Page 280 - Duct Tape Marketing

264 Part IV: Getting the Word Out without Advertising

Driving Traffic to Your Site

The big myth is that millions of people are cruising the Net looking for your
business online. The truth boils down to something more like this: Opening
a Web site isn’t all that different from getting a toll-free phone number. It is a
huge convenience — but only if people know about it. Lead people to your
site using the following means:

ߜ Print your Web site address on letterhead, envelopes, and business
cards.

ߜ Include your address, along with a reason to visit you online, in
brochures, ads, and news releases.

ߜ Prominently present your address on your products and product
packages.

ߜ Post your address on business trucks, trailers, and cars.

ߜ Mention your Web site and address in your phone voice-mail and on-
hold messages.

ߜ Include your address on each page of printed or electronic newsletters.

ߜ Include a link to your site in articles that you write for other sites.

ߜ Optimize your site for search engines and directories (there’s more on
this topic later in this chapter).

ߜ Build a Tell a friend feature into your site so visitors can refer others to
your site.

ߜ Establish online affiliations to gain links to your site.

How search engines and directories work

Search engines such as Google (www.google.com) and directories such as
Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com) are sites where customers go to find what they’re
looking for online. The difference between a search engine and a directory is
the way information is cataloged.

ߜ Search engines collect information using a program called a spider that
crawls around the Web, reading and indexing Web sites and sending key-
words of sites back to the search engine index. Then when someone
asks the engine to perform a search, it goes to its database to find the
sites with words that match the request and connects those looking for
information with sites that best fit their requests.