Does the above picture look all familiar to you? No, I'm not talking about a family road trip or being lost on a barren highway; I'm talking about your website. Too frequently we find ourselves investing time and money into learning the reasons for website 'high traffic' periods and 'low traffic' periods. With these variables aside, one thing that is certain for sure: traffic needs a means by which to reach a website. Better yet, traffic needs a reason. Just like we set out on the open road in our car, we are searching for something or traveling to a specific destination. It doesn't matter which route we take as long as its the shortest and most efficient for us.
How can we as a company provide the shortest and most direct route to our website? Which keywords (roads) will facilitate that traffic? The answer to these may be simpler than you think.
It starts with a foundation:
A website strategy:
What market are we targeting? What product or service are we
selling? What factors are in our favor? What resources can we tap into? Does
our site design represent our brand/company image?
These are all important questions that need to be asked in
the preliminary stage. Thorough analysis
of these questions, and questions like them, will provide the best return on investment. Try this for a change: run a consumer feedback program for
six-months on the existing website. Ask
questions that will return answers pertinent to age, income, gender, location,
and buying habits. This will help your
company to extrapolate the important data; doing so will help build a better
strategy and foundation.
Move to a plan:
Implementation:
Take the data return in the strategy forming phase and
interpret it. For example, the previous
website design and strategy was aimed at 35 – 50 year old males who live predominantly
on the east coast. The data you have
just received from this new survey suggests that 21 – 35 year old males from
the Southwest are now the majority of site frequenters. Takes this data and change the site content
according to the data received while still keeping the integrity of the company’s
brand image.
Now that the site is changed accordingly to target the correct
market, how do you create site traffic? CNNMoney.com
features a great article on Jan. 16, 2008 about some tips that will create
website buzz. “Offer something free-of-charge to
those who do visit your site - and it can be as simple as information or advice…”
For example, the website the targets males in the Southwest, offer links to
other sites that offer: cheap flights to southwestern cities or ticket deals to
sports games (NFL, NHL, MLB, NBA, etc).
This will give an incentive to this target market to return to the site.
Maintain the
Traffic:
Maintenance:
Site traffic
cannot sustain itself. Traffic must be
generated through maintenance of the website and the blog. A good way of doing this is to re-evaluate
the site’s target market and target demographic every so often. In more volatile industries, a six-month review
period may be the best solution; industries that have a less volatile
environment, a one, two or three year review may pose the best option. In this re-evaluation, rerun the survey in
the strategy phase. Find out who your
customer is and why they are frequenting your site. On top of this, find out what your customer
wants. Analytical programs such as Google Analytics can serve as a
starting point to uncovering the most hit webpage on your website. If the site begins to draw less and less traffic,
switch it up! Feature new offers, games, videos, and other engaging activities
that will hook the consumer to the website and, eventually, the company.
The kicker?
This all costs less than any T.V commercial, magazine advertisement, radio
spot, or SEO consultant.
What does Compendium offer? The solution to
all of the above, at a low cost, and feedback to help your company sustain this
success and grow to the next level of customer conversion.
Compendium
can help your company to get familiar with traffic...
I've never met Jason Fried, and my life is a little empty because of it. Jason is one of the founders 37Signals, and his 
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