Web Promotion Prioritization for Traffic Generation

Posted on 30. Jul, 2009 by Pete Hollier in Pay Per Click, Search Marketing, Search Optimization

Prioritizing Web Site Promotion Tasks

Promoting your web site is not a quick fix project, but a long term project that requires commitment of both financial and human resources.

However, often after investing considerable resources into the development or redevelopment of a web site businesses require a Return on Investment in the short term, as apposed to the long term..

Without a doubt Organic SEO offers long term benefits to your business and is a prerequisite to affordable long term results. However, it must also be noted, Organic Optimization takes time to become effective. Although many businesses appreciate the benefits of an organic program they do require web site traffic to obtain those valuable sales and client leads in the short term.

The solution to this quandary is to develop a staged approach to your Web Site Promotion Program which incorporates varied techniques, some of which have the potential to start delivering web site traffic immediately and progressing through the techniques to build a long term Organic Search Engine Optimization initiative.

Get Traffic Moving

Pay Per Click is the tool to use to begin getting your web site traffic. As a short term tool or for special promotions PPC is ideal however, utilizing this method over the long term in not recommended, due to the ongoing expense of Pay Per Click programs.

It’s not quite as easy as setting up you Adwords account with Google or other PPC provider. There are steps to be completed and considerations to be made.

Unlike Organic SEO where often search friendly content must be developed and long term link building programs need to be initiated, Pay Per Click has few steps, although important ones if you do not wish to waste financial resources.

Initiating your PPC

There are a few things to consider such as:

Keyword Research: Spend some time doing some keyword research. Avoid single words and seek out 3 to 4 word phrases with reasonable monthly search volumes.

Landing Pages: When you keyword research is complete and you have selected the phrases you intend to promote, develop landing pages with content that is directly relevant to the keyword phrases selected. On your landing pages be sure to include calls to action and processes to enable visitors to complete the required conversions.

Ad Copy: Writing your ad is critical to the click through rate you are going to achieve. Your ad must be relevant to your keywords and landing pages and encourage people to click through to your site.

Conversion Processes: Check your sales funnel; look for possible distractions or other issues which may cause visitors to drop out of the conversion process. Check-out systems require special attention.

Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing is nearly as effective at initiating web site traffic as a Pay Per Click Campaign. However, with Social Media more lead time and preparation is required and the targeting of your audience may not be as specific as PPC which will potentially lower conversion rates of this is your objective. 

I do highly recommend Social Media Marketing as part of your initial web site promotion activities. Unlike Pay Per Click which has ongoing costs Social Media offers a low cost solution to increase the visibility of your company online. Although the financial outlay is much lower that Pay Per Click, the investment of human resources and time can be considerable.

Initiating your Social Media Marketing

Please note this is a very brief outline of the required steps and is not meant to be a comprehensive Social Media initiation process.

Social Networking: Setting up accounts and interacting within the community will be your first consideration. The actual Social Networks you join will be dependent on your type of business, but in general Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter should be your first consideration. YouTube and MySpace should also be considered.

Blogging: A primary tool in the Social Media toolbox is Blogging. Developing a blog for your business in most cases will prove to be beneficial to your Social Networking interactions enabling you to communicate and interact with your current and potential clients.

Organic SEO – Looking at the long term

The above two methods have the potential to deliver traffic to your web site in the short term. However, long term both Pay Per Click and Social Media Marketing are high maintenance, requiring the ongoing use of both financial and human resources.

Although your web site should have been well developed prior to going live, Organic SEO often requires web site revisions and content development. Now that your site is attracting traffic and a ROI, it is now time to review your long term web site promotion plans. 

Organic SEO involves numerous tasks and elements some which can be completed rather quickly and others which take time to implement.

Content Development: In the long term you will want to provide fresh relevant content on your web site, something which is important to your overall Search Engine performance. Your Blog in your Social Media Program will be assisting with this but it must be remembered, this is an ongoing program which takes time to accomplish.

Link Building: The importance of links cannot be over emphasized and the quality of the links pointing to your site cannot be overlooked.

Link building is a long term project and I mean long term. Sudden burst of new links to a web site or hundreds on links to a new web site will red flag this site by the Search Engines who will consider some type of Black Hat link building is being undertaken.

Building your high quality links will take time and effort but in the long term will provide your web site and domain the strength required to achieve high visibility in Search Engine Results

The Last Word

Your business in not a short term project and neither should your web promotion be. The above is brief, but the process of initiating that much sought after web site traffic and keeping it going for the long term can be accomplished with planning and commitment. There are plenty of resources on this web site to add detail to the above processes.

Additional Reading:

• Pay Per Click Marketing: The Do’s of Effective PPC
• Pay Per Click Ads and Landing Pages
• Initiating Social Media for Business
• The Social Media SWOT Analysis

Written by: pete@seowizardry.ca a Web Site Performance Consultant

Want to use this content on your web site? If you would like to use this article on your web site please contact pete@seowizardry.ca for an html version. All I request is you provide Pete Hollier and Seo Wizardry with a reference to this article and provide a link back to www.seowizardry.ca

More from SeoWizardry

• Prioritizing Web Site Promotion
• Effective Web Site Promotion
• Integrating Web Site Performance Strategies
• Improving Web Site Performance
• Web Site Traffic Generation

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