This is a presentation I gave which discusses how to get the most from your company\'s website through tactics such as search engine optimization, corporate blogging, social networking initiatives, banner advertising, and pay-per-click advertising.

1. Getting the most from your website Jenna Godwin Art of Jen Web Development October 10, 2008

2. 75 % PEW INTERNET & AMERICAN LIFE PROJECT December 2007 of U.S. adults currently use the Internet

3. of American adults have a high-speed connection at home, up from 42% in early 2006 and 30% in 2005. SCARBOUROUGH RESEARCH April 2008 49 %

4. As income increases, so does Internet usage. The older the population, the less Internet usage. PEW INTERNET & AMERICAN LIFE PROJECT December 2007 U.S. Internet Users: Who are they? Geography 77% Urban 77% Suburban 64% Rural Gender 37% 65+ 72% 50-64 85% 30-49 92% 18-29 Age 76% Men 74% Women 75% Total Adults Household Income 61% Less than $30,000/yr 78% $30,000-$49,999 90% $50,000-$74,999 93% $75,000+ 79% English-speaking Hispanic 56% Black, Non-Hispanic 76% White, Non-Hispanic Race/ethnicity

5. PEW INTERNET & AMERICAN LIFE PROJECT December 2007 U.S. Internet Users: What do they do online? 86% Search for a map or driving directions 66% Buy a product 64% Buy or make a reservation for travel 62% Surf the Web for fun 58% Go to a website that provides info or support for a specific medical condition or personal situation 51% Do any type of research for your job 46% Look online for info about a job 41% Get financial info online, such as stock quotes or mortgage interest rates 39% Read someone else’s online journal, web log or blog 32% Rate a product, service or person using an online rating system 81% Look for information online about a service or product you are thinking of buying 83% Look for info on a hobby or interest

6. PEW INTERNET & AMERICAN LIFE PROJECT December 2007 The Internet’s Impact on Users

7. What Can the Internet Do for my Business? Advertising / Promotion Releasing information Receiving feedback Customer convenience Business convenience and efficiency Reporting tools and analytical data

8. Website statistics/analytics How do I know if my site has visitors? Website statistics software such as Google Analytics (http://www. google .com/analytics/) display information such as how many visitors your site has had and information about those visitors such as geographic location, pages they visited, how long they remained on each page, purchase history etc. Can be attained through either a free or paid service.

9. Is my website easy to find? Meta Tags - Code placed in the HTML header of a Web page, providing information which is not visible to users. The most common Meta tags are KEYWORDS and DESCRIPTION. Description - the meta tag which describes your web site. Keywords - a list of words describing your website’s content that could be used as search terms when using a search engine. Example Search engine optimization (the technical side)

10. What keywords should I use? Search engine optimization (the not-so technical side) Use your keywords in your website content Update your keywords Use your competitor’s terms for the same products and services Include common misspellings Do your research, or hire a search engine optimization company Don’t try to be sneaky - the search engine can ban you! Research tools: freekeywords . wordtracker .com https: //adwords . google . com/select/KeywordToolExternal

11. Web Advertising Pay-per-click advertising Both of the primary search engines provide pay-per-click advertising based on a budget and keywords that you control. Google Adwords | Yahoo! Search Marketing

12. Banner Advertising Banner ads Click-through rate: two to five clicks per 1,000 impressions Cost: $0.50 per 1,000 impressions, based on the size of the site Example Sidebar ads Click-through rate: about 1% Cost: $1.00 to $1.50 per 1,000 impressions Floating ads Click-through rate: about 3% Cost: anywhere from $3 to $30 per 1,000 impressions Example Costs are usually higher for targeted ads. Online advertising placements are typically arranged through ad server services such as Yahoo or Eyeblaster or though contacting the administrator of a website in which you are interested in placing an advertisement.

13. How Can We Drive Visitors to Our Site? Hint: It goes beyond keywords 1. Content 2. Search engine optimization 3. Content 4. Links from other sites 5. Content More content = more keywords = better SEO Better content = links from other websites = better SEO Better content = more return visitors

14. Top Reasons Visitors Return to Websites

15. Effective Website Content “What does the user want or need to know?”

16. RESEARCH BRIEF: DAILY MARKET AND MEDIA INTELLIGENCE July 2006 of online users research products online before buying them in person or in a store. 87 %

17. Easy Access to Information Visitors should be able to easily access information about your company such as: • Salesperson contact information • Product and warranty information • Employment Opportunities • Press Releases / Current News Kansas Health Foundation - www.kansashealth.org Spray Equipment - www.sprayequipment.com

18. How Can We Keep our Websites Current? Content Management System - an application that allows for updating of a website without any knowledge of web programming.

