A presentation performed for the Lancaster Chamber’s Professional Development series. Focusing on the benefits of increasing traffic to your website, this presentation is intended to provide you with actionable tips that you can implement right away.
Ask the audience about how they have used the internet for their business. What are the challenges you have encountered using the internet? What would you like to improve about your internet presence? Let’s look at the current state of the internet and how your potential customers are using the Internet in their lives. How have you utilized a web presence?
300 million internet users in North America translates to a 74% penetration. This means that ¾ of people are using the Internet in America. The next question is HOW ARE THEY USING THE INTERNET?
Of all the people using the internet ¾ of them use the local search feature while searching. As search engines improve their algorithms search will become more and more localized returning results that are increasingly relevant to what it is you are looking for. They may be searching to buy or they may be seeking a merchant in their local area. Ask Audience how they have shopped online for discounts or better deals….
People aren’t just searching online… they are gathering information to make informed purchases. In today’s business environment the buyer really controls the market. How many times have you heard “I’ll find it cheaper online?”
What efforts have you undergone to improve the effectiveness of your website? Do you know how many leads you have brought in from your website? Maybe your site does not exist to gather leads… perhaps it is there for a different reason…
What are some of the things you should look to your website to do for you… [gather examples] Awareness for my business. Your website can be thought of a piece of promotional material. A branded design and clear message are both accessible with a quality website that attracts traffic. Boost my business credibility. Having a professionally designed website shows the credibility of your business. Your website is basically you’re storefront for the internet. You wouldn’t have a broken window on the front of your store would you? http://captology.stanford.edu/pdf/p61-fogg.pdf Provide positive ROI. Everything combined; your site can become a generator of ROI for your business. Intrigues new/potential clients. A combination of the aforementioned items and appearing in search; your site can attract potential customers for service. Provides value & add credibility for my existing clients. Web applications transform your website into a tool for your customers and clients. Whether it be to check an events calendar and register for events or to download the latest research in your field. Including these functions also boost other aspects of your site.
To understand how to increase our sites effectiveness we need to first understand how exactly it is that websites operate. Traffic Arrives at your site, A decision is made: they become a conversion or they don’t. Conversion Rate measures how effective your site is at converting visitors into “outcomes”. Outcomes will vary for each site depending what exactly you seek for your site to do. Perhaps it is having someone click a button, fill out an inquiry form, visit a certain page. Dividing the number of outcomes you achieve by your traffic will provide you with your conversion rate. To make a site more effective you will seek to have more outcomes. i.e. more people filling out a form, more people calling you for appointments more people viewing your “About Us” page. Today we will focus on increasing the traffic to your site to increase the outcomes of your site.
This traffic is good. But Why? Among other factors the best way to improve your conversion rate is to first improve the relevant traffic which is being pulled into your site. Increasing your number of unique visitors in the equation inherently boosts your Conversion Rate. It is simple math
So we can see it is beneficial to have a presence in front of the users of the Internet. But its not as simple as just throwing your site out there into the wild wild west and rounding up some traffic. You need a directed approach that considers the factors and the ways in which traffic will be arriving at your website. the online business process: - search, direct, or referral/impulse [someone decides they need a service and decides to search for it] - click [a search returns a lot of different results; user has to decide which one to click] - landing [ Once a user has completed a search and decided to click one of the many links[count links on typical serp page] they need to decide based on first few seconds of being on your page what action they will take - action [will they click the back button or will they stay? [the clash song! – should I stay or should I go?] Marketing your business on line is all about improving one, two or all of the steps in this process for users. It focuses on your website, your audience and how you are targeting that audience.
These are the three sources which traffic will come to your website. Improving all three will play an important role in your site’s ability to achieve the desired outcomes.
These are the three sources which traffic will come to your website. Improving all three will play an important role in your site’s ability to achieve the desired outcomes.
