Monday, March 11, 2013

Your Web Site Is Done – Now What?

Your Web Site Is Done – Now What?
Strategies to boost your web traffic

I’ve seen it many times; a community or company spends time and money on a new web site, maybe even a great one, and then assumes the work is done. There’s nothing more to do. Unfortunately, that’s often where they end their marketing effort. The web site then lingers, attracting very little traffic. Like cyber driftwood, it floats along, virtually unseen.

You see, visitors find a web site in two ways; they discover it via a search engine or are directed to it through advertising or another promotional effort.

Search Engine Optimization
SEO is a mysterious mix of art and science. In order to be effective, well-crafted web sites must be written and programmed with a thorough understanding of how search engines work. The Brand Acceleration writers and programmers are both artists and scientists. They have an amazing ability to craft beautiful and emotional prose while masterfully weaving in a mix of keywords and phrases that help achieve solid search results. Then, our programmers create a brilliant structure that helps assure positive rankings.

Keeping things interesting, the search engine developers love to change the rules on a regular basis. Google, Bing!, and Yahoo have made numerous changes in recent months, keeping our writers and programmers on their toes.

Push Marketing Makes All the Difference
The next, and equally important, way that visitors find a web site is through Push Marketing. Through a strategic plan that includes tactics such as social media marketing, blogs, online marketing, and others, visitors are driven to web sites and, if well-done, converted to customers.

The Story Behind Analytics
As the creator and host of numerous web sites, Brand Acceleration has access to the analytics that tell the inside stories of their traffic patterns. We evaluate web traffic on a regular schedule, looking to see what works and what doesn’t. Regarding the sources of web traffic, we want to see balance. Ideally, we’ll see that visitors come evenly from search engines and push marketing efforts. In other words, our desire is to know that everything is working well.

On the other hand, the analytics will indicate the lack of outbound or push marketing. When no effort is made to grow community of company awareness, the analytics will show two common characteristics. First, web traffic (visitor count) will be low and, second, a large majority of visitors will come through search engines. This game of chance is grossly ineffective because there are competitors out there that are working hard to attract the same prospective visitors.

What are You To Do?
First of all, you must realize that the creation of a great web site is very important. See my recent blog entitled “You’d Better Have a Great Web Site,” for more on this subject. However, the effort should not stop there. Next, you have to accept the fact that marketing communications should never end. The most successful web sites are supported by an ongoing strategy to grow awareness and drive web traffic.

Our most successful clients work closely with our team to identify key audiences, understanding what makes them respond, and developing plans to generate results. If your web traffic or business activity is less than stellar, maybe we should talk. Contact me today to schedule a free, no obligation evaluation of your web site and other marketing efforts. Together, we can discover what is needed to achieve much higher results.

I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to share your thoughts and personal experiences below.

Have a great week,

Jim Walton
CEO
Brand Acceleration, Inc.
Branding // Marketing Communications // Public Relations
Indianapolis: 317.536.6255
Charlotte: 704:230:0394
Atlanta: 404.474.7980
Fax: 317.222.1425
Cell: 317.523.7380


Brand Acceleration is a full-service marketing communications, brand management and public relations firm with a focus on economic development, architecture, engineering and construction.

No comments :

Post a Comment