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Estimating traffic generated by Internet marketing campaigns is difficult due to the dynamic nature of search engines, web sites, end-user behavior, etc. However, in this post we provide the foundations so we can develop relatively simple formulations that can approximate this behavior for highly targeted marketing campaigns.

In the following, we discuss how the amount of traffic generated to a website by Internet marketing due to SEO and PPC can be estimated. We develop two models that can estimate traffic due to SEO: 1) a model based on surfing behaviors; and, 2) a traffic model based upon the server’s weblogs. Other types of traffic – Email, SMO, etc., are addressed as well.

A. SEO Traffic Modeling Assumptions

One of the objectives of SEO is to increase volume and quality of (organic) traffic to a web site from the search engines. In general, the earlier a site is presented in the search engine results pages (SERP), the higher it ranks. In fact, one of the goals of SEO is to get organic rankings for the site in the top 10 or so listings of the SERP for identified key business phrases. The reason is that studies have shown that the higher the site is ranked in the SERP, then the likelihood of the user clicking the link associated with that site is higher [3].  Also, studies have shown that when a link is listed after the first 2 pages, it is rarely clicked [3].

Recalling what SEO involves, the following steps (very) briefly describe this activity:

1. Key Phrase Analysis – involves determining what phrases surfers utilize to visit the web site and  convert. Usually, a set of phrases are formulated that best describes the business and the products/services.
2. On-Page SEO – includes amending HTML code on existing web pages (i.e., modifying the title, meta tags, and content of pages to include key phrases); and, if necessary, creating additional pages with content relevant to the search phrases identified in Step 1. These actions increase the likelihood that users will visit the site using identified phrases.
3. Off-Page SEO – includes link building, which consists of submitting the website to major search engines and directories, and trying to obtain back links from “relevant” sites.

To develop a traffic model for SEO, it is important that the following assumptions are made:

Assumption 1. Reasonable estimates of key phrase rankings due to SEO efforts are possible.

Assumption 2. Key phrases identified in Step 2 are representative of organic search terms surfers utilize when visiting the site.

From our experience, Assumption 1 is actually relatively easy to do for an experienced SEO. The reason is that search engine ranking algorithms (i.e., PageRank, Yahoo!, MSN, etc.) tend to have ranking peculiarities and knowledgeable SEO’s understand and know how to take advantage of this.

Assumption 2 turns out to be much more difficult since user searching behavior tends to be very unpredictable. In fact, it is known that on any given day 20 – 25% of the searches in the Google query logs are new. This presents a problem, which we address in a later section where we develop Search Grammars that characterize phrases surfers are likely to search on.

In the next post, we’ll discuss an organic click-through model.

Internet marketing is the approach of applying advertising techniques to generate traffic to websites with the goal of consuming some service, product, information, etc. Generally speaking, common Internet marketing techniques include (but are not limited to):

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising
• Display advertising
• E-mail marketing
• Affiliate marketing
• Social media optimization (SMO)

In recent years, the business community has developed techniques that can drive traffic to web servers; however, little work has been done to develop models that can evaluate the performance of web servers resulting from increased traffic generated by Internet marketing campaigns.

From a capacity planning perspective, this is an important consideration given that Internet marketing is expected to grow at rates of at least 20% per year. For instance, some Internet marketing approaches employ PPC, which when implemented can generate traffic to a website in a matter of minutes. Others may take longer like SEO.

In these series of posts, we present traffic models that are able to estimate the traffic due to Internet marketing campaigns:

• A surfer click-through model
• A content building model
• A traditional capacity planning model that uses historical data to predict future traffi

The traffic models can then used as input to an M/M/1 queue where web server performance measures can be ascertained. Our empirical results suggest that Internet marketing can have a significant impact on web server performance – much more than expected. Thus, it’s important for system administrators, web hosting services, etc., to understand the relationship between Internet marketing and web server performance since user-perceived performance is often a major factor determining whether e-commerce transactions are completed.

In the next post, we’ll discuss how SEO traffic models can be developed and utilized to assess the performance of web servers.

Facebook allows for 2 networking tools:

1. Creating/ joining a Facebook group

1. Creating/ joining a Facebook fan page

While the major differences become evident only after you try out them first,

the 2 major differences include

1. Unlike groups, fan pages are visible to unregistered people and are thus indexed (important for reputaion management, for example)

1. Unlike pages, groups allow to send out “bulk invite” (you can easily invite all your friends to join the group while with pages you will be forced to drop some invites manually). Groups are thus better for viral marketing, meaning that any group member can also send bulk invites to the friends of his.

Now let’s go into some details:

To conclude

• Pages are generally better for a long-term relationships with your fans, readers or customers

• Groups are generally better for hosting a (quick) active discussion and attracting quick attention