For website promotion most people think SEO (search engine optimisation) and perhaps PPC (pay-per-click) advertising, but these are only two components of a much broader mix of what you can do to make your website earn its keep.

We call the wider view Website Engagement Enhancement or WEO. It's the full picture of your website and its role in your business.

SEO and PPC are tools for getting people from search engines, especially Google, to your site. That's important, but not everyone reaches your site via a search engine.

Up to a quarter can come from other websites, forums, blogs and web referrals.

Up to a quarter again may arrive direct, by typing in your url or copying it from an email or text or Tweet they have received.

It's important to promote to these sources too, especially as they may be better qualified or more profitable for you. The best promotion for them may include targeted advertising on-line and off-line, participation in forums and blogs and other social media, e-newsletters, information offers and work with clients to promote word of mouth.

The SEO area mind map

This schematic or "mind map" shows how traffic typically flows through a website. Most of it (typically 70%) comes from search engines, predominantly Google, but around 15% typically is direct (people typed in the web address) or via other websites which have made a referral.

Traffic flows from left to right, resulting in some action such as a purchase or a contact.

Traffic volume reduces fairly rapidly: in sales oriented sites there can be an 80% bounce rate on the home screen and another 80% plus on the order page.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) works with the search engines plus "behind the scenes" parts of the website to increase the number of people who go to a search engine and end up on your website.

Once they are there, SEO is finished. It has nothing to do with whether or not their visit results in an outcome you want.

Nor are people who reach your website direct or via other sites affected by SEO.

So the SEO focus is important but narrow and limited.

What happens when traffic reaches your site?

When traffic hits your site, that's where SEO and PPC stop.

But what happens next is critical; you want these people to go on, to contact you or buy or be persuaded or informed. The visit outcome is the reason for having a site – not the number of people flitting in and out.

It doesn't matter how many people bombard your site if they all leave disappointed. In fact, that's you paying to harm your business.

On the other hand, you probably don't need many visitors at all, if most of them turn into the outcome you want.

So what happens on your website – beyond the reach of SEO – is critical.

Intrinsic value and site functionality

We believe that a high return site will have intrinsic value to its target audience.

The information or products or services it offers will be what they want.

The site will work easily, intuitively, quickly to get them to the pages they need.

They will think Yes! and be pleased with the experience.

This is the essential next step to a website achieving its objectives.

In fact, delivering well within a site will progressively make up for poor or non-existent SEO and eventually do better at generating traffic than even good SEO would have.

Google themselves acknowledge this when they talk about the primary value of organic rankings (rankings based on the information value of the site to its audience).

The wider business model viewpoint

What happens on an effective website will reflect how the business actually works.

So the total business context is important.

To succeed, you need a website that fulfils essential steps in a strong business model.

The WEO view mind map

Click for bigger.

WEO (Website Engagement Optimisation) includes SEO but it takes a step back to gain a much broader view encompassing your entire business model.

For example, WEO is very concerned with what happens after people reach your website (where SEO stops). Improving the web experience can reduce traffic drop off and increase outcomes, achieving better results than SEO alone.

When the website experience is optimised, that can reach beyond the website to affect how your company is perceived and your word of mouth, delivering wider benefits.

WEO can encourage w website to feed directly into store traffic, when people use the website to "pre-shop" and select suppliers.

WEO looks at the totality of your business model, understands the role the website plays within it, and optimizes the website to maximize overall outcomes across your business model.

If you've got a business with a website, WEO is the broad business management tool that can help you get more out of it.

For example, the website may give initial inquiry information but trigger a personal sales response when a prospect downloads a report make a comment in a forum. Or the site may include essential pre-qualification information potential new clients will want to know before they consider you. In other words, the website is a key part of the business model.

That's what we mean by website engagement optimisation: using your website to win and keep customers by giving them the service and satisfaction they want.

It's the full picture.

Download our Website Engagement Optimisation brochure or call Glide for more details.

Glide's WEO packages start from just $395 per month plus $500 set up, which includes full Google analytics, site optimisation, key words and monthly reporting and recommendations.

See also:

• The true believers at Google
• Channels, repetitions and links
• What exactly is SEO?