Web Site Promotion

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Web Site Promotion

• Getting Found on the Web

John J Toman Director, UTIA Information
Technology jtoman_at_utk.edu
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What is Web Site Promotion

• Myth 1 Youve built it, so they will come
• Myth 2 With so many millions of web pages out
  there they will never find my web site
• Myth 3 I advertised my web site once so I never
  have to touch it again
• Myth 4 I need to promote my web site separately
  from my other marketing efforts

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Getting Found on the Web

• Integrating the web into your marketing plan
• Register with search engines and directories
• Increasing your visibility/popularity
• Using email to attract and keep your customers
• Evaluating the results

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Review Your Marketing Plan

• Who are my traditional customers?
• How do I currently market my products?
• Are my web customers different from my
  traditional customers?
• How will my web customers use my web site?
• What are my web customers expectations?
• How can I promote my web site using traditional
  marketing tecniques?

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Include URL in all Advertising

• Company letterhead
• Yellow Page listing
• Promotional items, pens, magnets, etc.
• Press releases
• Uniforms, shirts
• Company cars and trucks
• Building signage

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How Do People Find Information?

• People search for information differently
• Some will try typing the business name in the
  address bar directly
• Most will use a search engine
• Your Goal optimize your web pages so they will
  be found by those looking for your product or
  service

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Search Engine vs Directory

• Search engines travel throughout the web via
  spiders to find and index web pages, i.e.,
  Google, Inktomi
• Directories are hierarchical catalogs of web
  pages review by people, i.e., Yahoo
• Search engines and directories may use different
  criteria to index the results
• Getting top position in a search engine is not an
  exact science

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Relevant Directories

• Yahoo 299/free
• Add from directory location
• LookSmart per click (MSN, About, Inktomi,
  Search.com, Infospace)
• http//listings.looksmart.com/accounts/contacts/ge
  t_listed.jhtml
• Open Directory Project Free (AOL, Netscape,
  HotBot)
• http//www.dmoz.org/add.html

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Relevant Search Engines

• Altavista Free
• http//addurl.altavista.com/
• Google Free (Yahoo, AOL, Netscape)
• http//www.google.com/addurl.html
• FAST Reseller, 34 (AlltheWeb, HotBot, Excite,
  WebCrawler, TerraLycos, DogPile)
• http//www.positiontech.com

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Relevant Search Engines

• Inktomi Reseller, 39 (MSN, HotBot, About,
  LookSmart, Ovature)
• Http//www.positiontech.com
• Teoma 30 (AskJeeves, Excite, InfoSpace, HotBot)
• http//ask.ineedhits.com/sitesubmit.asp
• AlltheWeb Free
• http//www.alltheweb.com/add_url.php

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Web Site Registration

• URL or Web Address
• Meta Tags information about information
• Keywords
• Description
• Title
• Page Text
• Using alt tags

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Keywords

• Choose about 10 keywords from your core business
• Look at your competitors
• Ask your customers
• Review web logs
• Keyword Trackers/Suggesters
• ltmeta name"keywords" content"keyword1,
  keyword2, keyword3"gt

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Description

• Describes your web page
• Closely tied to content on the page
• Use as many keywords as possible and still be
  relevant
• Most search engines use the Description as the
  text displayed in results
• ltmeta namedescription" contentdescription for
  the web page"gt

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Web Site Title

• Displayed in blue bar on browser
• First line of search results
• Concise statement of content on page
• Use keywords
• lttitlegtWeb Site Title Herelt/titlegt

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Page Text

• Introductory text displayed the web page that
  your customer will read
• Similar to the first paragraph of a chapter in a
  book
• Place important keywords toward top of page
• Using a graphic only page will limit the number
  of keywords available on the page

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Using alt Tags

• Use alt tag to describe a picture
• Which is better?
• ltimg srcimage.jpg altimage.jpggt
• ltimg srcimage.jpg altPicture of buildinggt
• ltimg srcimage.jpg altWhite House Inn Bed and
  Breakfastgt
• Caution Make sure the description used in the
  alt tag is relevant to the content of the picture

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Registration Process

• Each search engine/directory may collect
  different information during registration
• Search Engines
• Find the link for submitting your site
• Fill in the URL and other information requested
• Directories
• Navigate to proper category in directory
• Click Add URL link
• Complete information requested

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Search Results (Meta Tags)

