Peter James – WSI Digital Marketing Consultant

Here is a picture of an unhappy website – it’s very lonely.  It’s lonely because it’s not getting many visitors.

How do you help a lonely website?  Simple, you bring it more visitors by doing two things…

1. Make it easier for people to find.
2. Make it engaging so that people want to visit it.

Search Marketing – How to be Found on the Web

Imagine that you’re going to a sales presentation in a really big conference centre that has loads of rooms.  You’re going to need very good directions and signposts to find the right room.  Well, you can imagine that the Internet is like a conference centre with over 50 Million rooms so your going to needs some really good directories and signposts to help visitors find your site.

Signposts for your Website

You’ve got to market your site to search engines so they can help visitors find you – this is known as search marketing (or search engine optimisation) and these are some of the things that you need to do.

1. Make sure that Google indexes your website  against the search terms that prospective customers will enter when looking for your products and services.  Google will use titles, headings, link names and descriptions (not just keyword tags) to index your website.  You want to make sure that these titles, headings, link names, descriptions and keywords match up to the terms that people will use when searching for the products and services that you provide.  It’s particularly important to make your description tage compelling as this is what will appear when your website appears in search results.
2. Build lots of inward links into your website from other sites.  This has two uses.  First, Google ranks sites higher the more inward links they have so if you have lots of (relevant) inward links then you will appear higher in the Google search results (you need to aim to be on the first page at least).  Second, you are setting up more places on the Internet that will point visitors to your site – just like signposts.  Article sites and business directories are the best ways of building inward links to your site.
3. Make sure that you’ve set up your Google Place.  This is another free directory entry and will appear in search results when people search for your products and services along with a geographic reference (e.g. a city or region).
4. You can also use paid search advertising to drive visitors to your site.  This is useful in the early days as the indexing and link building will take some time to work.  Depending upon your business you may want to consider using Linked-in or Facebook for paid advertising in addition (or instead of) search advertising.

 Make Your Content Valuable

search engine optimisation brings website visitors

Once prospects have found your website they not only need to actually visit it they also need to make money for you buy buying stuff (or at least contacting you or signing up for your newsletter so they may buy stuff in the future).  This is known as ‘conversion’ (i.e. converting visitors to customers).

You do this by making your content and sales offers valuable (and hopefully unique).  The content has got to be engaging – interesting, useful or entertaining.  The visitors need to be given reasons for conversion (i.e.to  do what you want them to do).  These reasons need to be very clear and the path through your website blindingly obvious.

If you do all these things right then your website won’t be lonely any more as it will have lots of visitors!  Also, you’ll be happy too because those visitors will be buying stuff from you.

Do you know how well your website is working for your business?  How often do you give it a health check?  This article is an overview of the things you need to check to ensure that your website is delivering return on investment for your business.

Google Analytics

You should check Google Analytics at least once a week.  This will give you an understanding of how visitors are finding your website and what they’re doing there.  The sorts of things you should be looking at include…

1. Has there been a significant change in visitor numbers?  If there has been then you need to investigate and find out the reason.
2. Where are your visitors coming from and how are they finding you?
3. What is the bounce rate for your landing pages?  If it’s more than 50% then you need to address this (unless the page is a blog).
4. Check your goal achievements.
5. If you are using Google Adwords then the account should be linked to Google Analytics.  You should examine how your keywords and ads are performing.  Bounce rate and goal achievement is crucial here because you’re paying for those visits!

WebScan

WebScan is a tool I use to analyse websites and identify what issues need to be addressed.  You should run such an analysis on your website at least once every three months.   These are some of the things you need to check…

1. Are there any broken links or missing files?
2. Do your keywords, titles, headings, link names and alternative text match terms that prospective visitors might be searching for?
3. Is your website updated with fresh and dated content at least once a month?
4. Are descriptions (which appear in search engine results) clear and compelling?
5. Are you gaining more inward links?
6. Is your website popularity (Alexa rank) improving?
7. Is the site quick to load?

Currently, I have a limited time offer of free WebScan reviews - see WSI Webscan.

A few years ago a company’s presence on the web was just its website.  It’s not quite so simple any more.  Your web presence is going to be spread across many, many places.  Some of these are under your direct control but many aren’t (but you can influence them). 

You need to be aware of all of your web presence because it will all impact the way you are found and perceived by your customers and prospects.  So, let’s look at those aspects of a company’s web presence other than its website.

