Web Marketing Advice

LEVERAGE YOUR CONTENT TO REACH NEW PROSPECTS

If you've read our previous email or print newsletters, or heard me wax poetic at a Search Engine Seminar or in person, you've learned that it's important to have unique, compelling content on your site.

Clients and prospects call us, asking how their site can rank higher in the search engines or how they can attract more traffic. I usually recommend that they start by posting content (in the form of articles, white papers, FAQ's, etc.) to their site on a regular basis...content that is of interest to their target audience.

Why Content Helps Your Business

Often, site owners don't understand how this will help. I'm here to tell you that quality content attracts visitors. First, search engines love content, gobbling it up for breakfast and returning regularly to sites that continually post fresh material. The content from your site appears on the SERP (search engine results page.) If you're writing about what your prospects are searching for, you'll appear on their SERPs.

Second, you can leverage the content on your site in several ways to bring in even more traffic and reach new clients. To paraphrase Archimedes, you can move the world if your lever is long enough. Here are some ideas that can help:

• A Share This Page link
• A Print This Page link
• A Link to This Page link
• An Email Newsletter signup link (deliver future content twice: through your email newsletter and your Web site)
• Submit each new content-rich page to search engines through free submit pages; primarily Google and Yahoo

It's easy to create links or icons for the first three or four items and post them on the articles on your site. Today we'll talk about the Share This Page link.

Why Share a Page?

Whether it's called "share this page," "email this article to a friend," or "recommend this site," the benefits of having a visitor tell another person about your Web site or business should be obvious.

One of my clients recently asked why should he bother putting a Share This Page link on all of his articles. "How is this different from having someone just use the email this page option on their browser?" Good question. It's true that certain browsers include a built-in "email this page" feature. However, there are a number of advantages to creating your own link.

Make It Easy for Visitors to Help You Out

Not all browsers offer the option of emailing a Web page. Often, even if they do, users don't know about this feature or aren't thinking about it as they read this article. A gentle reminder in the form of a link or icon may get them to think, "Janey was looking for a house. This article is right up her alley!"

Control the Message

When you leave it to your visitors to share your page, you lose all control of the message. By creating a simple form, you can choose to send the entire article or include only the link and a description (to encourage the recipient to visit your site.)

You can also include your own marketing materials in the email...your mission statement, links to featured products in your online store, a signup for your email newsletter, or whatever will help you achieve your business goals.

Gain Insight

With this simple form, you'll know when a visitor is sharing your content. You can track which articles are being shared most often and which are receiving the most click-throughs from the recipients. If you're curious to know whether it's more effective to share an entire article or just the link, this is a perfect way to test out both possibilities.

In Conclusion

If you're just posting new articles to your Web site you're not leveraging them for all they're worth. Simple online tools like Share This Page allow visitors to promote your company to prospects you wouldn't have otherwise reached.

In future Honey Roasted Peanuts we'll look at other ways of leveraging your content for optimal results.

If you have any questions or comments about this article, please contact us.

--Rich Brooks
President, flyte new media