There are over one billion internet users, according to internetworldstats.com, making a Web presence a must-have for most organisations, if only as a component of their marketing strategy. Most directors of European businesses are fully aware of the Web's power, which is why you can no longer simply upload a few pages, sit back and wait for visitors to come and find you. With over 21 billion Web pages available to surfers, competition is so fierce that firms are starting to spend more to increase Web traffic.

According to the recent UK Search Engine Marketing Report from e-commerce specialist E-consultancy.com and search engine marketing agency Neutralize, 56 per cent of the 700 internet companies surveyed said their companies spend more than £10,000 annually on paid search (for example, pay-per-click advertising used on websites and search engines where advertisers only pay when a user clicks on an ad to visit their own website), while a quarter spend over £100,000. More than 60 per cent of companies said they would be increasing their spending in the next 12 months. But what if you cannot compete with such budgets? Four experts give their tips on how to increase Web traffic with minimum outlay.

Love at first site
Stephen Orr, founder of Web4Marketing, suggests starting small. "You should test your way to a better result rather than rushing in, spending lots of money and then finding you are wrong," he says. "The beauty of the Web is that you can do that at a low cost compared to other media."
According to Orr, many small companies put up a website based on the design of their brochure, only to find it doesn't work. "The design of the website has to reflect the fact that the customer is king," he explains. "You have a maximum of 10 seconds to give the customer the right impression or they'll disappear. Your home page needs to look like a poster—you need to describe the customer need first rather than explain what you do. Once you have them, they may delve further into your site, so they should be able to find what they are looking for quickly and easily."

Dan Drury, director of sales and marketing at website consultancy Bowen Craggs, says: "You must have a site that's worth visiting. It should contain good information, look nice, have no spelling mistakes or broken links—otherwise visitors will leave immediately and won't come back." Bowen Craggs sends twice-weekly tips on what works and what doesn't on large corporate websites.

Hits and misses
According to Drury the best way to bring people to your site is via search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN, which are used for the vast majority of UK searches. "Other search engines account for less than two per cent of searches but they are industry specific, so if you are a specialist business—say, a manufacturer of medical equipment—it might be worth finding out how you get included," says Drury. "You may have to pay a small fee but it should be worth it."

There are two ways to bring traffic to your site through search engines. The first is via search engine optimisation (SEO). "Search engines go around looking for websites and indexing them—so you want to make sure they put you in their directory," explains Drury. "The great thing is that it is completely free—all you need is someone to type in their search phrase—in other words, what it is they are looking for."

But it's not much good being in the directory unless you are top of the listings. A survey by the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US found that 85 per cent of internet traffic is driven by search engines—but that 75 per cent of users never look past the first page of results. "You need to be in the top 10," says Drury. "This is the objective of any website, but it's hard because everyone else wants to do the same. If, for example, you are a travel agent then you may as well forget it unless you have serious money. But if you are a niche player then you have a better chance."
 
Clicks of the trade
To make your site as search-engine friendly as possible, you need to be specific about your product, says Orr. "Then you have to think about the words customers will put into the search engine. Your website needs to reflect these words so that when the customer lands on your page, they know they have come to the right place."

Chris Lake, editor of E-consultancy.com, advises using specific, rather than broad, terms. "For example, instead of using 'mortgage', you should use 'first-time buyer mortgage'. You will get better conversions," he says.

The second way to attract traffic via search engines is through paid searches (also called sponsored listings and pay-per-click advertising). "This works like an auction," explains Drury. "So if I'll pay 50 pence for the phrase 'fishing tackle' and you'll pay 80 pence, then you'll be listed above me. Each time someone clicks on your listing you'd then pay 80 pence."

To set this up, you first need to create an account with the search engine of choice: AdWords (Google), adCenter (MSN) or Search Marketing (Yahoo). Next, you write a 35 word advert with a link to your website. Then you state your budget—you could say you want to spend £100 a month. "It is a great way of getting instant traffic," says Drury. "But again, the more general your business, the harder it is to get in—and it's hard to compete with the big boys who have large budgets for this."

