Web And Mutimedia Services
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Advertising and Marketing a Web site
One of the most overlooked aspects of a good web site is the need to communicate to your potential audience that the site even exists.
Site Objectives
Determine the objective of your site. An effective site must have an objective that leads a user to an ultimate action or activity. The most common objectives include:
- Media - increase page views per visitor, visit frequency (ie spend time reading articles)
- Self Service - decrease customer service costs, fulfill customer service needs online (ie housing information online reduces phone inquiries)
- Lead Generation - reduce the costs involved with getting new leads, get more leads (ie prospective student mailing list)
- Commerce - increase total donations/purchases (ie receiving donations for scholarships)
From "Getting Results with WebTrends, Acquire, Convert and Retain More Customers Using Web Analytics".
Great Places to Start
- Search for Web sites and resources that contain similar information and objectives. These sites are very often willing to link to your site.
- Begin a mailing list through which you can notify users of changes and updates to your site. This is known as customer retention and is the best way to get return visits.
- UTSA Today articles are great announcement points.
- Use accessible Web design. A search engine is one of your most important "blind users". Our templates are optimized for accessibility and search engines.
- Find out who is visiting your site and how often through our Web Traffic Analyzing service.
- Get an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) from http://www.issn.org/. On-line serial publications (such as news, academic journals and blogs) qualify for an ISSN. An ISSN allows for inclusion on major publications lists in libraries throughout the world.
External Links, Search Engines and Web Directories
- Key word optimization - including key words in page titles, major headings, in the link text of incoming links and other areas is essential
- Incoming Links (links to your site from others) - act as "votes" and are weighted based on the importance of the site that contains the incoming link (a link from UTSA would be more influential than a small community college for example)
- Search Engine Submission - A link from a page on UTSA.edu will likely cover notices to the reputable search engines (Google, Inktomi).
- Web Directories - Register with as many pertinent online directories (http://www.dmoz.org/ is a great start, see the UTSA category) as possible. Check the resource section below for more.
Helpful Resources
- UTSA Web & Multimedia Services Web Office -- Register your site with our index. This is the first step to getting connected with the UTSA community.
- The Value of Non-Commercial Web Directories - Register your site with as many organizations as possible.
- Google's Webmaster Guidelines -- Keys to getting your site ranked well with Google.com.
- Comprehensive listing of search engines and directories.