These are visitors who came to your site without first visiting a search engine, another site or some marketing tactic. Here you go… check out our business cards or this PowerPoint. Hyper link our www.vqcdesigns.com
Okay so listen up because we are going to give some tips to improve your referral traffic for each avenue Screech: http://www.theradreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/screech.jpg
Providing your URL address on your marketing materials provides an easy way for potential clients to research your business prior to making a contact with you. As you disseminate your brand in the physical world be sure to provide a way for people to connect with you in the internet world. People are more prone to check out prior to picking up the phone or actually coming into the store. Old Slide: Marketing Collateral Flyers Letterhead Business Cards Tell People/Networking Traditional Advertisements Television Commercials Radio Billboards Newspaper
Each time someone receives an email from you they will be exposed to your brand. How many of you out there use emails as a way to reference someone's website?
Okay so listen up because we are going to give some tips to improve your referral traffic for each avenue Screech: http://www.theradreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/screech.jpg
These are the three sources which traffic will come to your website. Improving all three will play an important role in your site’s ability to achieve the desired outcomes.
This traffic is a result of links which are hosted on other websites. Gaining referral traffic may result in two things: Boost your Site’s Rank in Google : Referral traffic is a result of backlinks being hosted on other sites. Google places weight on these back links when ranking your website in its SERPs. Boost your Site’s Credibility: Having a back link hosted on a credible 3 rd party site boosts your sites credibility for visitors. Having users click your link is all about garnishing their trust. When users are on a website they currently trust and see your link that boosts your credibility and makes users more likely to visit your site. Referral Traffic can come from a number of sources which can be broken down into a few categories.
1.Social Media is a burgeoning means of referral traffic as sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Blogs grow immensely in popularity more and more businesses are creating presences on these outlets to increase their reach. As business increase the community around their brand… the more exposure their website will have in front of potential visitors. FACT: 61% of small businesses use social media for identifying and attracting new customers (http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/more-small-businesses-using-social-media/2847/)
2. Email Marketing is focused more on an already established subscription base. Perfect for informing your customer base. Opposed to direct mailing campaigns email campaigns are cost effective, efficient, good for the environment and more effective at bringing people to your site. Directly reaching subscribers… email campaigns typically also have desired outcomes, more often than not it is to inform the reader and have them directed back to your website to perform some action. Email more cost effective than Direct Mail most of the time: http://www.clickz.com/1465331
Just like your typical advertisement, banner ads appear on the side of pages and serve two purposes: Generate impressions for your message/brand/sale Entice people to click through to a landing page. Very similar to billboards… but have hyper-targeting capabilities: can either choose a large amount of exposure or focus on a niche market for targeting. The Highlighted Ad here generated a 200% return for our client in the 3 months that the ad ran for. t
What is a back link? What is its impact? Quality v. Quantity A back link is a hyper link existing on an external page which directs users back to a page on your website. Essentially, a back link is like a vote for your website. Backlinks serve multiple purposes within the SEO world. Backlinks are referral traffic at its most essential form. Everything piece of referral traffic we discussed contains a back link back to your site. Outside of social media, email, and banner ads you can also acquire back-links on other websites. Obviously having more backlinks on more websites improves your websites exposure. However, quantity vs quality is the question you want to ask yourself when acquiring backlinks. Ask yourself if the site where your link is being hosted is a credible website and if you would think poorly about it if you saw your link there. This is like seeing your kid hanging out with the wrong crowd.
Okay so listen up because we are going to give some tips to improve your referral traffic for each avenue
Social media is more than a place to connect with your friends… We are not here today to discuss the benefits of Social Media ore all the outlets. You can improve referral traffic by doing the following: Interaction: Social Media is all about interaction. By taking place in this interaction you reach new people in your social media community. For a few examples: Facebook allows you to tag “people, persons and events” in posts. Doing this shares your message with whomever you tagged and whoever reads their wall. Twitter allows you to use @replys and Retweets. Fun Fact: Tweets are beginning to be ranked based on the number of ReTweets they receive. That means the more interaction the more exposure for you! LinkedIN: Using the Answers feature to share your expertise. This is method is not as direct but if you prove yourself people are likely to do some research and eventually find themselves at your website.
