Generating web site traffic: a new model for SMEs

Abstract

Purpose -Organisations now regard having a web site as mandatory but as more businesses create websites the real challenge lies in driving traffic to a specific web site. Little research attention has been paid to the issues for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of how to increase traffic to their web site. This paper addresses the issue of web site traffic generation for SMEs which have limited resources to determine how SMEs might make more effective use of search engine marketing (SEM) tools to increase web site traffic. Design/methodology/approach -An investigation of specific SEM tools, including press release distribution and directory submission, that are available to SMEs was conducted. This research paper follows a mixed methods approach incorporating Pearson's product moment correlation conducted on web site traffic and backlinks data as well as qualitative analysis of interview transcripts of three SME organisations and their use of search engine optimisation across different industries. Findings -The findings indicate that a combined use of both press release distribution and directory submission does increase traffic generation to a web site. A tentative model is proposed which requires further testing. Practical implications -This paper demonstrates the synergy that can be created from two easily accessible and low cost SEM tools for SMEs in order to improve web site traffic generation. Originality/value -The value of this research lies in the fact that the tools used in the creation of the model are within the means of small organisations and therefore highly relevant to SMEs.

Uso de sitios web por las pymes comerciales del cantón Cuenca // Use of commercial websites by the SMEs in the city of Cuenca

“…En el mismo contexto, el crecimiento de las pequeñas empresas y las redes sociales ha provocado la necesidad de explorar varios segmentos de la Web 2.0 para orientar a los clientes Tabla 7. Número de compañías activas de acuerdo a la Clasificación Industrial Internacional Uniforme (CIIU) en Cuenca para una mayor expansión buscando generar modelos y metodologías publicitarias para internet y las redes sociales para las pymes (Beloff y Pandya, 2010) (Quinton & Khan, 2009), sin dejar de lado que el costo de aplicar comercio electrónico puede ser más "barato" y más asequible para empresas pymes (Choshin y Ghaffari, 2017).…”

Uporedna Analiza Onlajn Vidljivosti Visokoškolskih Ustanova Primenom Alata Internet Marketinga

“…SEM ili Search engine marketing je tehnika internet marketinga koja povećava rangiranje veb-stranice na pretraživačima koja ima za cilj da se dovede što veći saobraćaj na veb-sajt [8]. SEM ima svoja dva osnovna oblika: SEO kao neplaćeni oblik i PPC kao plaćeni oblik rangiranja veb-sajta [9].…”

Click-and-Mortar SMEs: Attracting customers to your website

“…Seventy percent of search engine users never look beyond the first page of results (Jansen & Spink, 2006), so managers need to bear in mind that ranking high is the key to success. While global firms can afford to invest millions in positioning techniques, SMEs--which often lack sufficient budgets for online marketing (Quinton & Khan, 2009)--need to follow a set of simple, affordable techniques that can help firms become more visible online.…”