Webmaster Papers




Google
 
Web webhostingpapers.com




/pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">

Better Web Site ROI: Efficient Online Business with SEO, PPC, Split Testing, and Forums


If you're looking for better web site ROI, chances are, the web is only one part of your business, you have a specific budget for your web site, and you want the site to not only carry its own weight, but why can't it make you some extra dough, too?

The corporate situation: budgets need to be closely watched, and tech people can't get carried away with unnecessary frills.

My own experience making money online and becoming and SEO expert was more guerilla than corporate. In 1999, I knew enough web design to get by, and I learned about getting good search rankings and free traffic while flying by the seat of my pants. By early 2005, I'd learned how to get tens of thousands of visitors per month, and had made more than $20,000 two months in a row.

As it turns out, web design itself doesn't bring in or increase profits... at least not the graphic kind most people think of. Ironically, the flashy flash web sites everyone raves about often prevent you from getting free traffic. Search engines index sites based on text- they can't see flash. If your text is in graphics without alt tags or in flash movies only, you'll never get free traffic.

There are loads of web designers out there who want to get paid to make you a beautiful web site, but don't know the first thing about helping you make more money. In fact, though independent web designers have to know enough business to survive, corporate designers may never have had to learn anything about running a business or getting good ROI via their web sites.

To get better web site ROI, naturally you have to lower your investment and/or increase your profits.

Where do the profits that lead to better web site ROI come from?

  • Traffic (free or paid)
  • Converting Prospects
  • Selling new products to previous customers

Here are some review questions for your business:

  • Are you getting free traffic from good search engine rankings? If not, why not? Maybe your website isn't search engine optimized. Maybe you aren't adding to and updating your content. Maybe your internal linking and/or navigational structure is suboptimal.
  • Are you running multiple pay per click campaigns and meeting your break even figures for most of them? Are you dumping the ones that don't work?
  • Are you tweaking your web sales copy and running split tests to see what increases your conversion rates?
  • Are you staying in touch with previous customers, offering them helpful tips and resources, and finding out their other needs?
  • Are you designing new products and improving services based on that feedback?

Those are just a few questions to help you see which way lies the real road to better web site ROI.

Now here are a few suggestions:

1. Get more free traffic

All traffic can be converted to sales profits. Free traffic means better web site ROI. So search engine optimize your web site. Ever had a keyphrase review for your business sector done? If not, get one. This is one of the three major factors in writing your web site sales copy.

2. Only do profitable pay-per-click advertising

Make sure you have a clear plan in place for every phrase on which you bid. Know what conversion rate you need for each. Send each phrase to specific and different web pages, and monitor your success rate. If you can't tweak conversion rates high enough to profit on a pay per click phrase, ditch it! What cuts into your web site ROI more than pay per click advertising at a loss? And don't fool yourself into thinking it's branding. There are much better ways to do branding, and lots of them are free.

3. Convert more prospects

Hopefully you already have a most wanted response (MWR). Perhaps you've developed customer profiles and/or modeled customer acquisition and retention phrases. However you group your prospects, make sure you split test your web copy to develop the most powerful sales pages possible. Your traffic cost for each phrase shouldn't change much from month to month, so improving your conversion rates will lead to better web site ROI.

4. Encourage Community and Get Feedback

Don't be afraid to let your customers talk to each other. Use forums to help them and find out what they need. The best way to stay in business, sell more, and increase ROI is to know what they need and give it to them. Remember, it's easier to keep a customer than to get a new one. Use polls, articles in your e-zine (e newsletter), and free offers to motivate them to answer your specific questions.

Conclusion

That's obviously not every detail or tactic you could use to work toward better web site ROI, but it's plenty for most people to start with. If you need help or have any specific questions for me, contact me either via my pulsemed.org website, or through my SEO blog at http://top-ten-search-engine-ranking.blogspot.com/.

Since 1999, Brian Carter, MS, has reached more than a million visitors with his websites. His PulseMed.org ranks in the top 1% of all major websites. He maintains a blog about web marketing at http://top-ten-search-engine-ranking.blogspot.com/. His second book, The Web Site Marketing Success Manual: How One of My Web Sites Made $21,638.49 in a Month, will be available in July, 2005.

