11
Ways To Promote Your Website
There
are many ways to promote your website,
but we often forget some of the
most effective. Let's review my
11 ways to promote your website.
Headers,
Tags, and Titles - Search engines
continue to evolve but there are
a few things you still can do to
give them a clue about what's on
your website. One is to include
your keywords in header tags. Additionally,
craft a one or two sentence description
that explains the content of each
page, including some keywords from
the page. This should go between
the Head tags. Finally, you should
write short, descriptive titles
for each page. Don't use the same
one for each.
Keywords
- Look at your website copy. Are
your keywords in the first paragraph?
They should be because that is where
the search engines expect to find
them. But don't go overboard with
keywords.
SEO
- The above tips actually are fairly
basic SEO activities, but there
are some higher level SEO tactics
that will help raise you site above
the crowd. Hyperlink your keywords
to make them stand out for both
search engines and for carbon-based
web visitors. Make the linked keyword
more noticeable to search engines
by linking it to a page that uses
the keyword in its address. For
example, if you hyperlink the phrase
"ad agency" the page to
which it is linked would have "ad
agency" in its address to raise
its profile. While we're linking,
let's make these linked pages truly
focused on information about specific
keywords. If you really want to
place your SEO program on steroids,
purchase one of the software packages
that helps you analyze each page
on your site for its appeal to search
engines.
Submit
- There are both search engines
and directories where you will want
to submit your site. Key search
engines for url submission include:
Google, Yahoo, MSN Live Search,
AOL and Ask. More than 95 percent
of search volume happens at these
engines. So, don't bother too much
with all the small fries. And it
is not hard to complete free registration
for these engines. Typically, they
will have a link that says something
like "add your URL." There
are a number of directories like
DMOZ.com where you will want to
submit your site, too. And, I think
it is worthwhile to pay the $299
at the Yahoo directory. There may
also be directories specifically
for your industry.
Link
- Develop a linking program where
you solicit links from sites that
cover the same topics as you. This
directs traffic from those sites.
Additionally, it tells search engines
that you must have something worthwhile
on your site if others are linking
to you.
Write
- Articles, blogs, news releases
- all of these can help you increase
your exposure and drive traffic
to your primary website. Craft your
"About The Author" box
to include your web address. Once
your article is picked up by other
publishers, this will become a one-way
link to your site, possibly helping
boost your search engine ranking.
Submit your press releases to PRWeb.
I get a ton of traffic for myself
and clients using this service.
Go
Email - Develop your own e-newsletter,
like Think, to help drive repeat
traffic to your site. I use nTarget
for my email marketing. Then, archive
the newsletter on your site. This
solid content tells search engines
that there is a reason to visit
you. Try to get other enewsletter
publishers to mention you, consider
trading ads with other publishers,
or just buying ads outright. Finally,
don't underestimate the power of
a good email signature to drive
site traffic.
Give
Yourself A Promotion - Sponsor contests
or develop your own promotions and
then submit them to contest directories
like Contest Hound. You could give
away copies of your book, e-book,
or white papers for people who sign
up for your newsletter. Give away
your product or service to randomly
selected registrants. This is a
good way to build your list of contacts
so you can then drive them back
to your site.
Pay
The Man - ReachLocal is my pay-per-click
ad engine of choice. If you are
truly local, this is a cost-efficient
way to reach people in a specific
market only. However, you also can
launch nationwide campaigns, too.
You deal only with ReachLocal and
it handles placing and paying for
the ads with multiple publishers.
It works for budgets of all sizes.
Speak
Up - All right, let's go analog.
There is no better way to make a
good impression on a large number
of people at one time than to deliver
a good speech. Be sure to have business
cards or some type handout that
lists your website. Every time I
do a presentation I see a spike
in web visits and enewsletter sign-up.
Go
Offline - Look at every printed
piece that you have. Is your web
address featured prominently? Is
it in small type or - horrors -
not even there! Businesses with
fleets of cars and trucks should
have the web address on their vehicles.
Think about other physical places
you can promote your site.
Those
are my 11 ways. Get to it.
About the Author
Harry Hoover is a partner in advertising
agency My Creative Team. He has
30 years of experience in crafting
and delivering bottom line messages
that ensure success for serious
businesses like Bank of Commerce,
CruisingTheICW.com, Duke Energy,
Focus Four, Levolor, North Carolina
Tourism, Premier, Rubbermaid, TeamHeidi,
Ty Boyd Executive Learning Systems,
VELUX, and Verbatim.
