My website is running but I get hardly any visitors!
What Next?
I just completed my website, but no one knows about it!
What Next?
Ok, So you’ve had a website for a while. We are going to presume at this point that you have the design elements sorted out, so no visitor can get lost and every visitor wants to buy. Maybe not everyone, but you know your site works. If not, you may need to take a step backwards, and employ and website specialist to fix this step first.
The basics are: you have two very specific goals that are what YOU want. These do not include “to provide information” That is a given, and if you don’t do that you should not have a website. These goals need to be related to you or your business. “Selling something” is a great goal, “Contacting Me” could be more appropriate for a service based business. “Sign-up for Newsletter” is often a great secondary goal. How you go about achieving this on your website is the topic of a whole different article. Today, we are all about setting a plan for getting the world to visit you.
First; Arm your self with Statistics
Statistic: If you don’t know where you are you can’t know where you have come from. So we need to find you on the web right now.
Step 1 - Does Google know you exist?
Type into google your exact domain. This is the part after ‘WWW’
EG: my website is: www.receptive.com.au so in google I type “receptive.com.au” (image 1)
Ok, if your site is found like the sample above, then you can be happy that your site is ‘indexed’ by google. Some really new sites won’t appear yet, and if you take the steps discussed below you will soon be found in the type of search listed here.
(Note: avoid using ‘website submission tools’ These are not usually worth the hassle, there are much faster ways of being found, and some rumours are that you could be penalised if you re-submit a site too many times.)
Step 2
If you were found in Google’s index, you need to do this step;
Search your top 5-10 search terms. These are the Keywords which you are going to track for improvement over time. You may add to or remove words from your tracking list from time to time, and I have clients who track over 50 different words for one website. But you can start with 5 or 10 while you learn the steps.
Do the search in Google and Yahoo for each of your keywords. Scroll down through the first 10-20 pages until you find your website (if it is there at all.) Record the page and place on that page where you appear.
Step 3
Visit each of the pages of your site and record the PageRank of each page.
That’s all you need to get started. You now have a benchmark by which to measure your success. Now get to work on the next stage.
Stage two.
You have your list of 5-10 keywords from stage one. You now need to expand this list to be sure you are covering your subject.
Download Good Keywords from
www.goodkeywords.com. This software will generate oodles of words built around your keywords. What this tool also does, is give you an indication of how many searches are done for each of these words, which may indicate that you need to change your keyword focus. This list will also provide phrases which people are using with your keywords.
This single tool alone can make your articles go from interesting to invaluable. We are going to get to articles shortly.
Review your industry
Do your search again for each keyword. And click on the each site in the first page of results.
When you visit each of these sites, you want to find what it is that makes them appear on the first page of results. There are many techniques used by professionals to judge these criteria. There are too many methods for the average website owner to learn and understand. I will share two things that may be obvious. First, read the text. I’d expect to find that the phrase or keyword is repeated several times on the page and site. Secondly, in your internet explorer (or other browser) you have the option to view the source of the page. (figure 2)
After you select this you should see something like Figure 3:
While there is mostly much more text in this file, above is a sample of what you should find. The highlighted sections are the ones you are looking for, and there are many others that you could become familiar with as you build on your knowledge. What these give you is an insight about what this site’s owners deem as important words for their clients.
When you couple these two techniques you should be able to know which topic areas, and what design elements you need to focus your energy on in your articles in future.
Stage three
Create a place to publish writing
Your website should have the ability for you to easily add images and text to your website. This functionality is essential for any website owner who is serious about being successful. While systems vary from awkward to very easy, you need to decide on a system that suits you. It should be easy for you to use, fit your budget, and have the potential to grow with your needs. What this means is that right now you might only want to edit text, but in the future, you may want to create forms, build photo galleries, add an online shop, design a members area, or edit your menu’s. You should be able to find a system which is growing with the internet and will grow with you as your skills develop.
Start writing
From Stage two, you found extra keywords, and reviewed your industry to see what you client base wants to know about and is searching for. Now you need to give them that information. If you have time, select 2-3 keywords, and write an article that uses these words. Each article should only focus on 2-3 keywords, and should not be ‘over the top’ with these words. What this means is the story needs to read well. If a person reads it, it needs to make them want to buy from you or contact you.
If you don’t have time, to write, call in the experts. This is one stage that hiring others can be the best thing you could do. If you want to try your luck online, visit www.elance.com and upload your request for people to bid on your business. You could pay anything from US$50- to US$500- for 10 articles on your list of keywords.
These articles should then be published on your website, blog, newsletters, and sometimes in forums.
Publish on other sites.
If you really like an article, you may claim it as your own and publish it on ‘Article Directories’ (search for this term and you will see thousands of places to publish.) An example of this is www.ezinearticles.com.
There are obviously many more things you could work on to get found in the search engines, but this is a great starting point for all your future work.
Author: Brendan Byrne http://www.receptive.com.au is an internet marketing consultant. Brendan runs workshops on how to manage your online business and effectively market yourself.
Brendan Byrne - Wednesday, September 30, 2009
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