Collect the email addresses of your current clients and visitors to your website with an automated form. Keep them coming back by offering awesome content through email. Perhaps you want to send monthly newsletters or just want to send out a quarterly update for subscribers. Using email will generate boosts in traffic and is useful when you are running a special promotion. Best days to send are Tuesday and Thursday before or after lunch: 1030am-11am to 2pm – 230pm [look in ezmail for stats]
Online Banner ads are not for everyone but can be very effective. As we mentioned earlier our client generated a 200% return on her ad campaign. Following these conventions will improve your Online Banner Ad Campaign: -Focus on Niche Blogs for your industry and ask the following questions: What are the unique visitors for this blog? How much time does an avg user spend on the blog? How many pages does an average user view while on the blog? Try to find a unique Ad Placement if you can. LEFT: Average Time On Site 14.2 min/day 160,000 + page views 30,000 + unique visitors per month RIGHT: 250,000 unique style-centric visitors 2.8MM Monthly Page views 900,000 Monthly RSS views [images of blogs with advertising pages of Your Dream Dress] –list impressions and sales which we converted from the ad
Why do you need links? -The more links to your site the better the chance for you to attract visitors -Quality v. Quantity: quality always trumps the quantity of the links. -Links add credibility to your website in eyes of Search A good back link: -Exists on a high ranking, high trafficked site -Is not masked -is associated with a related keyword Acquiring Links: Industry related blogs Industry forums Google Search link:
These are the three sources which traffic will come to your website. Improving all three will play an important role in your site’s ability to achieve the desired outcomes.
Paid includes PPC & CPM Campaigns where you pay for traffic based on a bid per keyword price. Organic includes being ranked in search engine by proprietary algorithms which based upon different factors determine where your page ranks. http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2009/8/Global_Search_Market_Draws_More_than_100_Billion_Searches_per_Month/(language)/eng-US
Organic results are provided by search engines based on the individual search engine’s ranking algorithm’s. Each search engine employs their own ranking algorithm to rate websites for search results. The top three search engines are Google, Yahoo and Bing. Market Share: -Google – 70% of searches -Yahoo – -Bing – Search engines compile a list of factors to ensure they provide relevant results to users’ searches. Mission Statements: Google: Bing: Yahoo:
Search optimization will aide in growing your sites traffic. Increasing traffic is step one in achieving your goals for you website. Without visitors you will not achieve what you set out to do. All of the above tips are useful not only for optimizing your site for user interaction but also for improving your ranking in search engines. SE Ranking Factors: http:// www.seomoz.org /article/search-ranking-factors -Claim your site on Local Listings -Attract Backlinks
Paid or Sponsored results appear around the outside the organic section within search engines. The price for ranking are determined based on an auction based system which takes into account the number of searches performed for a particular keyword. For example: a term with more searches will cost more to rank higher in. You place a bid and a daily budget and are ranked compared to others’ bids for the same keyword. Describe how ads are ranked: Auction Based Model Quality Score determines Cost Per Click AD Rank Landing Page Quality CTR Bid Amount Ad’s Past Performance
Okay so listen up because we are going to give some tips to improve your referral traffic for each avenue
46 million domain names registered according to Domain Tools.com When choosing a domain name you go through similar steps as when you first decided upon your business’s name. Your domain name is what people will associate with your website and is what they will recall each time they visit you site. Tips: Easy to remember & Spell Short Relate to your business Preferable to use .com .net .org. biz .us .info Key words Some important things to note: -Domain purchasing works the same way as purchasing TM… once its bought you’ll have to purchase from someone else: domaintools.com -The longer a domain has been in use the more credibility Search Engines will assign to it in their ranking process. -You can purchase multiple domains and have them all redirect back to one base domain. I.E. Vqcdesign.com is the same as vqcdesign[s].com
Listing your Business is equivalent to being advertised in the yellow pages but MUCH CHEAPER$$$ Places to list include local review sites, national yellow pages and search engines’ local features. It is important to list your site and claim your own listing before someone else does. Your business may have already been listed on these local pages so you must log-in to verify your listing and take control over the listing. Listing not only benefits your business’s exposure it also improves your search rank with back links. Also, as people perform local searches within the local listing pages your business will appear. Gaining positive reviews will improve your listing so it is a good idea to mention your listing to customers. However be careful… One thing to keep in mind [tell Salon de Shag story]
Link building is an important part of both referral traffic and search traffic. Gaining traffic from links increases the authority of your site in the eyes of the search engine. -things to consider: -the rank of the site where your link is being hosted. Search engines’ strive to provide relevant results for users. Therefore, having a link on a relevant site boosts your site’s relevancy which in turn boosts your rank in the search engines -link quality is more important that quantity -is the link masked? In other words you want the link to look like this Http://www.yoursite.com and not http://hostdomain.somethingsomething.yoursite.com
There are a lot of things you can do to boost your page rank just through optimizing the internal pages of your website. A majority of these include working the behind-the-scenes structure of your website to make it easier and more efficient for search engines to read. Thusly, you’ll have to talk to your resident “nerd” be it your little cousin or brother-in-law… anyone with HTML Code experience can help you here. In the meantime you can focus on things on the front end of your page to aide your ranking in search and to improve the overall usability of your website: THE COPY Keywords – use 1-2 keywords exclusively on each page. Using these keywords properly in context will boost the relevancy of your page in the eyes of search engines. Make sure content is compelling and focused on the reader. Use page title, headings, and bulleted lists. Keeping copy broken up and easy to scan helps the reader in quickly reading your page. Insert internal links to direct readers to other areas of your website. Caution: DO NOT over-do this. Just provide relevant links that a reader may find useful or interesting. Don’t try to link someone reading an article about shoes to a page about flowers for his G/F. That will just anger people.
