Essential Steps to Web Traffic to Your Business
This is the fifth of a six part series on how to get your small business website off the ground.
Yesterday I discussed the most important aspect there is in terms of online promotion of your business website – communication. I also mentioned the importance of content on your business site and that a blog is an ideal publishing medium to get that done. That’s the theory behind it all, however when you get specific in terms of the internet, there are obviously a ton of more specific ideas for promotion that one can use. All of these mediums all only serve to increase the communication and the reality. In effect, you’re doing the same thing at all times. You just might use a variety of mediums to get the job done. Let’s look at some of them.
Search Engines
No doubt that search engines are very likely to be the #1 source of web traffic to your business website. In order to get into the search engines, you need to have something there for them to index. That’s where your content comes in (again, I can’t overemphasize the content). Search engines (especially Google) love blogs, especially when they are updated often. So, post as often as you can. And make the posts meaningful using keywords that people are likely to use when searching for solutions. Make sure to use those keywords in your title as well as in your content. The TITLE tags and the HEADER tags in your page are very important in terms of how your site is going to get indexed in the search engines. For example, if you run a local car repair business, you know that visitors from other areas of the country are not very likely to make you any money. So, you want your site’s TITLE and HEADER keywords to reflect the kinds of keywords that will bring in your target market. Let’s say your car shop is located in Tampa, FL. People looking for car shops in Tampa on the internet are most likely going to enter something like “car shops in Tampa”. It is very important, then, that you put the city into your site’s title and in keywords, along with other suitable keywords. If you do that, your car shop is very likely to appear in front of the sites of other car shops in Tampa which forgot to put the word “Tampa” in their site’s title.
On a related note, I usually do not recommend anybody hire one of these catch-all search engine submission services. Some of them are legit and will do good work, but the majority of them (in my opinion) are total wastes of time and will just take your money. Search engine optimization (SEO) is another great example of the 80/20 rule. Most of the optimizations needed to get decent search engine rankings can be done easily, and it will get you 80% of the way for 20% of the effort. The SEO pros (if they are real pros, that is) can do that other, more arcane, part of SEO and perhaps really get you higher in the search rankings. But, the simple fact is that the basic principles of SEO are anything but rocket science and I just don’t think you need to hire somebody specifically for search engine submissions. The really good ones will actually work with you to optimize your site. If all they do is advertise submitting your site into hundreds of search engines for a one-time fee, chances are they are just using some search engine submission software to mass submit your site. It isn’t targeted at all, and most cases you have little to no way to verify that anything was really done.
Social Media
The web is much more interactive today than it used to be. Community interaction is the key. And nothing will benefit your online promotion more than getting a community buzzing about your site. That can drive in thousands of visitors in a short amount of time. Some of the various ways of taking advantage of social media are:
- Using social networks like Myspace, Facebook or LinkedIn.
- Posting video content to Youtube and other video sharing sites. Videos command user attention, especially if well done. The videos do not need to be professionally produced. As long as the content is engaging, a good video can drive a lot of traffic to your site from Youtube.
- Virtual Reality (like Second Life). I don’t have any experience with this one, but I’ve heard that some companies really make it work for them.
- Social Bookmarking. Getting one of your articles listed in Digg, Del.icio.us, or StumbleUpon can drive new visitors into your site.
- LiveCasting. Doing live video work using Justin.tv or Ustream.Tv can also bring in a lot of new blood.
- Podcasting. Doing a regular, relevant podcast and getting it published in Itunes is another good way of raising your stature online and turning yourself into an opinion leader in your field.
These are just some of the ideas. What it comes down to is not living in a cocoon. The whole Web 2.0 movement is putting new social media websites up like weeds. And many of these sites can be used for additional promo opportunities. If you really want to make a name for yourself online, you need to stay in touch with what is happening out there and take advantage.
Your Mailing List
Any discussion of promoting your business website would not be complete if I did not talk about your mailing list. You are wasting a lot of effort if you do not have a mailing list on your website which is actively collecting email addresses. Think about it. If somebody comes to your site and bothers to sign up for your mailing list, that qualifies them as a valid potential customer. They are showing their interest, and that’s a lead. Even if you don’t do the traditional followup and try to actively sell them on your product or service, it is still beneficial just having a list, asking for the subscription, and sending relevant information to them regularly.
The size of your mailing list is a direct measure of the success of your promotional efforts. And it will reflect in your business revenue. It is an absolute necessity to have a mailing list and ask people to subscribe. And once you have the list, USE IT. That doesn’t mean that you inundate them with product offerings. On the contrary, if you overdo that they’ll just unsubscribe. Instead, provide relevant content. It’s the same theory that applies to why I recommend a blog. You have to keep that communication in place, and an email list is a great way to do that after the person is long gone. Perhaps they came upon your site months ago. But, if they are on your mailing list, you now have a way to reach them later and continue to deliver your message.
And Next, We’ll Wrap It Up…
Tomorrow, I’ll post the final part of this series on getting your business website off the ground.
Outside Reading
- Why Use Social Media With your Press Release
- How To Generate Targeted Site Traffic Without Search Engines
- 7 Ways to Improve Your Website with Email Marketing
- Email Marketing: Cultivating a Successful List
Other Parts of This Series:
- What’s the Point of Your Website?
- Sales Funnel – Business Website And Your Strategy
- Getting Your Business Website Online
- How To Draw in Visitors and Make Them Like You
- Essential Steps to Web Traffic to Your Business
- Summary and an Offer of Help
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- Using Lynx for SEO
- Does Online Video Sacrifice SEO Benefits?
- Integrating a Website With Your Business
- Using Content Hubs to Promote
- Writing Headlines For Social Media or Search Engines?
I'm David Risley. I've been making my living as a blogger for over a decade. Blogging is my business and how I support my family. With this blog, I'm just gettin' REAL and telling you how this business works. 
