters.If you don’t reach your goal – why?If you surpass your goal- know why.