19. Online Ordering Online ordering allow your customers to do business with your company at their convenience. North Rock Dairy Queen - www.northrockdq.com

20. Real-time Reporting and Inventory Automated ordering systems not only provide customer convenience, but also business convenience, efficiency and cost savings in order processing. Order and customer data can be stored in a database for future reference and/or reporting purposes.

21. How Can We Engage Visitors In Our Site? Studies show that users become more emotionally engaged with a website if they contribute to it - a.k.a. social networking .

22. Social Networking Social networking basically refers to a community where one connects and communicates with others on the Internet. Examples Blogs Message Boards / Forums Chat rooms Sites such as MySpace and Facebook Viral marketing

23. Social Networking: A Case Study Southwest Airline’s site combines a blog with a video blog, Flickr photos, news stories, polls, a media center, and social networking links.

24. “ About 35 million workers — one in four people in the labor force — spend 3.5 hours per week reading blogs at the office.” ADAGE.COM October 24, 2005

25. Company Blogs Company blogs allow your company to not only talk about their company and product line, but it also allows the online community to see the personal side of the company. At the same time, by using keywords in your blog, you can increase your site’s search engine rankings. Conservative Less Conservative

26. Company Blogs: Why should my company have one? BACKBONE MEDIA, 2005 http://www.backbonemedia.com/blogsurvey/ Scale: 1 = Not a factor, 2 = Some, 3 = Important, 4 = Very important, 5 = Primary reason 5 4 3 2 1 Reasons companies have blogs 4% 6% 8% 20% 13% 18% 21% 23% 34% 46% 48% 52% 13% 25% 28% 26% 33% 32% 34% 37% 34% 24% 27% 31% 32% 23% 23% 19% 26% 20% 20% 18% 11% 21% 18% 13% 18% 21% 25% 19% 14% 13% 15% 10% 10% 6% 3% 4% 3% Build a community 10% A way to get information quickly to customers 13% Increasing sales 10% A way to get feedback from my customers 17% Boost search engine positions 14% Increase link popularity 17% RSS syndication 15% Gather feedback on a product or service 25% Customer service 32% A way to get interview requests from journalists 4% Thought leadership 0% Another way to publish content and ideas

27. Company Blogs: Why should my company have one? BACKBONE MEDIA, 2005 http://www.backbonemedia.com/blogsurvey/ Scale: 1 = First week, 2 = First month, 3 = 2-3 months, 4 = No results 4 3 2 1 Results companies have received 39% 38% 46% 25% 29% 13% 12% 12% 12% 18% 13% 6% 35% 28% 19% 15% 13% 25% 32% 22% 16% 9% 12% 3% 16% 19% 15% 29% 20% 40% 26% 43% 43% 15% 13% 18% 59% A way to get information quickly to customers 29% Thought leadership 23% Boost search engine positions 30% Build a community 22% Increase link popularity 39% Gather feedback on a product or service 31% A way to get feedback from my customers 21% Respond to negative comments 15% Increasing sales 10% A way to get interview requests from journalists 62% RSS syndication 74% Another way to publish content and ideas

28. Company Blogs: Why should my company have one? BACKBONE MEDIA http://www.backbonemedia.com/blogsurvey/ 2005

29. Company Blogs: Why should my company have one? RSS Feeds Blogs can be published through RSS feeds, which your visitors can subscribe to in order to be notified once your blog is updated. In addition, when you use a service such as TypePad: Whenever you post a new entry, TypePad notifies Google, Technorati and other search engines via the Six Apart Update Stream Connect your blog feed to FeedBurner for seamless updating

30. Viral Marketing: What is all of the hype? Viral Marketing - a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message. Send to a friend features for web content Videos Contests Social linking sites such as Digg and Delicious Examples

31. Manage your Online Reputation It is a good practice to search for your company name and product name(s) regularly. • Participate in the converation • Disprove any false information • Link to your website People may be talking about you…. Twist a pen, open a lock

32. In summary The very best way to attract visitors to your website is through high quality content. Ensure that your website has the proper meta tags and keywords so that it is available through search engines. New methods of delivering content through your website and on the Internet as a whole include content management systems and social networking initiatives such as blogs, forums, and viral marketing.

33. Thank You