1. Search Engines When somebody searches on a keyword that is indexed for your website your details will appear in the results.  By careful use of title and description tags you can determine what appears here.  You can also use PPC to get ads to appear in search results.
2. Google Places This is a free local directory listing.  Claim it and expand it.  It’s yours and it soesn’t cost you anything.
3. Directories You may already be listed in some directories.  You can find out by doing a Google search on your company name.  Make sure that the entries are correct.  Look at signing up for free directory listings wherever appropriate.  These are great because they help you in search engine optimisation.  Some directories also have reviews (see below).
4. Review Sites There are loads of online review sites (e.g Trip Advisor and Qype).  You need to know what people are saying about you.
5. Facebook You can have a company page on Facebook (which you can customise and brand).  You can interact with your customers through this.  You can also advertise on Facebook (targetting demographics).  You can even set up an online shop on Facebook.  A great way to interact with consumers!  Even if you don’t have a Facebook page, people might still be talking about you!
6. Twitter You can have a company Twitter profile which, again, can be customised and branded.  This is a great way to communicate to your world with links to your website or other items of links.  Also, you may well be being talked about on Twitter so remember to search for mentions about you.
7. YouTube You can have a company YouTube channel which is a great place to put videos about your products and services (make them educational and informational, not salesy).
8. Mobile Applications You can have iPhone (or Android or BlackBerry) apps that help your customer order from you or help them use your product (e.g. a user’s guide).
9. News, Features and Blog Sites Just like news, reviews and comment in newspapers, magazines and other traditional media with one crucial difference.  A newspaper or magazine article ‘vanishes’ after its publication date has passed – stuff published on the web stays there forever!

So, one important piece of advice – be aware, be very aware.

When you do digital marketing it’s important that you do the right things to make it cost effective and to gain the maximum return on investment.  This article contains some hints and tips to help you get the best from your time and money spent on digital marketing.

Know Your Audience

You should understand your audience: visitors, customer and prospects.  You must know their needs for information and education on the areas in which you provide products and services.  You need to understand the factors which will determine whether they will buy from you, from your compeitors or not at all.

Provide Valuable Content

From your knowledge of your audience you should craft content which is of value to them (not just sales blurb).  Distribute this content over your marketing channels (website, email marketing, mobile marketing and social media).

Make Yourself Easy to Find

Use search engine optimisation, search advertising, display advertising, social media presence, mobile marketing, directories, articles and press releases to make people aware of how your products and services can help them and to draw them to your website.

Make Sure They Convert

Make sure your website is designed to convert visitors into buyers.  Don’t distract visitors from your preferred conversion funnel.

Test & Measure Incrementally

Know what your goals are and how you can measure against them.  Test everything.  Use analytics to monitor performance and tune your marketing.

I’ve written quite a bit about how to make websites work  in two previous posts (http://wsidigitaladvantage.com/2010/11/28/successful-marketing-just-do-three-things and http://wsidigitaladvantage.com/2010/12/14/is-your-website-lonely/).  Now, I’m going to write about some of the reasons that websites don’t work properly for their businesses.

One of the things I do is analyse websites using the Webscan tool (http://wsidigitaladvantage.com/services/webscan/).  This helps me determine how well a website is working for a business and what needs to be done to improve it. 

To work properly, a website needs to attract and retain visitors.  It also needs to support the conversion of those visitors into customers.  If it doesn’t do those things then it’s not working properly.

Here are the top 5 reasons I’ve found for a website not working properly for it’s business.

1. Lack of Analytics – if you don’t know how many visitors you’re getting, where they’re coming from, how they found you and what pages they visit then how can you manage your marketing?
2. Poor or Missing Titles, Headings and Descriptions – these help search engines to index you against your desired keywords and they also help visitors.
3. Content Not Regularly Updated – everybody likes fresh content, especially search engines.  Your content should be compelling enough to attract and retain visitors.
4. Lack of Inward Links – these help visitors to find you and also improve search engine rankings.  Links from social media are particularly good.  Remember to verify and develop your free Google Places listing as this is a great directory link.
5. Website not Optimised for Conversion – your website should encourage your visitors to do what you need them to do (buy, contact, download etc).  The way for them to do this should be clear, easy and free from distractions.

If you sort these problems out then your website is going to have more visitors and convert more of those visitors into customers.