Marketing Your Website

A clearly written marketing strategy offers six immediate benefits:

1)       Because written plans display their strengths and weaknesses
more readily, they are of great help in formulating and polishing a marketing strategy.

2)       Written plans are not as easily forgotten. If deviation from the original plan occurs,
it is likely to be due to a deliberate choice.

3)       Written plans are easier to communicate to others and are less likely to be misunderstood.

4)       Written plans allocate responsibilities and provide for an evaluation of results.

5)       Written plans help in seeking financing. They indicate to lenders that your business is
taking a serious approach.

6)       Written plans give management a clear understanding of the components of the marketing strategy and the processes involved in obtaining the goals.

The key to any site's success is traffic. No company can make sales, advertise, offer customer service, or charge advertisers unless people visit the Web site-and they don't necessarily come just because you build it.

Your site has to be promoted so that Web users can find it among the increasing number of sites.

This doesn't mean launching a high-powered and expensive ad campaign.

One of the great advantages of the Web for small businesses is that it's inexpensive-often free-to let people know that a site is open and where it is. Here are the best ways to get the word out after opening a Web site:

(Major) Search Engines

• Designing your pages for the major search engines and  for the visiting public is at best, a compromise.
  Since web surveys have shown repeatedly that the majority of your visitors will come from search engine referrals, (over 87%), this should be your target.

• Search engines crave text! Visitors want information. How do you resolve this?
  If you design your pages for the major search engines, they look terrible for incoming visitors.
  If you design visually appealing pages for incoming visitors, the major search engines will probably give them a poor ranking.
• The way around this is to use doorway pages. Doorway pages are text based pages designed for the major search engines requirements and are designed for a specific search engine.

• I used to use a method of redirecting an incoming search engine to a private page which was designed only for it, and direct the public to a page for them. However, most of the major search engines do not allow this anymore, and pages using it are not listed.

• Search engine positioning is NOT an exact science, despite what the "Gurus" tell you.
  However, excellent results can be obtained by using Web Position's Page Critic.
  Web Position is my choice for  a tool that will allow me to achieve top rankings on the major search engines.
  Web Position's advertising states:
  WebPosition Gold is the first product to combine all the following features designed to launch your Web site to the top of the search engine results.
  Generates HTML pages designed to rank near the top of the search results.
  Analyzes your existing Web pages and gives plain-English advice on how to improve them.
  Includes a simple, built-in HTML editor for fast and easy changes.
  Assists in uploading your new and changed pages.
  Submits your pages to the major search engines automatically.
  Reports your positions on each search engine for each keyword you are targeting.
  Tracks the number of visitors to your site, where they came from, and what keywords they used to find you.
  And much, much more!  
  A top 10 ranking in a major search engine like AltaVista, Lycos, or Hotbot will often generate more targeted traffic than an expensive banner advertising campaign - and, a good search engine position is like highly targeted advertising that is both FREE, and effective! 
  Over 90% of the search engine traffic to most Web sites comes from 8 to 10 major search engines. Therefore, you should prepare your server for a considerable increase in traffic after achieving just a few top 10 search positions with WebPosition Gold. No other product is more favorably reviewed by the press or its customers.

(Minor) Search Engines and FFA (Free For All) pages.

• Registering your website with the thousands of minor search engines and FFA sites is open to debate as to it's effectiveness. Some proponents claim excellent results but experience has shown the opposite.
  I track all hits to my site. Referrals from FFA sites are virtually non-existent.
  Regardless of the effectiveness of posting on the FFA pages, one thing is certain.
  You WILL receive an enormous amount of "Spam".

WebMaster Tip:  If you go this route, use your email "rules" to redirect or delete these messages.
You may also want to setup a "hotmail" or similar account for these registrations.

Linking

• Numerous methods of linking your website are available. Search out portal sites, complementary businesses, Web-Rings, "Yellow Page" directories, friendship or interest sites, all are opportunities to build your "Link Relevance"

Banner Advertising

• Banner Advertising covers a wide range of opportunities. Most plans are fee based and expensive. There is much debate on the effectiveness of such programs.
  there are also free services such as "Banner Exchange"

Hard Copy Advertising

• Include your email address and website address in all promotional materials, letterheads, and customer correspondence as well as in any newspaper or magazine ads you place.

"Specialty" Programs or Services.

• These generally generate, for the most part, "untargeted" traffic.
  An example of one of these programs is on http://www.FantasticMachines.com and is called "ExitExchange". When a visitor leaves the site a new browser window opens with a page from a member's website.
  ·    Another similar program is http://www.nomorehits.com/ which gets you to set your browser's home page to their promotion and you receive one ad placement for every 2 times you open your browser.