Intellect Interactive

In the spirit of the season, I have been extremely active on Yahoo Answerers helping those lesser SEO Ninjas trying to figure their way through this online marketing world. One of the biggest questions I see is, “how do I get more traffic to my site.” While it’s not easy the fist step is to create a plan. My normal response to a friend I was conversating with through email looks a lot like this:

So you have a website and want to know what to do next? The days of “you build it, they will come” are long over. So, how do you start getting traffic?

The first step is to make a plan. You won’t be able to get anywhere if you don’t have a plan. I once wrote that you should write a plan down, but since then I have realized that actually taking the time to writing every step down is less important the smaller the organization. It is a great idea to jot down as many ideas as possible (or use a tape recorder to help organize your thoughts). During your brainstorm process, try answering these questions.

Basic Questions:

1. What is my product?
2. Why would anyone want to buy my product?
3. What makes me unique from everywhere else?
4. What do my customers want?
   1. Do I have Google Analytics or Web Analytics program tracking my website traffic?

Once you have those questions answered, the next general question to answer is “where.” Where do you promote your site? To answer that question, answer these questions:

1. How much money do I have for a marketing budget (none is ok, but you get what you pay for)?
2. How many hours do I have each day to work on my marketing (if it is none and you have no money then you have a problem)?
3. Where are the different places you can promote your site?
   1. Facebook?
   2. MySpace?
   3. Search Engines: Google/Yahoo/Live.com/Ask.com/AOL.com?
   4. Twitter?
   5. Craig’s List
   6. Blogs?
   7. Mobile Phones?
   8. Any Other Places?
4. Can long can you wait to generate profit?
5. What is my bottom line profitability on each product I sell?
6. Where can I go for help?
   1. People
   2. Blogs
   3. Online Resources
7. What type of opportunity is out there for each category?
8. What can I accomplish on my own and what do I need help with?

Answer as many of those questions HONESTLY and you will have a big jump on most of your competition. The next step is to make a plan on things you want to try.

1. What can I accomplish now vs. what I need to push off?
2. How much can I afford to do now (in terms of time and/or money)?
3. What will make the biggest impact now?
4. What do I know how to do myself? What can I figure out by myself with help? What do I need to pay for?

Prioritize the list so that you can implement the areas of your plan with the biggest impact that cost the least amount of resources (time and/or money). Then you can make a determination of what you want to do and when. Marketing is a slow effort (unless you have an endless amount of money to spend), and you need to put out the effort to make things happen. The harder you work at your marketing, the less money you will have to spend and the more successful you will be.
If you can answer the bulk of these questions, most likely you will be miles ahead of your competition. Good luck.

Technorati Tags: Search Strategy

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I was out with a friend of mine when she started to ask me what I do…exactly. She knew I worked in Search, but that really didn’t mean much. One of the reasons she was so interested to find out more about what I did was that she just recently launched a personal blog (StacyCelia.com). Eventually the Inevitable question came up, “How do I rank in Google.”

While I’m not trying to harp on my friend Stacy, she is a great lead into my point. Search has a strategy….and that will always be step 1. To answer “how”, you will always have to answer “why.” Why does one want to be found on Google? In what regards does one want to be found? Simplistically, the process tends to unfold like this: Find a Purpose in Life, Research How, Build It, and Report on it. Simple right? Let’s walk through the steps to see what I mean.

Step One: Find A Purpose?

Step one in online marketing is to always answer the question, “How do I want this to affect my business?” Determine how your website contributes to the bottom line of your business objectives. It doesn’t matter if you are driving leads for apartments; convincing athletes to stay hydrated; or selling satellite radios, Vitamins, or Tru Religion Jeans, your website has to have a purpose. That purpose will dictate what you would like your website to rank for.

Step Two: Do the Research

There is something to be said about taking the time to run a search behavior analysis to determine 1) how people actually search for your service or product 2) to show what keywords are obtainable. Any great Behavior Analysis will include the answers to these questions:

• How do people look for the need you provide?
• What types of keywords do they use?
• What type of opportunity is out there for your business?
• What are the Demographics of your target audience (where do they live, how much do they make, where do they hangout, etc.)?
• Who are your online competitors (they could be very different than your offline competitors)?

Step 3: Write Content

Once you have an idea that of what you want to accomplish with your website and how people actually search for your product, then go out and build content. Start by searching: how to create content people want. The best way to start is to think about what you would want to see if you were not trying to run the business. A great place to start is to think about why you are in business and explain why you are the best.

Step 4: Report on Something That Makes Sense

One of the biggest, but most avoidable, problems business has is measuring success. If one thinks about it right, this shouldn’t be that big of a deal. Did you rent an apartment; sell a sports drink, radio, pair of jeans, etc. What happened online? Is that what you wanted to happen? If a report doesn’t answer the questions, “how did this affect my business” isn’t answered then the report isn’t what you need (more on reporting styles later). Find the most important keywords to your goal and make sure you are watching them like a hawk. Make sure you are keeping your eye on the goal of your business and don’t let an SEO tell you otherwise (unless the SEO has a great reasons……like your goal is unrealistic and needs smaller goals to get you closer).

More of the story…ranking is easy if you know WHY you want to rank. There is a method to this madness and figuring out the strategy will always be step 1 in this crazy online world.

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