Websites as Marketing Tools

Website: Megaphone or Hub? Megaphones – speak one to many; one-directional Hub – encourages interactivity; two-way and multi-directional communication

Main Types of Commercial Websites “Online brochure” sites e-Commerce sites Monetized niche sites – affiliate sites, Adsense sites Directory sites Membership sites Authority sites The above can be static sites, blog sites, or both.

Content is King Content – GOOD content – is what visitors seek Must be user-friendly to find and read Must be credible Content is what search engines value and rank Must be optimized Must be “substantial (ideally 250+ words per page/post) Site owners tend to worry more about the look of the site than the content that’s on it. Big mistake.

Effective Website Development Requires 3 Types of Expertise Technical / development expertise Site architecture / structure / technical capabilities Design expertise Look and feel of the site / esthetic appeal Marketing expertise Aligning site functionality with website goals Keyword strategy / SEO effectiveness Lead generation / Conversion funnels

>90% of Sites Developed without Sufficient Focus on Marketing Most developers are trained in development and/or design – NOT marketing Fairly easy to build a site that functions well and looks nice It’s tough to become an expert in keyword research, SEO, marketing trends, and more This is why less than 10% of all sites are built out to effectively achieve marketing goals

>90% of Sites Developed without Sufficient Focus on Marketing Lack of marketing planning leads to ineffective websites that don’t achieve goals Lack of marketing strategy leads to: A site no one can find A site that doesn’t convert A site that doesn’t bring visitors back A site that is a waste of money for the owner

The Proper Sequence for Building a Website Step 1: Develop website goals & objectives Know what your site needs to do to prosper: Are you planning to sell products? Capture leads? Build a mailing list? Earn income from Adsense or affiliate programs? Know your objectives before you start

The Proper Sequence for Building a Website Step 2: Determine if demand is sufficient If you are depending on monetization or sales, there must be sufficient interest in your topic to drive enough traffic to convert to sufficient sales Will there be enough interest in your topic to: warrant the time and expense to develop? to drive traffic to it? to monetize it? (if that’s site goal)

The Proper Sequence for Building a Website Step 3: Conduct keyword research Goal is to find ideal keywords – those with BOTH: Sufficient search volume – are enough people searching the term to make it worth your while? -AND- Sufficient opportunity to make it to page #1 on Google In other works – find the best combination of: DEMAND – enough search volume -AND- SUPPLY – not too much competition

The Proper Sequence for Building a Website Step 4: Complete a competitive review Evaluate the sites ranking high for the keywords you hope to rank for and determine what they are doing well (and not) What can you do with your site to leverage your competitors’ strengths / weaknesses?

The Proper Sequence for Building a Website Step 5: Develop Site Architecture Develop framework for the new site taking into account Steps Identify and map out the number of pages Determine how the pages will relate to one another (main navigation, sub-navigation, internal linking) Align ONE keyword (called “primary” keyword) with each page or posts – this is for optimization

The Proper Sequence for Building a Website Step 6: Develop “blueprints” for each page Create an outline of key elements for each page Identify primary keyword Determine page url (sitename.com/primary-keyword)sitename.com/primary-keyword Develop title tag Develop page description Determine page or post headline (H1 header) Identify any photos / graphics and associated alt tags

The Proper Sequence for Building a Website Step 7: Write content Develop copy for each page that meets the page objectives Ideally include 250+ words of copy (500+ better) Use keywords naturally (no more than 2% density) Do NOT “stuff” keywords – considered keyword spam Augment keywords with LSI words (related words) LSI = latent semantic index Ensure that photos / graphics contain alt tags

The Proper Sequence for Building a Website Step 8: Create the site’s “skin” – design look/feel Incorporate all from Steps 1 – 7 to create an appropriate site design that: Ensures visual continuity between site & offline materials Is appropriate for the type of site and the intended audience Leads the eye to the most important parts of the page Keeps look clean, user-friendly, and easy to navigate Does NOT use “frames” Does NOT use excessive flash

The Proper Sequence for Building a Website Step 9: Complete site build-out Develop the site by integrating design, copy, and any other features and make it function properly. Ensure that coding is “clean” so that the site is easy for search engines to crawl Keep site load-time fast (slow load time loses visitors and is also penalized by the search engines) Ideally, build out a mobile version of the site simultaneously

The Proper Sequence for Building a Website Step 10: Integrate off-site elements of SEO Begin working to get inbound links to the site Links from other sites because they value your content Links from social media Links from news releases Links from guest blogging Do NOT use spammy link-builders! Integrate social elements into the website to encourage social sharing

The Proper Sequence for Building a Website Step 11: Promote the site strategically Promote the site online as appropriate for the site Social media that are the best fit PPC advertising if need traffic quickly (and if affordable) News releases to announce launch of site & major updates Participation in forums, groups, other online “hives” Never, EVER use spammy promotional techniques! Integrate site URL into all appropriate offine marketing materials (ads, brochures, directories, etc)

The Proper Sequence for Building a Website Step 12: Use analytics to monitor and revise Monitor site performance metrics to see what’s working – and what’s not Make adjustments to site based on your analysis Sources of traffic, most popular pages, time on site, most popular keywords, time on site, average # of pages viewed, bounce rate, etc. Be sure to monitor metrics for PPC campaigns and other marketing initiatives as well Tweak, rinse, repeat

Bottom Line There are no shortcuts to developing a solid web strategy A website is a marketing tool – LEAD with marketing and then build it out accordingly Resist the temptation to just dive in without doing the necessary research and planning on the front end A website is never “done” – if it’s to be truly successful, it will always be in transition