NH Web Page Promotion Strategies, Tools and Techniques

Web Page Promotion Strategies

First things first! -- Ask yourself these questions.

Think of web page promotion in terms of the user experience.

Does it hold the user's attention?

Does it gently prompt people to take action?

If you had to say 'no' to more than -one- of those questions, start your marketing by improving your site. The only thing worse than not getting sales, is losing more money by bringing people to an ineffective web site!

Second Question -- Does your web site do well in search engines?

If you have a web page that clearly engages users then web page promotion begins with quality search engine optimization. Its importance cannot be overstated!

Try entering 4 key word combinations into Yahoo then Google. Did your web page come up in the top 10 at least half the time (4 of the 8 times)? If not, then begin your marketing program by optimizing the web page. If you are a do-it-yourselfer click here. If you would like our help, click here.

Third Question -- My web site users get a quality experience and my site comes up fairly well in the search engines. Now what?

A lot depends on your web site traffic, response percentage, sales closing ratio and sales markup.

• An average small business web site, serving a general population (read: average people) in just one state should expect to receive 300-1,000 web site visitors a month. Does your web site have similar or better numbers?
• On average a web site should see about 0.5% to 1.5% of site visitors take action by calling, visiting or emailing you. That is to say, that if 1,000 people visit your site monthly, 5-15 or more should be contacting you from it. If that is not true of your site, then you need to ask yourself if your products are overpriced, poorly explained or if there is another web site deficiency.
• What is your closing ratio? Of the people who contact you or walk through the door, what percentage ultimately buy your product? If you close a sale with 1 in 3 people then you have a 33% average.
• What can you afford for client acquisition? What is the economic value of a new customer? Maybe you make $3 per item sold and the average client buys 25 of them a year. In that instance each new client could be argued to be worth $75/year. How much are you willing to spend to earn that $75? What if each client on average attracts two additional new clients from word of mouth? Then how much is a single new client worth?

The answers help determine the best strategies.

Pay-Per-Click-Advertising
PPC advertising works well when the client acquisition allotment can be high, starting around $30 or so. It's fast, relatively easy, and can be initiated in just a few hours. It can also bring fairly quick success. For certain businesses it's a GREAT match. Beware though, you can also burn a ton of money doing it. Most businesses should anticipate spending a minimum of $250/month to run a small but effective campaign. You should concentrate ONLY on keywords where your site performs poorly.

Banner Advertising
Banner advertising is the equivalent of online display advertising. Banner sizes and shapes vary widely, and so do costs. Banners can be VERY effective, when placed on highly targeted, well-matched-to-your-business-product pages. Good sites can be somewhat hard to find. Radio, TV and newspaper web sites frequently carry banner ads, but because of their non-targeted nature, usually are a poor match. Better matches are typically directory sites: a wedding or bridal mall, a state directory with highly specific pages, or travel directories are good examples. Banner ads are typically sold per impression or per category. Pricing of about $.02 to .10 per impression are common. ALWAYS inquire about the prospective page's monthly or annual page views before buying to insure fair pricing. REMEMBER, the more targeted the page, the better response your banner will usually have. Quality banner placement can sometimes be had for as little as $20/month.

Content Development
Few sites today receive the majority of their site traffic entering via the first or 'home page' of their web sites. Because search engines index every page of a site, sites typically find the majority of users landing on 'interior' pages. This creates opportunity for sites with numerous 'interior' pages.

Imagine a lawyer: she can have an 'average' web site announcing that she does family law. Alternatively, she can have a site with a significant library of 'this-is-how-you-handle-this-issue' pages. People researching the problem rather than an attorney, find the lawyer's page. Clearly some will need a lawyer's help, and because they are already there, many will view her 'services offered' pages.

This is an excellent strategy, but labor intensive. You have to custom write the text or hire it to be done. Your professional association may have numerous 'fact pages' or articles and sometimes web designers specializing in real estate, chiropractic sites etc. may have a ready library of pages your site can license for use. However, this is NOT the way to develop your library. Search engines loathe 'duplicate' material online. They tend to elevate the rankings of only the original source, or, devalue all discovered instances of duplicate materials. So ready-made libraries can be useful for an existing client base, but very poor for attracting new traffic.

Costs vary. To make a real impact you should develop no fewer than 10 'this-is-how-you-handle-this-issue' pages, and more are better. If you write them yourself, have them professionally search engine optimized. Skilled optimization will cost in the $20-40 per page range. If you have professional copywriters create the pages, anticipate between $100-200 per page without research, twice as much if they are gleaning information themselves rather than interviewing you to create the material.

The Multiple Site Strategy
On average, the sites most effective with search engines attempt to communicate only one core idea and then articulate its various facets. Imagine a NH limousine company that also fully services Boston. What would be the core idea that you are trying to communicate to the search engine? NH Limousine Company, right? If this company wanted to aggressively market in the Boston metro area, they would need a second web site.

Think of it this way: If you need to be in more than -1- category or book in the Yellow Pages to be effective, you probably need to own more than one web site to be wholly effective online.

MORE to come soon....