New Website Investment, 12 Months Later Ready for Growth

With a new website investment of less than $2500 (including ads), this client is poised for solid growth in 2025. In this case study, I share a strategy we’re using on a client website from 2024 poised for solid growth now in 2025.

• Can a website built on a budget of under $2500 truly compete in today’s digital landscape?
• Is it possible to achieve significant organic growth without relying heavily on paid advertising?
• What strategies did we use to build a strong online presence with a minimal new website investment?

Let’s discuss a recently developed website that has been live for a year.

• The objective was to enter the market with a gradual approach and minimal expenses.
• The initial web design cost was under $2000, while advertising expenses throughout the year totaled less than $500.
• The primary focus revolved around generating organic traffic by implementing comprehensive keyword coverage, strategic topic clusters on the website, and active promotion across various social media platforms.

User Acquisition and User Engagement

By using a low-cost, slow-paced strategy, this website was able to be strategic and methodical about developing content on the website.

Now, we have solid data on which channels to deploy a significant ad budget.

Take a look at the user acquisition data for the final 30 day period ending on Jan. 2, 2025. It shows:

• Channels that are driving traffic to the website for this month.
• The number of sessions (times a user views the website)
• Gives several metrics on how engaged users were.

Determining Potential for Conversion

To determine which channel was most effective at acquiring qualified leads, we analyzed ‘Average Engagement Time Per Session’ for each traffic source. Interestingly, we found that Organic Social traffic consistently demonstrated an average engagement time exceeding 2 minutes per session. This significant engagement time suggests that users arriving from organic social channels are highly interested and actively exploring the new website’s content, indicating a higher potential for conversion.

Determining the Best Landing Pages

After determining the best used channel for traffic, we can use average engagement time to also determine the best landing pages.

The top three landing pages had between 51 seconds and over 2 minutes as their average engagement time. This indicates they were (a) well-designed and (b) well-matched to the users’ intent.

Here’s why:

• If the landing page for your “About Us” page shows a significantly higher average engagement time than your “Contact Us” page for visitors arriving from Organic Social, it suggests that users coming from social media are more interested in learning about your company and its values.
• Conversely, if the landing page for a specific product or service demonstrates high engagement for visitors from a particular search engine, it indicates that that landing page is effectively capturing the attention of users who are actively searching for that product or service.

Website Events Signal Effective Promotions

The chart below is the 12-month picture of the website.

What do you see?

The green highlight is the 60 day period where we developed the site and expanded the number of landing pages and blog posts on the site. During this period, we saw steady growth in traffic.

In August, we ran a 2-week promotion on social media. It included daily posting with a minor ad budget (<$200). This results in a spike in website events.

In December, we started a PPC ad campaign, generated another, more substantial spike in website events. More importantly, we fine tuned the brand messaging and audience targeting.

Why does measuring website events matter?

• Spikes in Events: Look for periods where there are significant spikes in one or more event types. For example, a sudden increase in “session starts,” “page views,” and “user engagement” during a specific timeframe could indicate that a recent promotion was successful in driving traffic and engaging users.
• If you observe a sharp increase in “page views” and “user engagement” during a period when a specific email campaign or social media promotion was running, it suggests that the promotion was effective in driving traffic and engaging users on the website.

Understanding Website Events on a New Website

Events show engagement. It’s a way to measure audience interest. While clicks measure how effective an ad is, events measure how effective a webpage is. The most common events are:

• Page views: The total number of pages viewed on the website.
• Session starts: The number of user sessions initiated on the website.
• First visits: The number of new users visiting the website for the first time.
• User engagement: A measure of user interaction, such as time spent on the site, number of pages visited, or interactions with elements.
• Scroll: The number of times users scrolled down the page.

Is a slow paced, low-cost strategy the best move for a new website investment?

It depends.

It certainly has strengths. Let’s analyze the strategy.

Strengths

• Sustainable Foundation: Focusing on organic traffic through SEO and content marketing is a long-term, sustainable strategy. Paid advertising can be fleeting, while organic traffic can provide consistent, valuable visitors over time.
• Cost-Effective: The low upfront investment and minimal ad spend demonstrate a strong focus on ROI and building a foundation without excessive initial costs.
• Strategic Approach: Utilizing keyword research, topic clusters, and consistent content creation suggests a well-thought-out approach to attracting organic traffic.
• Data-Driven Insights: After 12 months, you should have valuable data on website traffic sources, user behavior, and content performance.

Challenges

• Slow Growth: As the name suggests, this strategy prioritizes organic growth, which can be slower than paid advertising or aggressive marketing campaigns. It may take time to see significant results in terms of website traffic and leads.
• Maintaining Momentum: Sustaining consistent effort and motivation can be challenging over the long term. Creating and promoting high-quality content consistently requires ongoing dedication and resource allocation.
• Competition: In a competitive market, organic growth can be difficult to achieve. It may require significant effort to outrank competitors with larger budgets and established online presence.

Opportunities

• Sustainable Growth: Organic traffic is a valuable asset that can provide a steady stream of visitors and leads over the long term, even if paid advertising campaigns are paused or reduced.
• Cost-Effectiveness: This strategy minimizes upfront costs and ongoing expenses, making it ideal for businesses with limited budgets.
• Brand Building: Focusing on high-quality content and building a strong online presence helps establish brand authority and credibility in the long run.

Outlook for this New Website

By prioritizing organic growth through a combination of strategic keyword research, comprehensive topic clusters, and consistent social media engagement, the website established a strong foundation over the past year.

With a loyal following of over 3,000 individuals across various channels (video views, email subscribers, and social media followers), the website is now poised for significant expansion. By leveraging this existing audience and investing in targeted paid advertising campaigns on platforms like Google Ads and social media, the website can accelerate growth and achieve its business objectives.

The case study demonstrates that a well-executed organic growth strategy, coupled with a data-driven approach to paid advertising, can be highly effective for businesses seeking to build a strong online presence and achieve sustainable success.