Test Your Website Marketing Knowledge
By Michael Cheney, Sat Dec 10th
"You Think You Know Website Marketing? The Quiz" Here are 5 questions to flex your mental muscle to. The answersand explanations are at the end - no cheating now! RULES: There are no trick questions. You cannot ask the audiencebut I welcome you to 'Phone a Friend' (and forward this articleonto them!).
*Question 1: "What happens if you submit your website to Google more thanonce?" A. Nothing. B. You are at risk of being penalised for multiple submissions C. Your submission is bumped to the back of the queue *Question 2: "According to a survey conducted by AC Nielsen in December 2004what did people state as their primary reason for doing theirChristmas shopping online?" A. Saves time B. Better prices C. Ability to find a more personalized gift *Question 3: "In Internet terms, what is a 'spider'?" A. It's a virus that spreads using loopholes in certain webtechnologies B. It's a software tool that search engines use to retrieveinformation from websites C. It's another word for a person that browses websites *Question 4: "What is the industry average click through rate for banneradvertisements? I.e. what percentage of all banner ads areactually clicked on?" A. 0.39% B. 1.39% C. 2.39% *Question 5: "According to the latest research from the Computer IndustryAlmanac what was the worldwide online population in 2004? I.e.how many of the people, worldwide, accessed the Internet at somepoint in 2004?" A. 934 million B. 714 million C. 579 million **THE ANSWERS Q.1 - "What happens if you submit your website to Google morethan once?" A. Nothing. Google doesn't mind how many times you submit your website.However there are search engines out there that will penaliseyou for submitting too often. This is what Google says aboutsubmitting to its site: "You are free to submit as often as you wish. However, given thenature of our inclusion process your time is better spentimproving the content and links of your site." Q.2 - "According to a survey conducted by AC Nielsen in December2004 what did people state as their primary reason for doingtheir Christmas shopping online?" A. Saves time 78% of the 1007 people surveyed gave ‘Saves time' as theiranswer when asked their reasons for shopping online. The surveyfindings: Reasons for Shopping Online: Saves time 78% Better prices 51% More selection 43% Easiershipping 40% Ability to find a more personalized gift 28% Moreinformation
available about the products 20% What this tells us is that people no longer view the Internet asa low-cost option. So perhaps you need to take a look at yourown website and focus more on making the buying process as quickand simple as possible rather than trying to cut prices toattract buyers.. Q. 3 - "In Internet terms, what is a ‘spider'?" B. It's a software tool that search engines use to retrieveinformation from websites When your website is submitted to a search engine the searchengine sends out a ‘spider' to visit your site and retrieve allthe information from it. The spider then returns to the searchengine with all the information that is then added to the searchengine's database. The results you see when you use a search engine are not livesnapshots of websites. Instead, the results show the informationthat the spider collected the last time it visited each website.This is why it is sometimes possible to see a link that looksfine in the search engine results and then click on it to findit no longer exists. This is because the search engine spider has yet to revisit thiswebsite and update the search engine's records. Q.4 - "What is the industry average click through rate forbanner advertisements? I.e. what percentage of all banner adsare actually clicked on?" A. 0.39% The latest studies indicate that only 0.39% of banners shown areactually clicked on. With powerful graphics and enticing offersthis average clickthrough rate can be improved ten-fold or more.But the point remains that advertising by using banners alone nolonger appears to be viable route unless, that is, the costs ofusing this method are exceptionally low. Q.5 - "According to the latest research from the ComputerIndustry Almanac what was the worldwide online population in2004? I.e. how many of the people, worldwide, accessed theInternet at some point in 2004?" A. 934 million It's predicted that this year the online population will hit 1billion! Not all of these people will be your potentialcustomers but no matter which way you look at - there has neverbeen a better time to have a well-marketed website! **SCORES - How Many Did You Get Right? 0 - 2: Don't forget - you learn more in this life from yourmistakes than you do from anything else! 3 - 4: Well done! You obviously know your stuff or you're goodat guessing! 5 out of 5: Outstanding! Top marks for you! About the author:Michael Cheney is the Author of The Website Marketing BibleTM: "High five Michael! Your bible is superb! The world needs toread it and learn from it." - Jay Conrad Levinson, Author of"Guerrilla Marketing" http://www.websitemarketingbible.com |
