Everyone
with a web site knows the importance of
traffic. If you don't have ways of
continually generating new and repeat
traffic to your site, you might as well
be selling sand boxes in the middle of a
remote desert. You can do several things
to increase traffic to your web site,
many of which are free and some which are
extremely cost effective.
1. Use effective,
descriptive titles on all your web pages.
Make sure your web pages have descriptive
titles that include both your company
name and the page content. Some web page
editor programs will name your pages
automatically "home page"
unless you change or insert a new
title. The benefit of doing this is to
assist search engines to better index
your web site and therefore make it
easier for people to find your site.
For example, if your company name is
Joe's Athletic Wear, make sure your
pages all have your company name and each
page has proper titles identifying the
content of that page. Example, your home
page could be titled, "Joe's
Athletic Wear: Athletic Supplies,
Equipment and Sports Store." Your
product pricing page could be titled
"Joe's Athletic Wear - Sports
Product List." Your Athletic Wear
Section - "Joe's Athletic Wear -
Hiking Equipment." Your Sports
Equipment page titled, "Joe's
Athletic Wear - Sports Wear
Equipment." Get the idea? Think
about what words people would logically
search for in a search engine if they
were looking for what you have to offer.
Consider that they may or may not know
your company name, so although they might
not search under "Joe's Athletic
Wear", they might search using the
words athletics, sports equipment, hiking
gear etc.
2. Insert key word
and description meta tags on all of your
web pages.
Metatags are simply lines of text entered
into the HTML code of your pages and are
used by search engines spiders to index
your web pages more effectively. Some,
not all search engines use this method to
catalog your site in their index.
Most web page editors offer you the
option of inserting metatags into your
web pages without having to know anything
about HTML. Microsoft's FrontPage(R) for
example allows you to insert the metatags
using the page properties option and
doesn't involve any manipulation of the
HTML code itself.
If your site is sparse in descriptive
text and heavy in graphics it is
especially helpful to use the metatags.
When entering your key words metatag you
should select words that would logically
be used by someone searching for what is
offered at your site. Pluralize these
words when possible and separate by
commas. Example, for Joe's Athletic Wear,
logical key words would be; athletics,
sports, equipment, hiking, skis,
surfboards, hats, boots, shoes, skates,
inline skates, rollerblades, golf,
golfing, etc.
Your description tag should be a few
sentences that summarizes what your site
is about and includes as many key words
as possible avoiding non-helpful
"fluff" that contributes
nothing to your site's findability. A
good metatag description example; Joe's
Athletic Wear offers a complete inventory
of athletic and sports equipment
including, shoes, boots, surfboards, ski
equipment, golf equipment, hiking gear
and supplies, rollerblades and sports
accessories. 10 percent discount for
frequent purchasers!
3. Register your
site with search engines, directories,
and web page indexes.
Some visitors to your site will find you
through a search engine. Alta Vista is an
example of a search engine and Yahoo is
an example of a search directory. It's a
good idea to register your web site
address with the major engines and
directories. This includes Alta Vista,
Yahoo, Excite, Hot Bot, Webcrawler, Info
Seek, and Lycos and World Search Center.
Roughly 80% of your traffic from search
engines will come from these
"biggies" so be sure to
register with them. As for the other
smaller directories they will help
contribute to your overall traffic so
take the time to register there as well.
There are several one stop shops where
you can do this yourself, such as mmgco.com/top100 or you
can pay for a service to do this for you,
such as incor.com
or you
can purchase automated software for doing
this, the Exploit Submission Wizard is an
example of such a product.
4. Create web
pages that are rich in content and offer
value to your visitors.
You will get better ranking in the search
engines, better feedback from your
visitors, more referral visits and more
sales if your site is full of solid
useful information. Consider the purpose
of your site and its value from the
visitor's perspective. Your site should
be about the visitors and what you offer
them more than about your company. Every
visitor to your site is a prospect and a
potential customer so cater to each of
them with information of value,
compelling sales offers, ease of use and
order/service convenience.
5. Use headers or
section titles within your web pages.
A site that is easy to navigate is good
for your customers, good for your sales
and helpful for search engine indexing.
Create your site so that you have main
headings or at least easy to find and
navigate buttons and directional aids.
