WEBSITE TRAFFIC BUILDING

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WEBSITE TRAFFIC BUILDING

• Dr Ilias Santouridis
• Assistant Professor of Applied IT
• TEI of Larissa
• Greece

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INTRODUCTION (1)

• Website traffic building targets
• Quantity number of visitors
• Quality target audience, respond
• Cost acquisition per visitor, lead or sale

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INTRODUCTION (2)

• Traffic building communication options

URL
PR or
Offline ad
Off
-
line
WoM
prompt
Referrals from
offline sources
Web site
Referrals from
online sources
Reciprocal
E
-
mail ad
Paid banner
Links
or
Search
or direct
or
engine
Featured in
e
-
mail
Sponsorship
content
Offline marketing communications
Online marketing communications
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SEARCH ENGINES (1)

• Search engines are the primary method for finding
  information about an organisation or product
• Over 80 users stated they use them for finding
  information
• An organisation has to
• Register with search engines
• Ensure that they appear in a high position in the
  results of relevant searches

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SEARCH ENGINES (2)

• Proportion of Websites Accessible via Search
  Engines

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SEARCH ENGINES (3)

• How search engines work
• Software spiders or robots crawl around
  registered sites and compile an index with all
  words included in all the pages against the page
  address
• The index is weighted according to different
  parameters and stored in a database
• The database is searched based on users keywords

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SEARCH ENGINES (4)

• Search engine registration
• It is free with most engines
• Need to choose carefully the ones to register
  with, since there is plenty of them
• It is a continuous activity, since the search
  engine owners regularly perform changes

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SEARCH ENGINES (5)
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SEARCH ENGINES (6)

• Website pages are weighted and ranked by search
  engines based on
• Page titles
• Meta-tags
• Frequency of occurrence
• Hidden graphic text
• Links

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DIRECTORIES (1)

• Directories are human generated
• The organisation submits its URL and then the
  directory owners review the site before
  explicitly placing a reference in the appropriate
  category
• Some directories are very difficult to register
  with (e.g. Yahoo)

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DIRECTORIES (2)
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PORTALS (1)

• Portals are gateways to information sources, some
  of which reach over half the Internet users
• Representing the organisation on portals can
  substantially increase its sites traffic

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PORTALS (2)

• Portal types
• Horizontal offer a range of content and services
  (e.g. email, search engine ,directory, chat,
  auctions, general and specific news) to a broad
  audience
• Vertical offer information to specific audience
  important to promote B2B services
• Geographical centred on a particular locality
  (e.g. city, country)

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PORTALS (3)
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PORTALS (4)
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PORTALS (5)
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PORTALS (6)
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LINK BUILDING (1)

• The more links from relevant sites point to an
  organisations site the greater the volume of
  quality traffic
• It is good practice if links do not point at the
  websites home page but at the sites relevant
  pages

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LINK BUILDING (2)

• Link building approaches
• Reciprocal links agreed between two
  organisations
• PR website mentioned in news item on another
  site with associated link provided
• Affiliates making the websitess services
  available from other websites usually after
  paying a commission

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LINK BUILDING (3)
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LINK BUILDING (4)
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LINK BUILDING (5)
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LINK BUILDING (6)
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BANNER ADS (1)

• Banner ads are image files, which when clicked
  will direct the user from the ad to the
  destination site
• Can be considered as Internet advertising
• Come in many forms (e.g. static or animated
  included in the ad site page, pop-up windows
  requiring user interaction)
• Usually hosted on a different server than the ad
  site

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BANNER ADS (2)
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BANNER ADS (3)

• Banner advertising campaigns are purchased for a
  specific time period and can be served
• In the entire ad site to target a broad audience
• At a relevant section of the ad site to target
  relevant audience
• At specific times following targeted users
  behaviours
• According to keywords entered in the search engine

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OPT-IN EMAIL (1)

• Opt-in email is a powerful tool to send a message
  to targeted customers to inform and remind, being
  certain that they will view it even if it is
  deleted before being opening
• CAUTION
• SPAM must be avoided by all means!!!!

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OPT-IN EMAIL (2)

• Opt-in email is the basis of permission
  marketing
• The customer must indicate that he/she wishes to
  participate in the e-mail dialogue with the
  organisation by
• Checking a box after being asked to do so if he
  requires so
• Placing his/her name in relevant e-mail lists

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OPT-IN EMAIL (3)

• Opt-in email options include
• Regular newsletter type
• Event-related (e.g. product launch, exhibition
  fair, new offer)
• E-mail sequence (multi-step)

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VIRAL MARKETING

• Use the Internet effectively so that to reach a
  large number of users in the same way as a
  computer virus reaches computers all over the
  world
• The benefits must be balanced by negative virus
  perception
• Tools include E-mail a friend, screensavers,
  games, e-mail pyramid offer, e-postacards

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CONTROL (1)

• Key parameters that must be controlled
• Budget allocation
• Balance between site creation, site maintenance,
  and promotion
• Balance between offline and online promotion

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CONTROL (2)

• Online budgeting mix options

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CONTROL (3)

• Online and Offline budgeting mix options

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CONTROL (4)

• Key parameters that must be controlled
  (coninued)
• Calculation of different promotional tools
  contribution
• Data from the web server log files can be
  analysed to measure the effectiveness of
  promotion through affiliate sites, banner ads,
  links
• Market research can be used to estimate the
  effectiveness of offline promotion

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CONTROL (5)

• Key parameters that must be controlled
  (continued)
• Cost of acquisition
• Cost per visit, lead, customer depending on the
  type of site (e.g. cost per visit for media sites
  selling advertising space, cost per customer for
  e-tail sites)

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CONTROL (6)

• Key parameters that must be controlled
  (continued)
• Traffic quality
• Conversion rate (from visitors to customers) must
  be estimated
• Repeat visits must be identified (e.g. through
  analysing web server log files, user
  registration)
• Stickiness (duration of visit) must be measured