Back

Sources

ORGANIC SEARCH ENGINE TRAFFIC

There is little point in being number 1 in Google for a search term if the visitor clicks on the url link and finds the content you display is unappealing to them.  The back button is just one click away.  High search engine rankings provide visibility but they do not guarantee successful conversions.

Every page visited by an organic search traffic is a landing page.   It has this single opportunity to engage a relationship with the visitor.  Your web traffic reports will show just how appealing your web pages are for each search phrase by reporting on bounce rates, pages viewed and average time spent for organic search visitors.

Organic search engine traffic is not a quick solution.  It takes many months of indexing by search engines before you can develop an accurate assessment of a site's search traffic.

SEARCH PHRASES

Any web traffic log tool will show the number of searches performed for each search phrase over a period of time.  The use of this information seems simple at first.  Focus on the most heavily searched terms and use them to drive the web content. 

There are a number of pitfalls with this approach.  Firstly it does not take into account that the most heavily searched phrases still only represent a minor fraction of all of the searches hitting the web site.  There is a "long tail" of varied search phrases that often represent 95% of the search engine traffic reaching a site.  The frequency of all of the individual words being used to find the site must be taken into account.

The second pitfall is that the most common search phrases may have no value.  In general the longer and more specific the search phrase, the more committed the visitor is to acting when they find relevant content.  For example a search for "insurance" is not as committed as a search for "travel insurance cover for over 65".    The conversion value of each search phrase may also vary widely with some returning a greater income revenue than others.

Finally, web site traffic logs only show which search phrases are currently hitting the site.  The traffic volumes of all searches on the internet related to the same subject as the web site need to be analyzed.  This is a relatively simple task these days using free tools such as the Google Keyword Analyzer and Google Trends, and paid tools such as Wordtracker.

We see many sites keyword stuff their page content to the point where it becomes painful to read by the human eye.  This may be an advantage in gaining some additional visitors but what value does it have when visitors land on these pages and cannot interpret a meaning from them?  Probably, very little value.

A key missing element from many SEO tactics is forgetting to invest content in the key words of the English language such as How, When, Who, What, Which etc.  The volumes of searches using these types of common words are vast compared to the subject specific words.  These common words should be included amongst the words targetted for search engine optimization strategies.

PAY PER CLICK

Pay per click advertising is the method used by Google Adwords, Adbrite and Overture to place text link ads alongside search engine results and on 3rd party web sites.  For each search phrase competing advertisers bid for placement ranking.

Since the number of words in a text ad is constrained to a title and about a dozen descriptive words, the opportunity to get a persuasive sales message across is very limited.  But it is possible to establish a "scent trail" which will attract visitors towards your domain.

With Google Adwords the price paid per click is based upon a formula that takes into account the price bid per click, the click conversion rate and the relevancy of the ad to the content of the web page.  As the click conversion rate increases the price per click declines and the position of the ad is raised in its placement position.  Similarly the more word relevance there is between the ad text and the landing page that the url link points to, the lower the cost per click and the higher the placement position.  Higher placement positions translate into greater visibility and an increase in the volume of clicks.

The Overture model is still based primarily on the highest bid receiving the highest placement position.

The use of pay per click is a balancing act between the cost of acquisition of each visitor and the conversion rate and return on investment generated by that visitor.  It is very easy to pay far more for pay per click ads than is returned in revenue.

BANNER ADVERTISING 

Banner advertising originally meant paying a price per 1,000 impressions to a 3rd party site for displaying the promotional banner.  That model still exists and is prevalent with banner advertising on newspaper web sites. Banners are also extensively used with affiliate campaigns.

The CPM cost model (cost per 1,000 impressions) is an easy campaign model to measure return on investment.  The url from the banner can be tagged in the url link and this followed through to the target to calculate a conversion ratio and ROI. 

Banners have a low visit rate but the fact they still exist after 10 years of use is testimony to their reliability on providing targeted traffic.  However, unlike organic search engine traffic there is no opportunity to catch the intent behind the visitor's click.

Banner adverts work best when promoting a very specific promotion such as a discount or a particular service.  They are not so successful at promoting a mixed message.

DIRECT TRAFFIC

Direct traffic are visitors coming directly to a web site through bookmarks and from typing in the domain name into a browser address bar.  This is loyal traffic but may not necessarily be high conversion traffic if you are operating services such as web forum or online tools and games.

Traffic site data can be segmented to include only direct traffic.  This can then be analyzed with more clarity to determine exactly what these users are visiting the site for.  They may just have bookmarked a page on the site because it holds some information they want to keep track of or because they like to joining discussions on a forum. 

Many people now use search engines as a safe means of accessing sites they regularly visit.  They will visit Google and type in the domain name of the site and then click on the url instead of typing the domain name into the address bar. This is particularly true of online banking and payment sites.  The reason for this behavior is because they can trust that the top result returned by Google will be the genuine site, not an illegal version used for phishing user data.  This type of traffic should also be treated as direct traffic.

AFFILIATE CAMPAIGNS

An affiliate campaign is the strategy of placing your promotional material on other people's web sites and paying them a commission for each click, lead or sale. 

Running an affiliate campaign through an established network such as Commission Junction or TradeDoubler can quickly provide a lot of exposure to your promotions.  The success in receiving traffic and converting them to sales is dependent upon the type of visitors the advertising site receives.  They may be low value "tyre kickers" or high value purchasers.  The affiliate network provides tools to allow you measure the conversions each advertising site delivers.

