Whether it is fully appreciated or not in the frenzy of internet entrepreneurial activity, website owners are content publishers.
Yes, the company website is about promoting the business, winning customers and selling goods and services online; but ultimately what attracts people to the site is the content. And they are guided to our sites by the content – the text and graphics – that make the site alive and which feeds the search engines that point the visitor to the site. It all has a certain neatness of symmetry.
The imperative in this new media age is in how we perceive our website and understand how it fits into the wider context of the global internet. As website owners we must know not only the nuts and bolts of how our website works but also what makes it work.
Site promotion goes beyond pay per clicks adverts and link building. Content is key, and not just whatever we can cobble together to fill the page with keywords. ‘If we build, they will come’ simply does not compute. We need to build, but we also need to decorate the rooms. And don’t even think about reaching for the magnolia and anaglypta.
The content must be relevant, contextual, contain keywords and be readable. Further, it must also be content that of itself attracts links because it is seen as being of value and which others wish to link to and share with their network and site traffic. In this respect, ironically, most website owners do not view themselves as content providers.
Keywords, site submissions and metadata are therefore just one aspect of website promotion. The marketing mix is much wider than that. The need to promote content will increasingly rely on embracing social networking, Web 2.0 user generated content and interactivity as important means of driving target traffic to our websites.
The challenge ahead is in convincing website bosses to think out of the box and escape from the confines of a straightforward brochure site to create and promote content as a means to a marketing end. A bit, perhaps, like PR: it’s not altogether tangible, is slightly subjective but ultimately measurable one way or another.
