Marketing professionals from the offline or non digital world can be guilty of a common mistake when they go online. The mistake arises from a fundamental misunderstanding of how search engines and the internet actually works and how best to help their clients to market their business online.
The mistake is to think of marketing online as pretty much like advertising in the “offline” world.
It isn’t.
It is completely different and the common mistake arises from the attempt to do what traditional advertising does, stimulate demand, to what the Yellow Pages does which is fulfill a demand that is already there and for which somebody is looking for a solution to a problem or a service provider or whatever.
If traditional marketing professionals looked upon the internet as one big directory like the Yellow Pages rather than like a medium such as television or newspapers or magazines in which they can generate demand they would be far better off, and serve their clients better.
Let me give you one simple example…
I recently built a site for a client which had a content rich home page replete with the types of words, phrases, synonyms, and jargon with which you would associate the business in question. Even with minimal search engine optimisation the likelihood of the search engines firstly indexing (remember the Yellow Pages directory analogy) and then ranking this page for a good number of these phrases/keywords was very high.
The search engine spiders/robots have become incredibly efficient at identifying what pages are about and then indexing and ranking them very, very quickly.
However a traditional, professional, “off line” marketer insisted that the “message” was too long and should be cut right down in size to ensure clarity when the reader lands on the page. This is the type of thinking that you need to engage in when you are buying advertising by the word, line, or square inch to reduce advertising cost.
This is not the mindset that you need online because there is no shortage of space…you are only using electrons after all but you must remember that the directory is controlled by Google.
And Google ranks pages in the search results based on relevance of the on page content, amongst other factors. But the on page factors are the predominant factor in determining whether the page ranks or is buried deep, deep down in the search results…where nobody looks.
However the problem is that the brief, clear, “on message” new home page without all of the relevant keywords and phrases is unlikely ever to be found because it simply won’t rank well or rank at all for the removed phrases.
How could it? Those phrases/words are now gone from the page.
How does the site owner then get traffic to his website if his site doesn’t rank in the search engines.
There are really only two ways to get traffic to your website worth talking about: paid traffic or organic/search traffic.
This site owner will then have to pay Google via it’s pay per click advertising programme, Google Adwords, to drive traffic to the site. However there is a problem here also: pay per click traffic can be very expensive and click through rates (ctr) are very, very low.
For example Facebook ads show 5 clicks per 10,000 impressions (the number of times your ad is shown). Display ads generally show a click through rate of 1 click per 1,000 impressions.(See table below)
| Region | Overall Click-through Rate Percent (%) |
| North America | |
| Canada | 0.09% |
| United States | 0.10% |
| EMEA | |
| Austria | 0.11% |
| Belgium | 0.13% |
| Denmark | 0.12% |
| Finland | 0.05% |
| France | 0.12% |
| Germany | 0.11% |
| Greece | 0.17% |
| Ireland | 0.10% |
| Italy | 0.10% |
| Luxembourg | 0.09% |
| Netherlands | 0.14% |
| Norway | 0.11% |
| Spain | 0.12% |
| Sweden | 0.08% |
| Switzerland | 0.12% |
| United Arab Emirates | 0.18% |
| United Kingdom | 0.07% |
| JAPAC | |
| Australia | 0.07% |
| China | 0.12% |
| Hong Kong | 0.17% |
| India | 0.18% |
| Malaysia | 0.30% |
| Singapore | 0.19% |
Source: DoubleClick by Google for Advertisers, a cross section of regions, published July, 2010.
So this website owner is going to have a hard time getting anybody to his new website, apart from family and friends.
The best way, by a country mile, of using your website to generate new business online is to focus on
- search engine marketing and
- email marketing.
These two options are closely related and at it’s simplest involves firstly getting traffic to your website through ranking well in Google search.
Then funneling that traffic into a list of interested subscribers.
However you cannot do this with web pages that are devoid of quality, unique, helpful content and which rely on a clear but regrettably invisible message or mission statement.
Filed under Search Engine Marketing 
The easiest, most effective, and cost effective way to increase your website traffic is to publish content on your website-lots of it. You can describe what you do as writing blogs or publishing posts and/or pages. The purpose and effect is the same-more traffic.
And the more you publish, the more traffic you will get. This is not a sexy strategy. It does not involve Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, media buys, Adwords, social media marketing, marketing channels, demographics, metrics or any other buzz words.
It simply involves publishing information that I know my target market for this website will search for and appreciate.
Set out below you will find the phrases and words that searchers have typed into the search box in whatever web browser being used, generally Google, which has brougth these searchers to a solicitor’s website that I own and control.
