Date:
Take the Wheel - Drive Customers to your Website
Take the Wheel - Drive Customers to your Website
by: Lori Quaranta
So
you own a small business and you have made the decision to build a
simple website to gain internet exposure. Or maybe you already have a
website that no one visits? You can be the proud owner of the slickest
website you have ever seen, but if you aren’t getting any traffic
because it’s not properly optimized you have wasted a good chunk of
change and a lot of your valuable time. Weather you are building a site
from scratch or tweaking one that already exists, consider these web
hosting and marketing tips to help drive traffic to your website:
For Web Hosting:
1) Start with keywords - Think about terms potential customers would
use to find you in a search engine. What would you type in if you were
looking for your business?
2) Use a keyword selector tool - Type your keywords into a keyword
selector tool to see how many people have searched on the term in the
last 30 days. Look for terms in the 2k-10k range that are relevant to
your site.
3) Use domain names which match your keywords – My client advertises
products that are geared toward leadership skills development. In
addition to leadingonedge.com he also has leadership-skills.info and a
handful of others.
4) Use keywords throughout your web pages - Put your keywords in the
title, description, keywords, graphics (ALT tags), and written text.
5) Use a keyword density analyzer - Check your website against a
keyword density analyzer to see how frequently a specific keyword is
used. Shoot for 3-15% density.
6) Slick and sexy doesn't get you traffic - Don't waste your money on
slick graphics or things that fly across your screen. Most visitors
find them annoying and search engines don't care for them.
7) Use Google AdSense on your website - Whenever someone clicks on a
Google ad in your website, you get revenue. And the ads are relevant to
your content. My websites now pay for themselves with ad revenue alone.
8) Advertise Amazon books and products on your website - Set up an
Amazon Associates account and put relevant books and products on your
website. When someone buys a product you get referral revenue.
9) Consider using a website starter package - If going it on your own,
think about using a website starter package which can have you up and
running quickly.
10) Decide where you want to spend your time - In any business, time is
money! Small business web hosting is very doable, but it does take
time. Decide if you want to do it yourself or have a professional help
you.
For Marketing:
1) Get an automated eCommerce system - These can be really good, very
comprehensive and very inexpensive. The good ones can do everything
from customer base management to product management to shopping cart to
newsletter broadcasts.
2) Get a cheap and reliable merchant account provider - You can get
merchant account providers that do both the merchant account and
internet gateway for you.
3) Put a link back to your website in your email autosignature - This
doesn't need to be obnoxious, just a simple link that email recipients
can click on to reference your website.
4) Do selective link trading - Link trade, but make sure the content on
the other websites is similar to your own. Don't touch "link farms"
with a ten-foot pole; search engines hate them.
5) Write articles and include your website address – Every business
owner has something to say that someone would love to read about! There
are a number of article databases out there that are researched for
website content. Find some article databases which house content
similar to yours and write a few articles. You'd be amazed at where
your articles show up!
6) Write newsletters - Allow for customers and visitors to subscribe to
a newsletter to get regular visibility to you and your company. This is
also a great way to compile a customer email data base for your
business.
7) Consider using a search engine submission services - These services
submit your site to multiple search engines & directories. This can
be helpful particularly if your website is new.
8) Set up an affiliates program - Allow for others to promote your
products on a commission basis. Again a good eCommerce system should
already have this built in.
9) Download the Google Toolbar – I am a Google toolbar fanatic! The
Google Toolbar has a nifty feature which shows you the page rank (0-10
scale) of every site you visit; the higher your page ranking the higher
your placement in search engines.
10) Set up multiple websites - Got three services you perform? Set up
three different websites with domain names that match your keywords.
Super cheap to do and can be very effective.
