We are getting ready to launch a new business using the internet. Jane does a good job building sites, so that part is no problem. BUT- how do we bring traffic to our site? Really leery of spending money for something we can do ourselves. Any advice out there?
The fact that you didn't put a link to your web site in your first post indicates perhaps you might need to pay a marketing firm for some advice :)
It is not yet complete, much more work to be done. Trying to get the ducks lined up properly. If you want to see what we have so far- www.secureuscctv.com. We have talked to several companies about website optimization, but they all want 100.00+ per month. This IS GRM, right?
There are a bunch of approaches, and you'll probably want to use a few of them in combination.
Use Google's ad system to buy banner/ad space on other sites.
Use social media sites, including Yelp and Google business listings.
Create posts / articles on sites like Ask that contain advice and a link to your site
Add your URL to all your other offline media (business cards, fliers, etc.)
eventually the search engines will pick up on your site and various links to it and you'll start to show up in search rankings.
Agreed with fromeast2west on all counts. Besides actually having a user-friendly site that's at least somewhat optimized for the search engines, just going out there and participating on the web is probably your best bet right now.
On early SEO - increasing search engine rankings is always difficult on a new site, simply because it it new. Longevity, existing traffic, and interlinking all play a part in the rankings, none of which you probably have very much of. Google Ad Words (paid links at the top) is sometimes a good way to get over that initial hump in traffic. Once Ad Words has supplied enough traffic you can start tapering off on what you spend there as your organic ranking rises. Of course, there's more to it and a certain level of management is necessary to make sure you're spending your money wisely.
Disclaimer - I'm a web designer, but not an SEO/traffic guru. I've picked up on a few things while working in the industry though. Good SEO criteria changes quickly, so researching the latest information is necessary. In other words, be prepared to do a lot of your own detective work and take everyone's advice with a grain of salt. A lot of the old methods simply don't work anymore as the search engines have gotten more sophisticated (this is actually a good thing).
Well, I do online marketing for a living and specialize in SEO.
Your first step is to choose what keywords you want to show up for. Google Ad Words tool is actually decent at showing you what people are searching for, so you can target the terms that get the most search volume.
What Matt said is true about initial rank. Time, relevance, amount of content and traffic all lead to greater site rank, which in turn means greater ranking in organic search placement.
Luckily, I don't think there are too many CCTV companies optimizing their sites, so you should be able to make some decent headway.
Step one: Optimize your meta titles. Keep them under 65 characters (including spaces) and make sure your keyword is in there. If you serve a certain geographic region you'll want that as well. Example: "Boston BMW dealership | MA BMW Sales and Service"
Search engines like meta titles. They don't really give a crap about meta descriptions, but that doesn't mean you should overlook them. Keep meta descriptions under 170 characters and sum up what that page in particular is about.
Site content is important. Write up some good stuff, not spam, as Google is actually pretty good at reading. Within your homepage text, have a couple keyword links going to other pertinent pages on your site. On each sub-page, have a keyword linking back to your home page. Links within a site aren't worth a TON, but they still have some effect. Links from quality 3rd party sites are worth more, hence GPS' comment.
Let me know if you have any questions. I have a couple wikis I have written up to train interns that could help you out.
DaveEstey wrote: Let me know if you have any questions. I have a couple wikis I have written up to train interns that could help you out.
I'd love to see those. I am tasked with SEO and always interested in learning more.
email me
For those who have emailed me, I'm going to massage the wiki's a little to remove company information and then I'll send them your way.
I'm interested in that Wiki as well - PM'ing you
I believe I've responded to everybody who emailed me.
I ended up turning it into a PDF presentation to make it easier to digest. Took me a while to remove the client-related stuff too haha.
If anybody has questions feel free to message me.
Thanks Dave!
You'll need to log in to post.
