| So you've spent a few thousand dollars to build | | | | DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE WEB MARKETING |
| your new website and are pretty pleased with | | | | COPY |
| how it looks. You may even have managed to | | | | Not only is well written and correctly structured |
| squeeze a good deal out of the website designer | | | | marketing copy critical for capturing the attention |
| and also saved a few dollars by spending 15 or 20 | | | | of your website visitors but it is also a key |
| hours compiling and inputting your marketing blurb | | | | element in achieving rankings on search engines |
| into the Content Management System (CMS). | | | | such as Google, MSN, Yahoo, Alta Vista etc. The |
| Now all you have to do is sit back and wait for | | | | structure of web page copy is substantially |
| the visitors to stream to your great new website, | | | | different to copy written for other mediums, with |
| right? Well in a perfect web world where no one | | | | careful use and placement of keywords, amount |
| else has a website, you may be right. | | | | of copy on the page and keyword density crucial. |
| Unfortunately, in the online world, the famous | | | | Even if you have a Content Management System |
| saying from the Kevin Costner movie Field of | | | | for your website and wish to add and manage it |
| Dreams, "Build it and they will come" simply | | | | yourself, you should at the least have a |
| doesn't work. | | | | professional web marketing agency review and |
| If you put your website efforts into a 'brick and | | | | edit your copy and structure it according to |
| mortar' context, it's like building a brand new | | | | search engine requirements. |
| warehouse and showroom, filling them with some | | | | CREATING APPROPRIATE META TAGS |
| great products and putting a small A4 sign on the | | | | The addition of carefully developed Meta tags to |
| front door with just your company name. | | | | your website is essential to being indexed by the |
| In this scenario you don't tell anyone about the | | | | search engines. If you have added the web |
| warehouse and showroom and you don't | | | | content yourself it is unlikely that any Meta tags |
| advertise it to your target market or customer | | | | will exist on your site. Without these tags, your |
| base - you simply sit in your office and wait for | | | | site is not likely to achieve any search rankings. A |
| the odd passer by to pop their head in the door | | | | professional website marketing and search engine |
| out of curiosity. And if you're really lucky, the | | | | optimisation agency can help to identify the main |
| occasional visitor may actually find something they | | | | keywords for your particular business and market |
| like and buy it. | | | | and will develop effective Meta tags for your site. |
| Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Well that's exactly | | | | ONGOING ANALYSIS OF WEBSITE ACTIVITY |
| what you've done with your new website. Today | | | | AND PAGE STATISTICS |
| there are hundreds of millions of websites and | | | | You should have subscribed to a website analytics |
| thousands more being added every day. There | | | | service when your site was developed. The |
| are so many websites out there that the chances | | | | information provided by this service is an |
| of a qualified prospect finding your site are | | | | important part of measuring the performance and |
| slimmer than a toothpick on a diet. | | | | effectiveness of your website from a number of |
| Sure you've emailed all your clients and told them | | | | perspectives. Typically it would detail how many |
| to visit your new website. You've even sent an | | | | unique visitors have visited your site; most |
| email to the names of prospects that never | | | | popular pages; how visitors found your site; how |
| actually did business with you (BTW, that's called | | | | long they spent on your site; what the most |
| spamming and it's illegal). But they all already know | | | | popular pages are; search phrases and words |
| about you. After all, they communicate and do | | | | they used to find your website and a host of |
| business regularly with you, they have a copy of | | | | other valuable data. |
| your brochure or catalogue, and may occasionally | | | | Regular review and analysis of your web statistics |
| see your sales rep, if you have one. | | | | data is essential to the ongoing improvement and |
| One of the compelling arguments in favour of | | | | effectiveness of the site and to ensure the best |
| investing in a website (it is an investment, not an | | | | return on your investment. |
| expense!) is that it enables you to reach NEW | | | | UPDATE YOUR WEBSITE REGULARLY |
| PROSPECTS and extend your reach and influence | | | | Not only do search engines favour websites that |
| into a wider target market. It should drive | | | | are regularly updated, but so do the flesh and |
| incremental business and present your company | | | | blood types that you will entice to your site by |
| to new prospects that otherwise would not have | | | | applying the techniques described earlier in this |
| considered doing business with you. So how do | | | | article. The general rule of thumb is to change |
| you move your website from its current static | | | | around 20% of your content every 6 months. |
| position to one that actually generates a return | | | | This may seem like a major task, but it is really |
| and reaches a wider market? | | | | not that hard to do. |
| The first thing you have to realise and ACCEPT is | | | | You should review your page content from time |
| that you will have to invest some money to | | | | to time, making subtle improvements to the text |
| market your website. In the 'new warehouse and | | | | to reflect changes in your market or company. |
| showroom' scenario earlier in this article, an astute | | | | Add new pages or sections to the site, gradually |
| business operator would allocate a marketing | | | | expanding the information contained in it. If you |
| budget to promote the new facility and all the | | | | engage a web marketing firm to manage the |
| great products inside it. | | | | ongoing refinement of your site, they will most |
| It's the same thing with your website. The general | | | | likely also be reviewing and improving your |
| rule of thumb is that you need to invest at least | | | | keywords. These activities have a two-fold |
| the cost of the initial website development in | | | | benefit; your site is favoured by the search |
| marketing it effectively. This web marketing | | | | engines as it is 'fresh' and your site visitors will |
| budget doesn't need to be spent immediately, but | | | | also enjoy the new and expanded content. |
| it would most likely be spread over a 12-month | | | | One useful way to add fresh content is to write |
| period. | | | | informative articles relating to your industry and |
| If you've had your website designed and built by | | | | to add them to your site. If you have a NEWS |
| one of the many low-cost website designers | | | | section it will also help keep your site 'fresh', but it |
| HTML code-jockeys, you may be in bad shape. | | | | does require someone to be responsible for |
| And if you've written and added the page content | | | | writing the news articles and publishing them on |
| yourself it may be the kiss of death for your | | | | the site. There is nothing more irritating than |
| online marketing efforts. Achieving measurable | | | | visiting the NEWS section of a website and finding |
| ongoing success for your website requires a | | | | the latest article is 12 months old. In the online |
| range of marketing activities to be implemented. | | | | website world, no news is bad news! |
| Here are the key ones: | | | | |