6. Avoid the
problems of marketing spam
(unsolicited bulk e-mail), by creating
and publishing your own
"opt-in" subscriber based
e-zine or e-mail newsletter. If you are
annoyed and frustrated by spam, chances
are your customers and prospects are too.
The way to build a solid e-mail mailing
list is what is known as
"opt-in" or subscriber based
e-mail list publishing. This simply means
that you offer your site visitors the
choice, (the key word here is choice) of
receiving your newsletter or publication.
Then on a regular basis, perhaps once a
week or once a month you send to your
list of subscribers a free newsletter or
service/product update. It does take some
time to create the newsletter, but
publishing to a list of 10,000
subscribers takes literally minutes and
even a computer novice can do it using a
tool called a listserver. Visit TRAFFIC CENTER for information on
listservers and mailto:sgladson
for a
free article on how you can use them in
your business. Listservers allow you to
publish your newsletter or e-zine cost
effectively and is a great way to
maintain contact and establish trust with
prospects and customers.
7. Update your
site often.
Remember, if you have an effective site,
chances are that you will have return
visits so it's important to update your
site on a regular basis. This doesn't
mean you have to change the entire look
every week it just means that you should
be creative and change your offers, your
specials etc., to keep your site fresh
and as an effort to continually improve
your site. The advantage of web
publishing is being able to change your
site fairly easily and inexpensively.
8. Create
motivating copy in your site.
Contests, special offers, discounts,
limited time offers, and frequent buyer
discounts are all examples of
motivational sales tactics. If a specific
offer isn't
working or generating the response you
want changes it until you get it working
for you. As mentioned in the last point,
some of your visitors will be new and
some will be repeat customers. If your
site is effective you will likely get
some
referrals from visitors so make sure that
your site speaks to the visitor and
clearly states what your site is about
and what they are going to get there.
Remember we all like to feel important
and appreciated. Create wording and
copy in the site that makes the visitor
think the site was designed just with
their
needs in mind. Offer the benefits of your
products and services and what's in it
for them if they buy them and why they
need to buy them today!
9. Consider
various methods for encouraging visitors
to contact you so you can capture the
e-mail addresses of interested parties.
Think of every single visitor to your
site as a potential customer. If they've
come
to your site they are interested in what
you have to offer. But if they merely
browse then click off your site, they are
lost prospects and possibly your
competitors' newest customer. Knowing
this should emphasize to you the
importance of capturing the e-mail or
contact information of every single
visitor
to your site. You can do this by offering
a free newsletter subscription, as
mentioned earlier. You can do this by
offering an incentive of some type. For
example if visitors fill in your guest
book or an information request form with
their contact information you will e-mail
a valuable 5 page free report on your
product or service. Get the idea? Get the
e-mail address or contact information
of your visitors and you increase your
chances of making the sale. Just make
sure you offer your visitors something of
good value for taking the time to
provide you with their contact
information. It helps too, if you offer
assurance of
privacy and that the information they
enter will be kept confidential and not
be
resold.
10. Include a
signature file on all your outgoing
e-mail messages.
When you receive a request for
information on your product or services,
make
sure that your e-mail reply is sent out
with a signature file. Configure your
signature file using your e-mail software
tools. An effective signature file
includes your company name, your name,
your web site address, e-mail
address, phone, fax number, and most
importantly some type of incentive for
people to contact you or visit your site
today. Essentially it's a free promotion
tool. Remember that free newsletter I
mentioned in an earlier point, here's a
perfect place to plug your site with a
free offer for a newsletter, free report,
time
limited offer, etc.
11. Consider
traffic generation tools.
You may have noticed while surfing on the
web that a number of large
sites are offering features like free
classified advertising and free postcard
greetings. Why are they doing this? To
generate traffic of course! People come
to their site to place a free ad or send
or receive a free postcard greeting and
this creates free promotion for the site
owner. You can do this to create traffic
to
your site.
Go to TRAFFIC CENTER and
you will see these kinds of programs and
others too that you can have installed on
your site to create more traffic. While
there have a look a the Reminder Service
that allows visitors to enter dates of
events they wish to be reminded about,
when that date approaches they
receive an e-mail message reminder. (No
more forgotten anniversaries,
birthdays or deadlines).
You've probably heard of the popular Link
Exchange program that allows you
to participate in a banner advertising
exchange program, well you can have a
similar system on your site too!
Information on this and the other traffic
generating systems I've mentioned are all
at TRAFFIC CENTER
11. Promote your
web site address on all of your print
marketing materials including business
cards, letterhead, radio and television
ads.
