If you build it will they come?

Posted by Edwin Lynch on April 3, 2008 in Search Engine Optimisation

In short, if you build a website it won’t generate much traffic (visits) all by itself. Code written with search engine optimisation in mind allows Google to find you and in turn generate incoming traffic, but more has to be done.

What a lot of people don’t realise is that a website is like having an entirely separate business with different needs and demands to the off-line variety. Like any business, you have to market and advertise – but in a different way. They won’t come – unless they know you are.

Perhaps the most ubiquitous form of advertising on the web is banner advertising. Banners are posted ojn a complementary product site with a link back to your own.

Another common way to advertise is with Ad-links. Google makes most of its money from its Google Advertising program (which anyone can join). For a small fee ($50/month is a good starting point) your site will appear as a sponsored site on any relevant Google search results page. Other search engines such as MSN and Yahoo have similar systems.

But if you are on a very tight budget, here are some cheap alternatives to getting your site seen and generating traffic beyond the usual SEO (search engine optimisation) techniques.

• putting your web address on all your stationery and signage
• put a link to your website in the signature file of your email account
• swap banners with a complimentary (non-competitive) company

Finally – and perhaps the most important and essential aspect to having a site at all is how often you update your website. Updating daily is the best way to go. It quickly pushes your website up the search engine lists. Weekly is also good and monthly is, well, better than not updating your site at all.

Doing something on a regular basis, at a regular time, on a regular day, generates a lot of traffic. People will visit just to see what is new on your site.

And as most people in the advertising industry will tell you – it’s roughly seven times harder to attract new clients than it is to service an old one.