Marketing Terms

To receive the most traffic to your website it is important to take into account Marketing, not just in the form of printed advertisements in magazines and journals etc., but on the World Wide Web itself. The Cnx Web Solutions marketing team have the experience to improve your website's visibilty on the internet. Through the use of the techniques listed below we are able to increase the probability that internet users looking for the types of products and service you provide will be converted into a potential revenue stream.

What is Internet Marketing?

This term can mean two parts of essentially the same process. The first is to create a website that will provide information to your potential customers and provide a base from which the Internet Marketing proper can begin. The second comprises a number of elements (outlined in more detail below) but broadly speaking is the promotion of your goods and/or services on the internet by tailoring your website content, key words and phrases and coding structure to improve your search engine rankings and therefore increase the amount of traffic to your website.

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimisation is a vital part of the Internet Marketing process. Without submitting your website to the major search engines it will be very difficult for your potential clients to find you without previous knowledge of your domain name. By optimising the type of content, number of targetted keywords and how often they appear it is possible to increase the visibility of your site to the search engine system and consequently to your potential clients.

What do you mean by Traffic?

We use the word traffic to describe the number of times the information contained within your website has been accessed or 'hits'. The way in which content is accessed can be broken down into a few categories:

• Search Engines - Spidering of your site by search engine robots
• User Searches - Users searching for keywords contained within your site using one of the search engines
• Direct Inbound Links - Links from other websites and pages leading directly to yours
• Direct Page Views - Users that have found your webpage by some other method (e.g., Advertisement in local newspaper, Television Advertisement etc.)

It is important for any business to maximise the traffic to, and through, your site. Using the methods outlined below Cnx Web Solutions aims to provide increased 'hits' and potentially additional customers.

What are key words and phrases?

These are the words and short phrases relevant to the subject on which the website is based. By increasing the number of key words and phrases (often called key word/phrase density) on a page it is possible to increase the relative importance of that page within the website and consequently its ranking within the major search engines.

It is important to remember that the words and phrases used are targetted towards the consumer and how they are likely to want to find your page. With the increasing use of the internet by businesses and individuals and the explosion of websites created by them it has become more and more difficult to be ranked highly for competitive terms (e.g. Design), in which case you would be directly competing with all other websites on the internet that use the term design frequently. To increase you chances of receiving traffic it would be better to narrow the search possibilities by adding other key words to create a key phrase (e.g. Web Design Cornwall) and therefore direct traffic from more relevant searches towards your site.

What are rankings?

All major search engines have a method by which they sort relevant web content. Using complex algorithms the search engine takes into account the amount of relevant information on the page, its prominence within that page and the number of inbound links from elsewhere to that page content. Once all of this information has been collected and processed the search engine arrives at a numerical value or 'ranking' that is a measure of how relevant the page or site is to a particular search term.

In essence increased rankings will usually result in your webpage or website being displayed higher in the list of possible search results.

What is a Web Position Report?

Should you decide to pursue a marketing contract with us, and after we have confirmed the key words, key phrases and target consumer, we endeavour to provide as much feedback to you as possible. Through our 'Web Position Reports' we provide up to date information on your website's current search engine ranking, number of page views and general performance. In addition we provide an unbiased opinion as to which keywords are still relevant, those which are falling out of favour and new keywords and phrases that are becoming more important. This way you can be assured that your website is as prominent as possible within a very competitive marketplace.

What is a Quarterly Report?

Quarterly reports are written as part of a client’s full marketing contract. The report is made up of 4 sections consisting of: Overall Site Performance, Search Engine Relationships, Detailed Search Engine Targeted Analysis and the conclusion. The first section details the flow of traffic to the site including relevant statistics and how the site ranks within the search engines – known as ‘Ranking and Coverage’ the second section contains up to date news on all of the major search engines and directories, including information on which sites are feeding which other sites with their search data, who is buying search results from whom and any forthcoming items of interest. The third area is a more detailed analysis of the top four engines – generally responsible for at least 70% of search engine traffic and changes as engines become more or less prominent. The conclusion is a summary of all this data and includes specific suggestions for updating the site in line with current SEO trends and outlines work to be carried on the site over the next quarter.

What is a Statistics Page?

The statistics page is a direct companion to the web position report; together they make up the monthly report as sent to marketing clients. The software can be run at any time to generate data for a specific purpose and provides detailed information about the volume of traffic that is received by the site. The statistics page publishes results for yearly, monthly, weekly, daily and even hourly site visits and page requests. It will also provide data about the search engine or directory the enquiry came from and the search terms used to find the clients site. Also included is a concise list of the browsers used to view the client’s site and the pages viewed within the site. All of this information is of great use when optimising the website for maximum search engine visibility.

What is a lifecycle?

In simple terms the life cyle of a website begins with its conception, continues through the design and development stages then through release and maintenance to the point that it may be necessary to redesign the site.

Because of the dynamic nature of the World Wide Web a website can become outdated by technology or just become less appealing for both users and search engines (reducing your ranking) and causing potential clients to move on to other sites.

In most cases a website that has been well designed and coded will have the longest lifespan but may require attention to keep a high search engine rank. Generally a site has a maximum lifespan of around 3 years by which time it would be wise to think about updating the overall 'look and feel' and refreshing the content of the site.

What potential return will I see?

Results cannot be guaranteed due to the ever changing way in which search engines deliver their rankings but with careful planning and organisation, combined with knowledge of the target audience(s) it is possible to increase the website's prominence not just in the major search engines but by links from other websites containing related information.