An affiliate network will want a percentage of the revenue for their service so the other option is to run an affiliate campaign yourself.  Using this strategy will take you longer to find web sites to join your campaign but you are saving on commission paid to a network.

Whichever route you take the advertising site will also want a reasonable commission for providing traffic and conversions.  Commission rates vary greatly depending upon the type of service or products being sold.  3% could be the commission rate for financial products whilst 40% commission may be available for promoting e-books.

DIRECTORIES

Links from web site site directories that are nothing more than directories have been heavily demoted in recent years.  If the directory is exists to support other worthy web content then it is still worth having your site included in it. 

Other worthwhile directories include established trade directories and online telephone directories.  These represent authority sites and their links may not only boost page rank but also provide a valuable flow of genuine customer traffic.

LINK SWAPPING

Reciprocal link swapping is a method that has been used over the last decade to gain a higher ranking in search engine results.  It is questionable whether this strategy has much value these days since it is has been so over exploited.  Many reciprocal links are placed on low or unranked link pages with dozens of other links, many completely unrelated to the subject of the web site.  Link farms have also smeared this method as it verges on black hat SEO.  The search engines have had a decade of development in their algorithms to devalue most reciprocal linking strategies.

The genuine value links are unique one way links from web sites containing similar material to the target web site.  These can be gained by providing articles, tools, charts and other web site material that are worthy of being linked to.  If you have done work for another site then that is another genuine reason to ask for a link back to your own site.

EMAIL CAMPAIGNS 

Email campaigns can be used effectively with both B2B and B2C markets.

When used for B2C markets they should be restricted to targeting an existing customer or subscriber base.  Unsolicited emails to individuals is now treated as a criminal offence in most countries.   Besides the legal issues, technology that captures spam emails is now far more advanced than ever before particularly with online email services such as Google Gmail.  The B2B market is still available for unsolicited emailing.

Below is a link to a pdf document offering the best advice I have yet seen on writing promotional emails.

Marketing Email Writing Tips

PRESS RELEASES

A well written press release can be an ideal way of generating mass online interest very quickly.  The press release must be as appealing as you would find in a popular newspaper.  It must contain accuracy, drama, humor and believability in the right proportions to attract popular interest.  Many press releases are bland, dull and uninspiring and as result are seen as not worthy of being distributed to other online sites. 

A very successful press release can gain hundreds of thousands of viewings in a matter of weeks or even days.  It is ideal for building brand image in the memory of all of those visitors.

Press release can be submitted through various online services.  Before writing a press release search online to find the best tips and tricks to elevate it above the thousands that are submitted every day. 

Press releases have a dwindling life span.  The weight they add to search engine rankings, linkage and general traffic volumes decreases exponentially over time.  News is a time valued commodity.

SOCIAL NETWORKING

Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg and blogging are the latest trend towards capturing online audiences.  However their record on monetizing these huge traffic volumes is patchwork at best.  Various models are being experimented with including pay per click advertising and offering subscriptions to games and online tools.

In just the space of a 4 years Facebook has grown to an account subscription of 200 million users.  How many of those accounts are held by regular active users is questionable but this explosive growth cannot be completely ignored.  Similar networking sites exist for business people but once again their value at creating valid customer has yet to be determined.

The value of the social networking strategy is still under the microcope.  What value do these users have?  The majority of the account holders are from the younger generation as they form relationships.  Will they continue the use of social networking services as they mature into their adult lives?  The jury is still out.  Even once mighty sites such as MySpace, FriendsReunited, Lycos and Yahoo now appear to be in terminal decline.  Does the same fate await the latest online fads once the novelty wears off? 

Social networking is certainly worth experimenting with but should be part of a broad strategy to gain visitor traffic from many sources.

CONTENT CONTENT CONTENT

When people read the advice from Google on how to promote their web site, they focus on how Page Rank and the linkage rules work.  They tend to skip past the first sentence in how Google suggest to promote your web site.  That first sentence essentially states that "Content Is King".  Look at the results for any major search term and you will find this to be true.  The top listed sites are those sites which offer the very best content in relation to the search phrase.

A promotional strategy that focuses on raising Page Rank and gaining off site links to increase their traffic volumes is not only a wasted effort if the web content disappoints but is also  ineffective.  Resources are better spent on creating popular web content than they are on SEO techniques.  Great content attracts attention and links all by itself.  If you really want to get to the top of the results for a search term then study the content that is being delivered in those top results.  If you do not have content that is better than that already being offered then you will not have any chance of reaching the top and staying there.

The other weakness of SEO techniques is that the search engines are always developing their algorithms so what worked yesterday does not work today.  Whereas strong content survives these fluctuations. 

You can think of a web page as a pop song.  There are popular pop songs that get played all the time and there are others that hardly ever get played.  The popular songs are found on albums which raises the profile of all of the songs on album.  And good songs raise the profile of the artist.  You can think of the domain as playing the part of the artist.  An artist with popular songs is talked about and played again and again.  Their songs are played on radio just as good web pages are linked to from other sites.  It does not matter what technology is used to play the song or what medium is used to present it through, good songs are sought after by the public.  So do you want to create web pages that are like Stairway To Heaven by Led Zepellin (yeah man!) or do you want to create web pages that are like Bing A Ding Dong by The TweeneyBoppers (who?).