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Promote your business effectively online – a beginner’s guide to website search promotion
Added: (Mon Jan 08 2007)
Like any small business you probably need a steady flow of customers. But how do you generate this new business?
Word of mouth referrals and repeat custom are great, but chances are this will not grow your business.
Advertising is expensive, and anyway local advertising will only generate local clients when often your business relies on new customers not within your area. For instance if you are a dive centre in Tenerife you will rely on a steady flow of people coming on holiday and signing up for courses and packages.
You know about the internet, you know that everyone these days has a web site, but don't know if it will work for you. Then there is the expense and hassle of setting up a site, arranging hosting, registering your domain name, it can often seem like too much time and money when you are counting the pennies and working your socks off already.
And then there are the many stories of how people set up sites expecting a great new flow of work only to find that nothing happens.
So what are the pitfalls? Is the web just a bad idea that probably won't work for you and is best avoided?
The main mistake people make when they decide to have a web site is one of misconceptions and unrealistic expectations.
Often people presume that just by paying for a website and getting online they will suddenly become number one in Google and the new clients will start rolling in.
The first thing to understand when contemplating getting a website is that, unless you are incredibly incredibly fortunate, the above scenario will just NOT HAPPEN.
The reality is that you will have a nice new site all about your business but chances are it will completely disappear without a trace. You might be lucky to get a few visitors a month, and luckier still if these visits result in a sales conversion.
The truth is that the Web has become a huge billion dollar business with entire industries dedicated to Search advertising and marketing. The practice of selling on the internet has become a science, practiced by highly paid, highly focused and highly skilled professionals.
The money you spent on your web site may seem a lot to you, but another truth is that it is just the tip of the iceberg, because as much as your website, what it says about you, what it is selling, is important and is how you make your money, more important is how you sell your website.
Put more simply, if nobody can find your website then you will never make a sale!
Why are some of my competitors ranking highly in Google and I am not?
There are two simple answers to this. Either they have had a website for a long time and the gradual traffic has built up their ranking over a number of years. Or they have a more effective way of promoting traffic to their site.
So how can I create more traffic to my site?
There are many ways you can increase the traffic to your site, many are free and you can easily do them yourself, some cost money. More than anything you need to be realistic about what is achievable and by when. Just look at the competition you are trying to get ahead of and realise that it is not going to happen over night.
Effective marketing of your site comes down to how committed you are to making your site really work for you. But either through time or spending some money in the right places, if you stick at the task you can make a difference and you can get to Page 1 in Google.
Here are just a few of the basic ways in which you can improve your page ranking:
• Search Engine Optimisation – making sure the site is built effectively to be found by search engines. The correct use of related keywords and tags is important. You can find out more information on this subject simply by typing SEO in to Google.
• Submit your site - the chances are that your designer built you a nice site, but he didn't bother to tell any of the search engines that it existed. It is free to submit your website to most of the major search engines,
• Adword campaigns - buying advertising in the Search Engine's sponsored links and thus appearing high up on the page for a given number of search words.
• Blogging and forums - put some time in to join other web sites and spread the word about the great thing you do. It will get your name around.
• Free directory listing - find as many free directories offering your product and service and add your company information. Chances are no one will ever find these listings, but Google will, and it all helps.
• PR yourself - publicity is good, and the web is the home of free publicity. There are many sites and news sources that allow you to add your own content and circulate it to the rest of the web. These stories can be picked up by other sites, all hungrily looking for content. Again, this won't create instant business, but it starts to spread your name around and thus build the popularity in the Search Engines.
• Targeted advertising - banner ads, paid directory listings and classifieds on selected relevant portals can also help, but you need to weigh their performance against their cost.
• Email marketing - start a newsletter and keep potential clients informed by email of new deals, new services. Email marketing is much cheaper than ordinary post, and it's even possible to analyse who reads them and whether they then visit your site.
• Use the networks - join MySpace and share your passions - although not directly business related you can mention your company, and build a network of people who may at some point be interested, or pass your name along. And if you have a video that relates to your company - maybe a cool dive or surf video, then post it on YouTube. It's all about getting your name around.
• Hire a professional to help you - there is the adage that "a penny saved is a penny earned", but sometimes it could also be said that "a penny spent is a penny earned". If you are serious about making your business work online then you must appreciate that it is a serious business and that amateurs sometimes get lucky, but most of the time it's the people who really know what they are doing who will deliver the goods. Spending some money to make sure your site is as good as it can be, and is being effectively marketed can make all the difference. Another adage is "if you pay peanuts, you will get a monkey", and as with most things in life, you get what you pay for. Obviously you have to be sensible with your budget, but is it better to spend 1 Euro and get no return, or 2 Euros and get 4 Euros back?
So where do I start?
If you have already built your website and are frustrated at its failure to deliver the leads then perhaps it's because of your lack of marketing. Hopefully we've given you a few ideas and you can make a start.
However it's important before you even begin to know that your site is built as well as it can be, not only for the purposes of being found by the search engines, but also, when that rush of visitors does start that your site is doing the best job it can at selling what you have to offer. Often poor design and bad thinking means that sites just don't work as sales tools.
Phew!
In summary, there's a lot to think about when considering the web as an effective tool to market your company, it's not as easy as just getting a shiny new web site, you have to employ all the tricks of the trade to actually make the site deliver what you want:
Business Growth.
But if you manage your expectations and understand a little more about the process, with a bit of determination and good planning, you can make your web site a success. Good luck!
Ian Aspinall is Design Director at Mantra Visual Communications