• Search Hot Bot for
• Bed and Breakfast Vermont

WEB RESULTS  (Showing Results 1 - 10 of
136,263) 1. Bed and Breakfast Inns ONLINE -
BBOnline.com - Travel Lodging Bed...Bed
Breakfast Inns ONLINE 4 000 bed and breakfasts
and country inns and 26 state bed and breakfast
association web sites. Awarded INNSTAR's highest
rating - 5 INNSTARSwww.bbonline.com/ - July 1,
2003 - 10 KB 2. Three Bears at the Fountain Bed
and BreakfastStowe, Vermont bed-and-breakfast
inn was built by the first couple married in
Stowe. Features homemade breakfast, hot tub, and
mountain views.www.threebearsbandb.com/ - June
16, 2003 - 10 KB 3. Innkeeper Recipes and
Cookbooks - Bed Breakfast Inns ONLINE -...More
than 2 000 bed and breakfast innkeeper cooking
recipes and dozens of cookbooks.www.bbonline.com/
recipe - July 23, 2003 - 18 KB
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Search Results (Meta Tags)
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Search Results (Meta Tags)
ltHEADgt ltmeta name"resource-type"
value"document"gt ltmeta name"keywords"
content"bbonline, bed breakfasts, breakfast,
bed and breakfast, bnb, bb, bed and breakfast
directory, bed and breakfast guide, travel guide,
inn, Country Inns, travel, lodging, romance,
jacuzzis, getaways, romantic, accommodations,
mountains, recipes, contest, Tennessee, Kentucky,
Arkansas, Missouri, Alabama, Nebraska, Oklahoma,
Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, California,
Michigan, Hawaii, Washington, Maine,
Massachussetts, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona,
Alaska, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
South Carolina, Virginia, Texas"gt ltmeta
name"description" content"Bed Breakfast Inns
ONLINE 4,000 bed and breakfasts and country inns
and 26 state bed and breakfast association web
sites. Awarded INNSTAR's highest rating - 5
INNSTARS"gt ltTITLEgtBed and Breakfast Inns ONLINE -
BBOnline.com - Travel Lodging Bed and
Breakfasts Country Innslt/TITLEgt lt/HEADgt
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Search Results (alt Tag)
ltimg src"logo.gif" width404 height125 alt"Bed
Breakfast Inns ONLINE" border"0"gt
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Search Results (No Meta Tags)
Search AltaVista for Superior Music

• AltaVista found 1 result   AboutSuperior Music -
  Tennessee Page   home tn links jobs tn
  local band links Tennessee LINKS NASHVILLE MT
  JULIET LEBANON The Bluebird Cafe
  HEYSONGWRITER.COM Music City Blues The Nashville
  Scene City of Mt. Juliet Mt. Juliet Chamber
  ...www.superiormusic.com/page061.htm

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Search Results (No Meta Tags)
ltheadgt ltmeta http-equiv"Content-Type"
content"text/html charsetwindows-1252"gt ltmeta
name"GENERATOR" content"Microsoft FrontPage
5.0"gt ltmeta name"ProgId" content"FrontPage.Edito
r.Document"gt lttitlegtSuperior Music - Tennessee
Pagelt/titlegt ltbgsound src"music/dixie1.mid"
loop"1"gt lt/headgt
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Search Results (Frames)

• Search Google for
• Robertson County Fair

Robertson County Fair Associationwww.robertsoncou
ntyfair.com/ - 2k - Cached - Similar pages
Robertson County Fair AssociationWelcome to
the "cyber" home of the Robertson County Fair.
The 2003fair will be our 136th Annual Fair. The
fair is a place for old ... www.robertsoncountyfa
ir.com/WelcomePage.htm - 4k - Cached - Similar
pages More results from www.robertsoncountyfair.
com
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Search Results (Frames)
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Search Results (Frames)
lthtmlgt ltheadgt ltmeta http-equiv"Content-Type"
content"text/html charsetwindows-1252"gt lttitlegt
Robertson County Fair Associationlt/titlegt ltmeta
name"GENERATOR" content"Microsoft FrontPage
4.0"gt ltmeta name"ProgId" content"FrontPage.Edito
r.Document"gt lt/headgt ltframeset rows"64,"gt
ltframe name"banner" scrolling"no" noresize
target"contents" src"TitleFrame.htm"gt
ltframeset cols"150,"gt ltframe
name"contents" target"main" src"MenuFrame.htm"gt
ltframe name"main" src"WelcomePage.htm"
target"_self"gt lt/framesetgt ltnoframesgt
ltbodygt ltpgtThis page uses frames, but your
browser doesn't support them.lt/pgt lt/bodygt
lt/noframesgt lt/framesetgt lt/htmlgt
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Cheating the System

