Search Engines
There is no doubt that search engines such as Google have changed the way we look for information on the world wide web. Anyone with an interest in butterflies for example can simply type the word in, press enter and voilà - they have a list of tens of millions of different pages to consult on the subject. However, these search tools aren't so useful when you're looking for one specific site amongst the millions of results a typical web search throws back. Say, for example, our hypothetical web user is now looking for the site of a certain butterfly expert, but cannot quite remember said expert's name. It is highly unlikely they will be able to find the one site they're after amongst the vast array of others out there - we're talking one straw-coloured needle in a whole field full of very large haystacks.
The same problem applies to business sites: web users are highly unlikely to just happen upon your site. Of the small number of people who do randomly find your site through Google, how many will physically live in the area you do business in, and how many of those will hang around long enough to decide that it is something they're interested in, and how many of those with actually convert to paying customers?
Don't get me wrong - the web is a fantastic marketing tool, and making you site easy to find is obviously a good idea. However, try to avoid the "build it and they will come" mentality. The vast majority of visitors to most business sites (and this is especially true of small businesses) will be those who have heard about you from other sources and want to find out more. Therefore, a website should just be one part of a coordinated marketing strategy.
Bearing all this in mind, how do you make it easy for those who are looking for your site to find it? One easy step is to make sure your website address is on everything you publish: emails, business cards, flyers, letterheads - everything. However, there will inevitably be a certain number of potential customers who have heard of you but, for whatever reason, don't have your website address to hand when they're at a computer. They will turn to the search engine to try and find you, and so you need to take steps to make your site as easy to find as possible.
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is a fairly large topic that I don't really want to go into here, not least because most search engines change the algorithms they use to rate sites on an almost monthly basis. However, there are one or two other options available to those who want to make their sites more visible in search engines, and I'd just like to briefly mention pay-per-click advertising.
You may have noticed that a Google search results page has a number of "sponsored links" at the top and down the right-hand side of the page - these are part of the Google AdWords system. The basic idea is that these are targeted ads which you only pay for when someone clicks on them (potentially a very powerful way to advertise your site). You are able to select which countries, regions and language versions your ad appears in (for example you could target English speakers in Spain and France, or Portuguese speakers in London). You also specify a list of keywords or key phrases which a user needs to type into the search bar for your ad to appear. Based on the keywords entered, the system suggests a maximum cost-per-click (CPC) and lets you know how frequently this fee would land you at the top of a search page. It also provides an estimate of the number of clicks per day this would generate, and from this calculates how much you would be spending each day. You can edit this maximum CPC and see how the numbers change. You can also cap the amount you spend on a campaign so things don't get out of hand. The whole thing is surprisingly easy to set-up and maintain, and provided you choose those keywords carefully it will generate instant results.
If you have any questions or comments about this article, or anything else on the site please feel free to email me at info@prwdesigns.co.uk.