Internal links help search engine crawlers navigate your site and index more pages. Having a simple navigation aides bots as they are crawling your site.
Show images of how people read webpages Web content like all content should be compelling. In fact all types of communication should be compelling. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a compelling conversation each time you spoke with someone? Be sure to write for the user but there are some tips you can use to help optimize your page for search engines as well. Users visit pages for actionable content. Readers are looking for their information quickly. Being concise and brief to aide users is key. Keyword Density = word content/ keywords *100: Search is designed to deliver relevant and quality content: you must make your content relevant and quality. Google’s Goal: “ We are constantly working to provide you with more relevant results so that you find what you're looking for faster. “ Each page should only be optimized for 1-2 keywords Active voice is best but passive can be effective for headlines. Users typically read the first 2-3 words in a headline which means you should lead off with keywords to capture their interest: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/passive-voice.html Users read about 18% of information on the page: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/percent-text-read.html Compelling Copy Use Present tense in body Concise vs. Brief Relevancy!!!! Insert keywords with context
People begin their viewing experience by scanning the top portion of the page. Then by scanning down through for relevant information. These eye tracking images display this… Far Left: An “About Us” article Middle: Product Page on an e-commerce site Far Right: a SERP 3 pts: -Users wont read thoroughly -first 2 Paragraphs where most important information should go -headers should contain information carrying content
These metrics will paint a picture for your site and the traffic you receive. -Unique visitors are the number of new visitors you have to your site. This only counts the first time someone visits your site in the time period. Once they visit their next visit is counted in the Page views category. -Page views clues you into which pages users are visiting. This will fill you in on what visitors are most interested in. -Referring sites shows where visitors are finding your site and clicking to come to your site -Bounce rate is the % of single page visits or the percentage of visitors who left your site after landing on the first page. [ http://webanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/03/typical-bounce-rates-survey-results.html ]
Coupled with unique visitors this metric shows the success of your referral efforts. What Page does the link from the referring source land the visitor on? [image: break down of referral traffic] Use this information to gauge where your traffic is coming from and where you can improve your traffic
Coupling online metrics and business metrics helps you understand how your webpage is helping. Using the information from Google analytics and tracking where your customers are coming from will aide in understanding your websites effectiveness.
What are some of the things you should look to your website to do for you… [gather examples] Awareness for my business. Your website can be thought of a piece of promotional material. A branded design and clear message are both accessible with a quality website that attracts traffic. Boost my business credibility. Having a professionally designed website shows the credibility of your business. Your website is basically you’re storefront for the internet. You wouldn’t have a broken window on the front of your store would you? http://captology.stanford.edu/pdf/p61-fogg.pdf Provide positive ROI. Everything combined; your site can become a generator of ROI for your business. Intrigues new/potential clients. A combination of the aforementioned items and appearing in search; your site can attract potential customers for service. Provides value & add credibility for my existing clients. Web applications transform your website into a tool for your customers and clients. Whether it be to check an events calendar and register for events or to download the latest research in your field. Including these functions also boost other aspects of your site.