RELATED ARTICLES


Enhance Your Website With A Yahoo-Style Directory
Does your website have a links/resources page?
Improving Usability for Screen Reader Users
Simply ensuring your website is accessible to screen reader users is unfortunately not enough to ensure these users can find what they're looking for in a reasonably quick and efficient manner. Even if your site is accessible to screen reader users, its usability could be so incredibly poor that they needn't have bothered coming to your site.
HTML Editors 101 - Smaller Is Better
SiteSpinner
Free Isnt Always Good - 5 Reasons Why You Need Your Own Website
Often time I've browsed sites and seen the same thing - general rep websites or free hosted sites. Pop ups irritate me from the free sites as does the blatant ads getting in the way of the text, and if you have seen one rep site you literally have seen them all. Boring, unoriginal, and unprofessional.
New Years Resolutions: Is Improving Your Website One of Them?
With the New Year upon us yet again, it's time to prepare for the successes of 2005. Did you watch with envy last year as your competitors dominated your industry? Do you think your site is doing just fine because no one has ever called to complain? Well here's some food for thought: 96% of all prospects will click over to your competitor if they encounter a problem on your website.
3 Reasons Why You Need URL Rewriting Module To Enchance Your Web
URL rewriting are major needs for your sites that produce a dynamic pages like PHP pages with redirection pages inside your index page.
How to Draw Icons or Images on a Mapserver Generated Map
In this example I have used the map of the Itasca demo of the Mapserver. I have done only small changes to the map file. The Itasca demo has (into the html file) the parameters of the path where to store the images:
Having a Domain Name And Web Site Gives Your Business The Key To The Door
Just like all things in life, the ways to run a business are rapidly changing and evolving. The potential involved with having a domain name/web site is staggering to say the least. A web site gives the consumer a 'shop front' that is not only open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but is also situated right on their desktop. Instead of being locked into only the immediate area, the whole world's marketplace becomes your sphere of interaction.
Planning Your Website for Success
Most people know they need a website in order to publicise and promote their business but very few people know what they want in their website. Fewer still are those who can actually sit down and plan their websites well.
Why Every Small Business Owner Needs Two Websites
Every small business owner knows that they need a website, right? Well the truth is what they really need is at least two websites.
Eight Deadly Web Site Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Creating and maintaining an effective presence on the Web has become increasingly complex and challenging as the power of the Internet as a marketing tool becomes more and more necessary to entrepreneurs and emerging businesses.
Build It and They Will Come
Build it and they will come is not always true; you have to form a relationship with the company before you will get quality attendees or participants for a free service.
Should You Design Your Own Website?
If you're anything like most small business owners, you probably think that web site design is expensive - possibly too expensive for you to justify the expense. If that's the case, then it can be tempting to just design your small business web site yourself. You have a computer, complete with Microsoft Frontpage, you have a copy of Photoshop - why pay a web designer when you could just do it yourself?
The Cost Of A Web Site
Just starting out, you can start with a simple informational site, which is all most need initially, and build up to a fuller site (e-commerce and/or interactive) when you can afford it.
Website Development: Become Your Own Expert
Starting and maintaining a business is challenging enough without the additional financial burden of hiring a web site expert to put your vision on paper. If you are starting your business on a "shoe string budget," hiring someone to take your written materials to type in a basic format, add a few pictures and edit what you tell them periodically may not be sound money management.
What ROI You Should Expect From Your Web Site
Is Your Web Site an Expense or an Investment?
10 Tips For Running A Profitable Web Site
1. Address your targeted audience on your business site. Example: "Welcome Internet Marketers". If you have more than one, address them all.
The Evolution Of Search
There have been many significant changes to the face of search over the last several years with engines becoming more intelligent than ever before. Today's users expect mainly fast, easy, relevant and satisfactory search results. In response to this search engines have responded by giving users more control over search results than ever through the emergence of alternative search engines.
The Problem with Automated Accessibility Testing Tools
An automated accessibility tool is a piece of software which can test a web page, or even an entire website, for accessibility. Automated accessibility tools are useful because they can save you a huge amount of time. Don't want to check images for alt text on each and every page on your website? Run the site through an automated tester and it'll do it all for you!
Guide to Internet Business - Design and Content
After deciding what kind of internet business you want to do, it's time to start planning the design and content of your business. Many people make the mistake of skipping this step, choosing instead to immediately start work on their website. However, a website is just a door into your internet business; and a door is pretty useless if there's nothing beyond it. An internet business, like any other business, requires proper planning and design if it's going to succeed.