This has got to be one of the most commonly asked questions we face every day, and it is usually the start of our relationship with a company.

Despite being the key question which encouraged our clients to get in touch with us, it is very rarely the right place to start.

Online marketing is no different to other forms of advertising, however businesses are generally more understanding of the processes involved in traditional advertising and would rarely start their conversation with a traditional marketing agency with a similar question.

Think about your audience

Are the people you have always targeted in the past the right people to continue to target or do you not know yet? Lets have a real think about this and work out who we would like to target with our website and look into their wants and needs from your website.

Ultimately the content of your website will decide what you can rank for in Google and unless we get this just right we will simply be a flashy new website barking up the wrong tree.

Lets look at your website

Would any visitors be put off after visiting your existing website and decide you are not the company for them? If so then lets get this cleared up now.

If your thinking you don’t care about this, and it is numbers we need and nothing else then just make sure your right first! Test it with real people who are not inclined just to agree with you.

Decide exactly what you would like your visitors to do when they arrive

This simple question may invoke a whole load of ideas but usually if you strip them down there is never usually more than 1-3 things you really would like your visitors to do.

Whether it is “Request a meeting”, “Buy something” or “Request a Quote” you need start thinking exactly how your visitors are going to complete this task and is it nice and simple to do? Try it yourself, ask other less internet savvy colleagues to do the same by setting them a challenge and watch what they do.

If people are struggling to complete your goals lets get these fixed now because this percentage of confused visitors who would happily get in touch may be lost and as we start to increase numbers of visitors this group may turn into thousands of lost clients.

Now let talk about traffic

Now once we have the plan for a perfect website with simple user goals we need to think about getting people to our door. This is where SEO, PPC, Geo-Social Marketing and Email marketing start to contribute.

SEO (Natural search) is probably where your initial question came from (you saw someone top of Google for a phrase that closely matches your business and you thought I want some of that!) So what decides who goes top? Well this is again a question without a single answer.

SEO is a long process of building your websites profile in the online world and has many aspects which relate to the real world.

• Who do you rub shoulders with? (Links coming in)
• How accessible are you? (Is your website built with the latest in accessible code (XHTML/CSS))
• How is your reputation? (Has your website been around a while and built up some respect online? Google aren’t going to put you top today or tomorrow, but consistently improve overtime and beat your rivals and success will be yours)
• Are you on the ball? (Has your website not changed for 2 years – some might find this boring!)

Ultimately a successful SEO campaign needs experts so dont be afraid to talk with experts like ourselves, but make sure they understand all that we have talked about so far, or ideally make sure they have been involved.

In addition to SEO there is PPC – this is a slightly different form of search marketing and can be instant, but don’t be fooled that all that we have talked about so far is irrelevant – Google have a quality score system which gives preferential ranking to websites with accessible and relevant content and visitors who cant complete your goals, still wont via traffic from this route. Dont forget every click has a direct cost with PPC and make sure your click costs pay for themselves.

Again don’t be afraid to speak with experts like ourselves but make sure they get the whole process!

Lead handling

Right now we have visitors who are completing goals and bringing in business! Surely thats the end of our advice! No!

Lets think about how you deal with leads. Are you dealing with them effectively? If not then all this investment has been a bit of a waste of time! Get organized with an effective CRM tools which make selling to these prospects simple and seemless.

Salesforce is great place to start and we can get you setup meaning leads can be dealt with immediately as they arrive maximising your return on investment further.

Now then, how do we get top of Google?! Maybe you should just give us a call – 0845 257 1225