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1. How would you start with your promotion of a BRAND new site?
I would like all the members of WmW to please post their anwsers to this as we all have different ways of doing this. This might be helpful to future members of these forums.
#1 Start to develope your keyword list.
#2 Then buy a domain that does justice to your top KW/KWs
But at any rate, once you have a concrete understanding of your goals then everything flows from there. 99% of the time when you ask someone who is building a brand new site they will say, "I want new business." An admirable goal indeed, but understanding how that is going to be accomplished is a whole other can of worms. I have a set of questions I always like to ask:
1) What is your niche market?
2) What is the purpose of your site?
3) Why would people want to come to your site?
4) How are you building trust?
5) How are you getting people to return to your site?
6) Why would people want to return?
7) How do people find your site?
This may seem to be out of the realm of 'Search Engine Promotion'. But in reality, once you have written down the answers to these questions then you have a clear sense of how to approach establishing your key phrases. You now know exactly what it is you are promoting and who you are promoting to.
I have had a recent infatuation with the brilliance of thorough keyword research. An obvious understanding for many here, I'm sure - but for me it has been a bit of an epiphany. I've been spending much more time running comparisons between popularity on GoTo and the number of competitors on another engine (recently I have been using Google).
With a good list, you can find a nice sweet spot of being both popular and competitive in your favor.
But all of this begins by having some semblance of an understanding of the above 7 questions.
There are many companies out there that, they will swear to you, have a product so great and outstanding that it is perfect for everyone. Marketing to everyone is expensive - I'm still waiting to get Pepsi on the client list. So, while the entire world would be a better place if they had these companies' products, we usually have to focus. By finding this niche then we have a basis to begin research. We now know exactly what they sell, who they are selling to - this makes the initial keyword research much more powerful.
Cheers.
A handy little tip: if you can get your hands on an OLD domain, one that has been around and spidered before, all the better. Much easier to promote something that is already on the spider list than to do something brand new. Esp with Inktomi.
-G
I sometimes do copy writing for marketing purposes -- technical and non-tech. Even in writing copy for offline use, the key is have a really great, detailed image of who you are writing to and then write to that one person. I invent these people, give them names, likes and dislikes, salaries, families, cars, whatever is relevant.
There's something about the web -- you know, it's "world-wide" and all of that -- that makes people think they can target the entire human race. That's a sure fire way to fail.
The clearer the target, the better will be your keyword list, the "tone" of your copy, and everything else about the marketing effort.
The main thing is to get what I've heard called the "hey, your talking about me!" factor to kick in. Imagine your BEST candidate. Will she or he see and recognize your message. If that answer is yes, then the marketing succeeds.
Once I have a clear target, I usually start with some experiments on GoTo, while the rest of the submissions percolate. With GoTo I can experiment with keywords that are relevant but I've never optimized the page for them. Then I'll go back and optimize for a word if GoTo gives good results on it.
1) ID their purpose in life.
What do they do?
What is their market?
Offline biz, or is it just online?
Profit, nonprofit, or not-for-profit.
2) Why do they want a site?
What do they expect to produce?
Do they need a site or is this just a nice idea?
3) Based on the above set of questions, you can transition to the type of visitor they are after. Who do they want/need to see the site. After this, I again ask them why?
At that point, I cut the conversation short and make some recommendations from that info alone. Often, they are more interested in telling you what they expect the site to look like that they are at what type of traffic they want. So, I let them ramble on for 10-15 mins about what they want the site to look like...yada yada yada.
Next comes the burst their bubble of over expectations with a dose of truth about what they can accomplish.
Then comes the, never fear I am hear as the cure to this horrible mess speech. lol
Promotion on the site starts with the html. Of course everything is fully se ready. In order to get there, I try to id 10 primary kw's and 30-50 secondary kw's and build pages around each.
If it is a paying concern that is interested in converting traffic into sales, they can afford to head the Goto.com route and I list them there. We track conversion rates like a hawk.
Also if it is a paying concern, I have them fork out the Yahoo and Looksmart bribery fee. Also getting them listed in the big free dirs (go.com, about.com, and of course ODP is the first submission I make).
Then I head to Alta vista and start submitting and then to Google, Fast, and even take a stab at the impenetrable se's via hotbot, direct hit, and Excite.
Then I try to get the client to think of off web advertising options. Work the url into all their flyers and ad copy. Maybe even purchasing a press release on the Biz wire, or their local paper. I've had great luck with small classifieds in many papers.
They can also run promos. If they have offline advertising, tie in something with the site as a promotion. Web coupons are killer for offline stores: just put on a page, 5% off any product if you print out this coupon and bring it into the store .
If it is a pure net play operation, work hard for those recip links. I often do this before submitting to any sites. If we have time to play, I will take 2-3 weeks and hit the links hard before submitting. Making sure to get the links indexed in se's (it leaves a classic spider bread crumb trail).
Topic specific directories are important too. Depending on the topic, there can be everything from high quality directories, to nothing more than spam sites - be careful who you choose.
Lastly comes the follow up work. After the initial round of promotion, I look at what worked and didn't work. Mostly it means minor tweaks and listening to user feedback.
And the new step is that I am starting to forget about SE's altogether (blasphemy right?). Nope, after that initial submission, I am starting to look to every alternative there is to search engines. Links, directories, offline, promotions, giveaways, freebies, contests, forums, email - everything else. I think those small sites that are going to survive are going to have to become non-se promotion experts.
Basic research that I see:
1) Competition and complementary sites. How can I utilize these sites to promote my business plan?
2)Market- what are the demographics of my targeted market?
3) Promotion both off and on line. Giveaways, contests, reciprocal linking, setting up some sort of revenue sharing (affiliate programs) to increase exposure over a wide range of targeted outlets. Many websites and businesses can be complementary and non competitive which will allow for a mutually beneficial working agreement which can be worked out to benefit all parties.
4) SEO