Blogging on
"Blogs are a no-brainer for small businesses," says Lake. "But there is obviously some resource needed to maintain the blog." According to Lake, some businesses make the mistake of thinking they have nothing to say about themselves. "But you don't necessarily have to talk about your company," he says. "You can talk about the trends and issues in your industry—in fact, you should have a view on this."

Lake believes blogs are also a great way of creating silos of content that are key-word rich and help your site rank well in the search engines. "You need to think about SEO and getting key words into your blog," he says. "For example, if you want to rank top for car loans you need to set up your blogs to talk about car loans, and get the phrase into the headline."
Blogs give sites a freshness which attracts Googlebots. "These are 'crawlers' that record the frequency of your updates," explains Lake. "If your website is static, then Google sends its crawlers round less frequently, which is bad for SEO."

Measuring up
"A lot of people had a negative association with banner ads in the past," says Drury. "Now they are growing at a phenomenal rate. It is the most expensive thing you can do, but it's great for brand building." It's only for companies with a decent budget that are prepared to undertake a sustained marketing campaign.

It's also essential to measure online advertising to see if it's working. "Using a Web analytics product can tell you what is happening on your site," says Drury. "For example, it can tell you if users are clicking on ads and if they've bought anything or where they've come from. Was it from Yahoo? If not, it's probably not worth being listed there." And it needn't cost anything. "Google analytics is free," says Drury. "There is no need to buy Web analytics software—unless you want something very specific."

Likewise, registering visitors is a quick way to chart visitor numbers. "You don't want a visitor to come and go without leaving any contact details," says Orr. "You want their email address or phone number." He suggests leaving some of your best information off the site so that visitors make an enquiry—for example, getting them to register their email address in order to download a White Paper. "You may lose more visitors by asking them to do this but the ones you do get will be more easily converted," he explains. "You will also get useful information about your website—is it attracting the right people? Is the website doing what you want it to do? Working through this information is key to improving your site."

For a small fee you can also get yourself included in various directory listings. "Yahoo has a directory that is categorised like a Yellow Pages," says Drury. "Then there is the Yellow Pages itself, Yell.com and other business directories. If you are a member of the IoD or the British Chambers of Commerce then you can get a free entry on their websites. Get your site listed in as many places as possible."

Email bonding
Gather email addresses from existing customers, potential customers and contacts at trade shows. "You can also buy lists of email addresses in the same way you can buy lists for direct mail advertising—but the great thing about email marketing is it is cheaper and you can track results quite easily," notes Drury.

He suggests companies include a button on their website that invites people to sign up to email newsletters or e-bulletins. If you are going to send e-newsletters you need to commit to it, but there are ways of making the job less onerous. "If you have a newsletter offline, you can re-use that material," he says. "Don't say you'll do a regular e-newsletter and then not do it. E-newsletters are a good way of getting your message into people's inboxes but they need to be relevant and timely-they only work if well thought through."

Use your networks
This works by persuading other people who have websites to link to yours. "You may have to pay them some kind of reward for sending you traffic—or if those visitors buy anything," says Drury. "Which sites you link to will depend on the industry you are in. Amazon may ask a knitting website to advertise knitting books, for which it will give them a small fee in return."

Likewise, get users to put your name about: "Since the early days of internet marketing, communicating to your users and trying to incentivise them to promote your site has been a good strategy, and will continue to be so," says Edward Cowell, technical director at Neutralize. "Now it's evolving into a set of strategies under the 'social bookmarking' heading."

Adds Orr: "You should use phrases like, "Refer our site to a friend" and "Link to our website" and offer incentives for referrals—such as free e-books, reports, software and other information. You could also offer discounts on other products you sell."

"Anything that drives word of mouth is all good," says Lake. "We don't do any banner or print advertising. Our success is down to word-of-mouth and PR-online and offline," he says.

Drury adds: "And make sure you put your website on all your offline marketing material—print advertising, letterhead, marketing material—any company literature." Obvious perhaps, but it's a commonly overlooked element of the marketing mix.