Search phrases 1st July 2012 to 27th July 2012
auctioneers license ireland 2012
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section 68 letter sample
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stepstone mortgage funding limited v fitzell
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exceptions to redundancy payments in ireland 2012
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unfair dismissal cases 2012
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what will do with summons for debt ireland
ireland redundancy calculator
companies that serve court papers in dublin
example letter from solicitor for court summons
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declaration of parentage ireland
were in charge car after alkohol
courts server in dublin ireland
how to register a trademark in dublin
irish laws for damages and trade mark infringement by isps
can a civil summons be served at work in ireland
john brennan sean dunne d4 hotels domain
costs of solicitor to defend debt case
ireland redundancy legislation
cheap day solicitors dublin
propery service provider
http //solicitorsdublinhq.com/tag/enforcing-us-judgments-in-ireland/
dublin solicitors that deal with bank debt
anyone fill out standard financial statement bank of ireland?
rainford –v- newell-roberts
design a good redundancy package ireland
transfer of undertakings ireland cases
stepstone mortgage funding ltd v. fitzell
legal requirement redundancy ireland individual
partnership in business
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how can i check if i have any debts dublin
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drunk in charge
sheriff serving papers
letting agent licence requirements pre 2012 ireland
family law and fathers solicitors dublin
complain of employer in dublin
psp dublin property record
demand letter for payment
summons server dublin dhl
road traffic solicitors dublin
npsra june 18th update
letting licence dublin
copyright infringement solicitor dublin
solicitors to pursue debts
grievance procedures unfair to employee 2012 corkl
debt collections notices letters in ireland
precedent particulars of demand ireland
personal injury solicitors
sample personal demand letter debt collection
data protection solicitors dublin no win no fee
what to say when questioned by gardai
letting agent new licence law ireand
solicitors fees for debt collection
property service accountants report
code of conduct on mortgage arrears 2012
contract of engagement auctioneers
film solicitors dublin
why guardianship is not given in ireland
avoiding court after receiving a civil summons
drunk in charge of a car how long can a case go on in ireland
ireland poor performance dismissal ireland
auctioneers regulations ireland
free legal aid solicitors for foreigner in dublin
court register ireland guardianship
home owner options ireland arrears
enforcing a uk judgement in ireland
common law rights domain name
employment appeals tribunal solicitors dublin
circuit court personal injuries summons
birth certificate appropriate declaration in dublin
injuries board what do you
stepstone high court dublin marps
top solicitors in dublin criminal 2012
recognition eu judgment automatic ireland article 33
accountants report for auctioneers
return date debt ireland
property services regulatory who pays for the employees
status of children act 1987
affidavit of service dublin
mortgage protection payment if unfair dismissal
dealing with reduncancies in irelan d
franchise ireland law
free lawyers in dublin criminal
drunk charge dublin
federal express service ireland hague
dublin summons service
solicitors fees debt collection
phased redundancy ireland
how to defend a civil summons in the district court
auctioneers license ireland
effect of a judgment mortgage registered in 2012
avg
copyright solicitor dublin
redundancy law ireland
brussels regulation notice of summons
how long does a bank dept summons last for in ireland from issue
grievance procedure ireland redundancy
marital solicitors dublin
charge out rates for solicitors dublin 2012
restrictive covenants independent contractor
criminal justice act right to not incriminate ones self
summary of unfair dismissal law in ireland 2012
joyce case irish supreme court criminal legal aid
precedent for ordinary civil bill for recovery of a debt
collective and non collective redundancies
what is non collective redundancy
business partnership in ireland
district court order section 2 of guardianship of infants act 1964 forms
summary of mortgage recovery process in ireland
start mortgage court decision
terminating a franchise agreement when the agreement has expired
auctioneer s license new procdure
what does gardianship mean ireland
district court summons company employer conviction
solicitors copyright infringement
non collective redundancy
examples enforcement of foreign non-eu judgments in ireland
children guardianship act 1964
summons server dublin
order given judgment not collected
enforcement of irish judgment in united states
code of conduct and mortgage arrears high court cases
franchise lawyers dublin
can you recommend a solicitor who deals with guardianship in dublin
www.npsra.ie
traffic offence cases in naas district court
Each of these searchers is a potential new client. Clearly this is the purpose of this website and is the purpose of most small business websites.
The strategy at work here can be utilized in virtually all industries and businesses. And a critical point about all of these searchers above is that they are actively looking or searching for something-generally a solution to a problem they have. (You may also be interested in lead generation for solicitors)
Contrast this with spending large amounts of money on advertising which “targets” people indiscriminately-those who may need a solicitor and those who have no interest or need for what you have to offer- in a scattergun approach.
Filed under Digital Marketing, Lawyer Marketing, Search Engine Marketing
