5 Ways to Get Your Website Noticed
Many people unfamiliar with the internet or with online marketing put a lot of faith in the old adage that “if you build it, they will come.” Unfortunately, this couldn’t be much further from the truth. Building a website and hoping for a solid stream of visitors is akin to opening a new retail store in the middle of the Sahara desert. Quite simply, no-one is going to find it, and you’re certainly not going to make any sales.
Fortunately, there are a number of things you can do to increase your website’s exposure. Not all of these tips will apply to every industry or type of website, but they’re a good outline to get started.
1) Ensure that your website is properly optimized for search engine placement. There are a number of factors that can help make your website more “appealing” to big search engines such as Google. If you want to hit the first page of the search engine rankings for your main keywords, you’ll want your website to be well optimized: page titles, keyword density, internal links, breadcrumb navigation, and a site map are all tools that can be used to help make your website more Google-friendly.
2) Get people to link to your website. There are a number of ways to go about this, but one of the most effective is to send quick personalized emails to webmasters of related websites. Tell them about your new website, why they should visit, and why they should link to your website. It also helps to visit online business directories and request that your website be listed. Quality over quantity is important here, and you only want inbound links from high-quality, related websites. Place special emphasis on gaining links from well-established websites that already rank well in the search engines. Google has been known to punish websites for having too many incoming links from garbage or unrelated websites.
3) Content is King. The more free information you provide to people, the more likely they are to stay on your website and/or return at a later date. Search engines will also like your website much more if you offer visitors good quality information. For example, if you own a small used car dealership, you could offer your visitors some information about what type of cars you sell. You might dedicate a few pages to educating people on how to choose a car or how to determine a car’s gas mileage. Don’t bother plagiarizing information from another site, though, because Google can see right through that and may actually punish you for publishing duplicate content.
4) Pay for advertising on search engines, at least to start. Even if you don’t have a long-term budget for online advertising (often called Pay-Per-Click advertising or “PPC”), it’s a great way to jump-start your online presence. Setting up advertisements on major search engines is relatively simple, but there are a number of nuances and tricks that can make the difference between an advertising campaign’s success and failure.
5) Let people know you have a website. An important marketing aspect for traditional product or service based businesses is word of mouth. Update your business cards, brochures, and marketing materials to include your new website address. Send out an email announcement or press release to your contact list and let everyone know about your new site. Ask friends or industry contacts to send out an announcement to their mailing lists. Service-based or professional companies may wish to take out advertising in industry print publications to announce the launch of your new website.
Again, several of these tactics are targeted specifically to different types of businesses, but for the most part they apply to all new websites. After all, it doesn’t make much sense to build your store in the middle of the Sahara. Build it on Broadway instead...
Mark Borland is the owner of Borland
Studios Web Development. With over ten years of experience,
he specializes in affordable web design and web marketing
for individuals and small businesses.
Contact
Mark Borland
Tel: 250.413.7577
mark@borlandstudios.com
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