• Hiding keywords in background
• Repeating keywords out of context
• Hiding in HTML ltinputgt tags
• ltinput typehidden valuekeyword1, keyword2,
  keyword3gt
• Multiple title tags
• lttitlegtThis is the Real Titlelt/titlegt
• lttitlegtkeyword1, keyword2, keyword3lt/titlegt
• Keywords in HTML comment tags
• lt! keyword1, keyword2, keyword3 -gt

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Submission Services

• Offers to register up to 500 search engines
• Submit the same information to every search
  engine.
• Will your site be submitted correctly to the
  engines?
• Can ultimately cost you more to undo any damage
  that may have been created
• Paying for this service is usually a waste of
  money

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Paying for Positioning

• Guaranteed higher ranking
• Usually flat fee or pay per click
• Yahoo Sponsorships
• Lycos Network Small text ads
• AltaVista Listing Enhancements
• Google AdWords

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Portal/Doorway Pages

• Built around particular keyword or for a
  particular search engine
• Can use for individual products
• Page jumps or provides link to real page
• Search engines discourage
• May drop page or only index the main page
• Dont waste time unless including real content,
  i.e., product pages

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Excluding Pages from Search

• Search engine robots will try to index all pages
  on your web site
• Can and should exclude certain pages, i.e., log
  files, cgi-bin, image folders
• Create a robots.txt file on the server
• User-agent
• Disallow / (listing of folders)
• Using a Meta Tag
• ltmeta name"robots" content"noindex, nofollow"gt

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Link Popularity

• The number of sites that link to yours is an
  indication of the importance of your site
• Critical to many search engines, i.e., Google
• Maximize the number of links from relevant web
  sites
• Free link popularity checkers will tell you how
  many sites are linked to you

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Link Popularity Example

• Bed and Breakfast Online
• Googless top listing
• Popularity
• MSN 12,754
• Google/Yahoo 6,600
• AltaVista 23,407
• Can be major contributing factor for top ratings

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Increasing Your Visibility (and Popularity)

• Banner/Link Exchange programs
• Niche Search Engines/Directories
• Professional Organizations
• Business Directories
• Web Malls/Rings/Auctions
• News Groups/LISTSERVS
• Affiliate programs

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Banner/Link Exchange

• Agreement between two or more parties to place
  links or banners on each others web pages
• Can be formal or informal agreements
• Includes paid or free exchanges
• Partners should be related to core business
• Goals
• Bring additional customers to your web site
• Increase your link popularity

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Banner / Link Exchange Programs

• Advantages
• Increased visibility / popularity
• Targeted exchanges
• Tracking of results
• Disadvantages
• Potential increased download time
• Low click through rates
• Loss of control
• Potential cost of banner ad
• Can be form of spam
• Read the fine print before signing up

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Choosing an Exchange Program

• Large databases of qualified web sites
• Automatic tracking of exchanges
• Trade links with complimentary sites
• Ability to choose who to link with
• Statistics reporting of impressions and click
  throughs
• Pricing needs to be affordable

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Niche Search Engines/Directories

• Many specialty search engines and directories
• Find complimentary sites and submit URL
• Professional organizations may list web sites for
  members
• Yahoo Directories good source

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Web Malls/Auctions

• Grouping of web shops by category or search by
  particular product
• Can gain visibility through recognized name like
  Amazon, Yahoo, eBay
• Most malls and auction charge for listing or fee
  on percentage of sale price
• Effectiveness varies

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Web Ring

• Groups of related web sites
• Linear navigation from site to site in a ring
• Ringmaster responsible for management and
  approval of sites
• Loss of control of who is part of ring
• No guarantee of visits

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News Groups/LISTSERVS

• Forums to discuss specific topics
• Choose related groups/LISTERVES
• Lurk for a while to get flavor
• Dont blatantly advertise
• Offer content of value and related to topic
  discussed
• Use a signature

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Email Signatures

• Subtle form of advertising
• Easy to create in email program
• Include in all email correspondence
• Customize for audience
• Include
• name, address, phone fax numbers
• Email address
• Web address
• Custom message

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Affiliate Programs

• Provides additional avenue for sales
• Affiliates advertise your product or service on
  their web site
• Pay a commission or fee to affiliate program and
  web site owner
• Affiliate provider manages entire program
• Loss of control with who advertises for you
• Affiliate may have site unrelated to your core
  business

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Hints for Being Found

• Dont attempt to cheat.
• Use all available meta tags
• Include as many keywords as possible in title,
  description, and page text
• Exchange links with complimentary sites
• Use other techniques as appropriate
• Bottom line There is no substitute for well
  written web pages

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Email Marketing

• Web page must wait for customers to visit
• Proactive mechanism to keep your name in front of
  your customers
• Notifying customers of specials, new products,
  events, etc.

