Blogging, Googling, & Surfing
Driving Customers To Your Business Web Site

By Shawna Vercher and Benjamin Daniel
Published: February / March 2008

By the time you read this article, something in it may no longer be true. The statistics may already be outdated. The leaders of the marketplace may have shifted. That’s how rapidly the pace of technology changes. The Internet is driven by innovation, with new ideas constantly shaping what it means to be successful in business. The web presence representing your company in this global exchange is now just as important, if not more so, than your physical office space.

So with the pressure on to allocate more and more of your firm’s resources toward an impressive web site, how do you make the Internet work for you? More specifically, how do you make your web site a tool that generates money for your company instead of a financial drain? It all comes down to a game of exposure.

There are hundreds of millions of people online, and every person that looks at your web site is a potential customer or someone that may refer your product or service to a friend. Here are five keys to increasing exposure for your business online:

1. Find out how much traffic you are already getting. It’s important to know how many people are already visiting your site and whether or not they click past the home page. If sixty percent of visitors leave once they see your site, the problem is that your site is not what they were looking for or not enticing enough for them to want to learn more. This is a good indicator that it’s time to discuss the marketing message your web site is conveying with a professional.
Most hosting companies offer some sort of free tracking software that your webmaster may be able to access for reports. If not, have your webmaster install Google’s free Analytics tool on all of the pages of your site and spend at least a month tracking the results before investing in other means of web site exposure.

2. Make Google your friend. Being listed high in search results for particular keywords and terms is critical to ensure that as people are looking around for your services or products, they find you in their search. There are literally hundreds of search engines, but over eighty-five percent of the searches conducted online are either directly on Google or on a search engine that gets its results from Google. Gain visibility with Google and a significant part of your search engine battle is already won.
Target your efforts to ensure that your site is as “Google-friendly” as possible. The text should be original and relevant to the keyword(s) you are trying to top. Since Google cannot see images in the traditional sense, your webmaster should “tag” each image with a description that also includes keywords. Your webmaster can also use some free diagnostic tools that are available online through Google’s webmaster portal to ensure that there is nothing on your site that Google considers to be detrimental to your search engine ranking.

3. Advertise online where your prospective customers are already going. People tend to see an ad or a listing three times before deciding to click on it. The good news for your finances is that this holds true for both large and small ads. Create a few general ads and listings that you feel would entice people to visit your site and learn more. Make sure that they are focused, succinct and drive home the message of what your service or product could do to make their lives or businesses better.
Maximize the results of your advertising budget by listing your site on free or inexpensive directories, on other sites that link to related businesses, and on locally targeted web sites. The key is to think about the web “surfing” habits of your target market and try to be wherever they visit on a regular basis.

4. Get on board with blogging. People who read blogs are typically curious, loyal and active Internet users. These are just the type of clients you want! Consider having someone on your team write small articles at least once a week about how your marketplace is changing, about the adventures of a particular aspect of your business, or about a niche topic that your target audience would find interesting.
Blogs tend to be a large time commitment and your web or marketing company may need to help you get started both from a technical and a branding perspective. However, the advantages to the visibility of both your web site and your business can be more powerful than almost any other type of advertising.

5. Bring your web site marketing into the real world. Your web site address should appear on every piece of marketing material for your business. Place your address on the bottom of business cards, within each brochure, and even at the end of all radio and television advertising. Every contact you make should be driven directly to the web site so that they can learn more about what you have to offer.
Of course, if the thought of having everyone you know pour through your web site makes you either a bit uncomfortable or completely nervous, it is time to find a good webmaster who can help get you back on track.

About the Author
Shawna Vercher is CEO of the award-winning web-based technology firm VTi Group headquartered in Clearwater, Florida. Having managed global projects for Fortune 500 companies, she specializes in harnessing the power of the Internet to grow small and mid-sized businesses. For more information, please go to www.vti-group.com.