But don't stop there! Give people a
reason to go to your web site by offering
them something of value for doing so such
as a free newsletter, 20% off sale, or
some otherincentive. Change your offers
periodically to keep them fresh and
exciting.
12. Use free
promotional vehicles on the web such as
free classified advertising.
There are all kinds of free ways to
promote your site on the Internet for
free.
Enter "free advertising" in
just about any search engine and you will
find
thousands of places to list either a
classified ad, a link or a brief
promotional
blurb about your site, product or
service.
13. Join a link
exchange program (or consider
setting up your own).
There are a variety of link exchange
programs available that allow you to
exchange banner advertising with another
site of similar theme. These
programs are free for the most part and
do contribute some traffic to your site,
but why not offer your own banner
advertising exchange program. Get the
details on how to do this at TRAFFIC CENTER
14. Purchase low
cost banners, featured ad positions or
sponsorships in high traffic malls or
target web sites.
Find sites that have high traffic that
can be confirmed (meaning they can prove
their traffic) and purchase banner
advertising, featured advertisers and
links
that can bring traffic to your site.
Worldprofit at Worldprofit.com is a good
place to start for low cost high traffic
advertising.
15. Run low cost
classified ads in newsletters that reach
your target market.
Many site owners offer free
newsletters to a subscriber list and
include a
classified advertising section. The cost
to run an ad in an e-zine or newsletter
is
reasonable usually about $25 - $50 per
insertion. Just be sure before placing
an ad to confirm that it is indeed an
"opt-in" subscriber based
newsletter (not a
spam list) with a guaranteed circulation
of at least 5,000 and up. Expect to pay
more for an ad in a newsletter with a
larger circulation.
16. Learn how to
barter.
Make deals with other site owners, run
free ads, links or sponsorships for
non-competing equitable sites in exchange
for running yours in their site or
newsletter. Or consider offering
something for free at your site with
every
product or service purchase. This doesn't
have to cost you anything and can be
as simple as running a free ad or link
for your customer if they order from you.
Be creative here and it will help
increase traffic and sales.
17. Make your site
into an "expert" or niche site.
Too many site owners try to be all things
to all people. It's more effective to
offer
specialized services and create the sense
that your site is THE site to go to for
information on your specific product or
service. Example, have a look at
heintzmanfarm. This
site is about flax seed and the health
effects of flax. It
offers specific information all related
to the product, the benefits of the
products,
the sale of the product and information
related to its use. You will not find the
weather forecast at this site, or a world
atlas, or a dining directory but if you
are
a health conscience individual or a
diabetic you will certainly find lots of
information of good value about this
specific product.
18. Spend time on
the web researching what other sites are
doing that is successful.
You don't have to reinvent the wheel when
it comes to generating new ideas for
traffic generation. The Internet is a
wealth of information. Look at what your
competitors are doing, adapt (not steal)
good ideas for your own purposes, and
stay current on new developments in
technology.
19. Subscribe to
free resource information on the web.
Visit web sites that offer current
information and news in the field of web
marketing. Make use of free information
articles discussing Internet commerce
and marketing strategy available at many
sites. You can start by subscribing to
the Worldprofit Worldgram weekly free
newsletter at
worldprofit.com/fmcatalg and reading the free
web site building report
library at incor.com
20. Get a
professional to design your website.
If you want to attract customers who see
your 'store' as one that offers up-scale
information, products or services, you
need to have a website that looks the
part. Here at worlddesignservices.com our staff are not only
professional
webdesign techs, but are trained in 'Cash
Copy' - the way to write your text to
movitate your buyer to buy from you.
Professional design is an investment that
should have your serious consideration.
It will pay for itself in the long-run.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sandi Hunter is
a speaker and web marketing
expert, as well as the
President of Incor Enterprises
Internet Services and a separate
company,
Worldprofit, Inc. She is also the
Director of Web Site Development
for
Worldprofit Inc. at worlddesignservices.com
You can get free web site
building reports by Sandi and
other experts, free
classified advertising, free
newsletters, domain hosting and
more at
worldprofit.com
Sandi
publishes her own ezine dedicated
to
WebDesign called DesignProfit.
Subscribe at
worldprofit.com/ezines
(c) 1998 Copyright Incor
Enterprises Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
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