Understanding On-Line Marketing

It is useful to break down the different sources of visitors to your website. Each has its own benefits and detractions.

Organic Search Traffic generated through a search engine (Google/Bing/Etc) or a directory listing (Yelp/Etc). The ranking comes from a algorithm based upon your key word usage, frequency, and other factors. Produces free traffic when done properly, although for some business types, achieving success is problematic when competing with huge corporations.

Organic Social Same as organic search, with traffic being generated through social media. Traffic generated from your posts. Produces free traffic when done properly, although achieving a critical mass of "likes" takes time.

Referral Traffic generated by your URL being listed on another business site, such as a chamber of commerce site. Cost varies.

Direct Traffic generated by visitors who type in your URL. Visitors can obtain your URL through many ways, including off-line advertising (newspaper ads/receipt listing/signage/business cards/etc). Use your imagination to generate this type of traffic.

Email Traffic generated as a response to an email, whether person to person or through an emailing list and newsletter. Virtually every business should have a mailing list and send out newsletters periodically. Proof: You are reading my newsletter, right? Also on your business email, be sure you list your full contact information AND your URL in the signature. It is free advertising!

Paid Search Paid search includes adwords, paid listings and more. Some businesses show zero results for their paid ads, and some see 60-80% of their search engine traffic coming from paid ads. (The other 20-40% is organic). Testing adwords is important, to ensure you get results from your ad dollars.

A good marketing program uses all of the above to create a marketing package, and will share results for comparison. Call us for ideas on good marketing for your business.