I have a website! Now what?

Published: March 27 2012

Congratulations on your new website! It looks amazing, but you aren’t done yet.

In today’s competitive web realm, simply being online isn’t enough anymore. You need to seriously consider how best to market your website and your business and actively do so, long after the website is launched. Your website won’t be useful if you don’t have traffic, and you won’t have traffic if people don’t know about the site. It’s up to you to make your site known through Traffic Generation Activities (TGA, as we refer to them).

There are many different and varied methods of TGA from search engines, to word of mouth. TGA can also include print ads, links, QR codes and, perhaps the most popular, social media. If you want your website to be seen, you need to place it in front of people, just as you would with your bricks and mortar business. You would never open your business, not advertise, and still expect success. The same can be said for your internet domain.

Search engines like Google can be a huge source of traffic generation for your site, and one that you should definitely try to take advantage of. According to a report done by Optify last year, the top 3 spots on Google get 58% of the clicks, with 1st place getting 36.4%. If 100 people search “Kelowna Pub” the top spot is going to get 36-37 people clicking on their link. If 60% of these people actually choose that pub as their destination of choice after investigating their website, the pub can expect to see approximately 22 customers that likely wouldn’t have made it to that establishment otherwise. The pay off on search engines can be enormous. Selecting the right keywords, descriptions, and building cache with Google can be a careful balancing act, but when you succeed, you can expect a fantastic ROI.

Links are another fantastic way of generating traffic for your site and it also helps to improve your search engine ranking. By having other sites, particularly reputable sites and those with a common thread to your site or business, link to your site, they are telling Google that they recommend your site. The great thing about backlinks is that, not only are you increasing your ranking with Google, but you are also generating traffic through the links themselves.

While QR Codes are still dancing on the edge of popularity, their potential uses are huge and worth considering as part of your web marketing strategy. You can place QR codes on business cards, on company vehicles, on POS receipts, and more. Your QR code can be used to link back to your business’ website, a restaurant menu, a newsletter sign-up for your website, and more. QR codes continue to grow in popularity and being on the forefront of technology adds a certain air of success to your business.

Perhaps the most popular method of TGA is in the form of Social Media. From Twitter to Facebook, and new trends like Pinterest, social media is an excellent way to grow and communicate with your client base. The continual dialogue that social media supports, allows you to offer your customers valuable advice, tips, and recommendations while encouraging them to visit your website. Customers love value and they love being rewarded. So give them valuable content in your social media post and they will visit the link that goes with it.

The team at Csek Creative knows that navigating TGA can be difficult, complex, and time consuming. We are well-versed in the fields of web marketing and TGA and we can help you navigate the choppy waters of the Internet. Call us to schedule your free one hour consultation and we can discuss how best to generate traffic to your site.