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Benefits of Email Marketing

• Many people now have email
• Excellent form of mass communication
• Quicker than traditional mail
• Relatively inexpensive
• Can be personalized
• Results are measurable

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Drawbacks of Email Marketing

• Everyone is doing it
• Potential for creating spam
• There is a cost time
• Privacy is an issue
• Not a substitute for other forms of marketing

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A Word About Spam

• Spam angers people by costing them time
• Effectiveness is sketchy
• Legislation may ban unsolicited email

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Email Design

• Use the subject line to get their attention
• Provide important information in the body of the
  message
• Include links or coupon in the message to
  encourage action
• Personalize the message for particular audience
• Use your email signature
• HTML or Plain Text

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HTML

• Can include all HTML formatting
• Pictures and Graphics
• Spyware issues
• Maintains brand identity
• Wont show up in text only email clients

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Plain Text

• Smaller in size
• Easy to create
• Description is in the words
• Works with all email clients

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Keys to Effective Email Marketing

• Provide something valuable in the email
• Balance frequency of email
• Include email use in privacy policy
• Get their permission to send them email
• Make it easy to unsubscribe from mailing list
• Use a mailing list manager
• Measure your results

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Mailing List Managers

• Create a group in your email program
• Programmed as part of your web site management
  system
• Free mailing list managers
• Commercial (pay) mailing list managers

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Who is Using My Web Site?

• The hit myth
• Why hits dont matter
• More accurate is unique visitors
• Want to know who was using web site and what they
  were doing

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Analyzing Your Web Logs

• Records usage of your web site
• Types of logs
• Access Log
• Referrer Log
• Error Log
• Web host my combine logs

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Web Log Example
172.137.65.214 - - 27/Feb/2003063106 -0500
"GET /newsite/images/home2_r2_c1.gif HTTP/1.1"
304 - "http//www.heysongwriter.com/newsite/links.
php?menuaffiliate" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible
MSIE 5.5 MSN 2.5 Windows 98)" 172.137.65.214 -
- 27/Feb/2003063106 -0500 "GET
/newsite/images/home2_r3_c1.gif HTTP/1.1" 304 -
"http//www.heysongwriter.com/newsite/links.php?me
nuaffiliate" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible MSIE 5.5
MSN 2.5 Windows 98)" 172.137.65.214 - -
27/Feb/2003063106 -0500 "GET
/newsite/images/home2_r4_c1.gif HTTP/1.1" 304 -
"http//www.heysongwriter.com/newsite/links.php?me
nuaffiliate" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible MSIE 5.5
MSN 2.5 Windows 98)" 172.137.65.214 - -
27/Feb/2003063107 -0500 "GET
/newsite/images/home2_r5_c1.gif HTTP/1.1" 304 -
"http//www.heysongwriter.com/newsite/links.php?me
nuaffiliate" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible MSIE 5.5
MSN 2.5 Windows 98)" 172.137.65.214 - -
27/Feb/2003063107 -0500 "GET
/newsite/images/home2_r6_c1.gif HTTP/1.1" 304 -
"http//www.heysongwriter.com/newsite/links.php?me
nuaffiliate" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible MSIE 5.5
MSN 2.5 Windows 98)" 172.137.65.214 - -
27/Feb/2003063107 -0500 "GET
/newsite/images/home2_r7_c1.gif HTTP/1.1" 304 -
"http//www.heysongwriter.com/newsite/links.php?me
nuaffiliate" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible MSIE 5.5
MSN 2.5 Windows 98)"
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Information from the Logs

• Number of visitors
• What they viewed
• How long they stayed
• Where they came from
• Keywords used to get to your site
• What search engines they are using

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Web Log Analyzers

• Generate reports from logs
• Trend analysis
• Freeware vs Commercial

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Log Analyzer OutputSearch Terms Example
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Getting Found - Summary

• Submit your web site and track your web position
• Exchange links/banners and test your popularity
• Use email to effectively market your web site and
  measure results
• Analyzing web logs for important user information
  and adjust web site accordingly

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Questions?
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Web Site Promotion

• Getting Found on the Web

John J Toman Director, UTIA Information
Technology jtoman_at_utk.edu
63
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