THS Articles

A Web Host's One-Two Punch: Search Engine Marketing & ROI Tracking

By Shari Thurow and Grant Crowell

If Web hosting companies allow clients to download log files, they should explain the procedure in a Customer Support, Help, or How-to section of their site. Technical support should also be available for this service.

Robert Mangiafico, CTO of Lexiconn, offers this advice. "Typically log files from Web hosts are pretty decent, save for some possible exceptions," he says. "Hosts might strip down log files to a bare minimum and not provide details, keeping log files as small as possible. IP addresses might not be resolved correctly, and site owners cannot see how many visitors are coming from a specific site."

Tips for Web hosts
Be honest with prospects.
Don't have your sales staff sell high-cost hosting and analytics packages to people who have brochure sites. Likewise, don't sell low-cost hosting and hit counters to people who expect to generate qualified sales leads and sales from their sites.

Always offer a wide range of ROI tracking packages.
Offer a reliable free statistics plan for basic hosting, and more robust ROI tracking plan for advanced hosting. Even if you do not offer any Web analytics packages, make sure you at least support the most common ROI tracking software.

If you cannot offer a proper Web analytics package, make log files easily available.

Make how-to and download information readily available in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), Help, or Customer Service section of your site.

Use proper terminology.
Many prospects and clients do not understand the proper terminology in the Web hosting, site design, and online marketing industries. Having a glossary of terms, a customer support, and a tips section will help you, your clients, and your prospects use the same vocabulary. You might find that these sections of your site will help generate sales leads and search engine traffic as well.

Offer top-notch technical support.
Make sure you have staff who can provide in-house support, so you are not sending people away to the Web analytics host every time your customers have questions.

Ease of use is important.
Even if customers are paying additional hosting fees, they do not want to be spending a large amount of hours setting up and training themselves on their ROI tracking software. It should be fairly intuitive. Again, a tips or customer support section of your site can help generate additional traffic and help close a sale.

Establish partnerships with trusted search engine marketing firms or individuals.
Negotiate lower rates with search engine marketers if you give them a steady stream of client projects. You can also offer discounted plans to your customers if they purchase hosting, search engine marketing, and ROI tracking services.

Tie in your other programs with search engine marketing.
If you have any eCommerce tools as part of your hosting and design, find out how search-friendly it is or how well its data can integrate into standard analytics software.

Don't forget to target your local area.
People like to know that if they are confused about Internet terminology, they can call their customer service representatives or meet them directly for assistance.

When I was an online marketing manager at a large Web hosting company, I discovered that many Web hosts did not reach out to their local community. Chambers of Commerce and local organizations (American Marketing Association, Public Relations Society of America, Direct Marketing Association, etc.) are a great way to network. You might be surprised at the number of companies who are not aware of search engine marketing and ROI tracking.