In my previous post I outlined the need for SEO. In this post I shall outline two methods you can use to achieve this: user registration and viral techniques. Each have their pro’s and con’s, and you should weigh up these to see which method best suits your needs, if any.
###User Registration
If your site offers users a service or extended functionality, you could require them to provide registration details to access some, or all, of your content. As users register on your site and tell their friends, their friends too will register upon your site. This has two effects: firstly you will gain a pool of information about your user base, and secondly site momentum will increase as more users register and encourage their friends to do likewise.
Popular social networking sites such as Facebook have successfully exploited this technique. If you browse their site, virtually no information is publicly visible until you register.
Of course, there is a downside to this approach. This being that the registration process presents a bar that will turn away a percentage of your users. This can be managed by ensuring your registration process is as quick and easy as possible. Additionally, access to the site can be granular – expose basic functionality for free, but then prompt for registration for advanced services.
###Viral Techniques
Viral content, such as e-mail forwards and videos, has increased in recent years. This is partly due to prevalence of the Internet and the rise of services such as YouTube. Internet Memes exploit these new methods and spread rapidly across the Internet. Chances are you will have received a forward email or a link to the star wars kid.
Traditionally, businesses have clamped down on the Internet being used for such purposes, but now they are awakening to possibility of using such techniques for marketing campaigns. By creating content that is funny and amusing, yet somehow promoting your website or product, it is possible to create a message that users will actively promote and send to their friends, thus popularising your site.
###Conclusion
Both of these methods are useful for different scenarios. If your site doesn’t fit these, don’t worry – there are other options available that I shall be exploring in later posts.