2. Design your Web site to encourage word-of-mouth promotion.
Make sure your Web site speaks for itself so others can pass the word along. Your site's layout should be intuitive and your content easy to understand so visitors can quickly navigate and gather information. When your site is well-designed and you offer information, a product or service visitors need they will be sure to tell their friends, family and coworkers about your site. It is also good to revise and update your site to encourage repeat visitors.
Consider including the following SiteBuilder Elements into your site to develop a sense of community and encourage word-of-mouth promotion:
Last week I got a call from my cousin who had just finished building a Web site for his t-shirt printing business. Because I work at an Internet company, he thought I would know why only 20 people visited his site in the last month. I asked him what he was doing to promote his site. The answer came down to, "Not very much."
So I thought I'd write this article to tell you what I told my cousin to attract more visitors to your Web site think about the promotion of your Web site as part of your overall advertising and marketing strategy. This can range from adding your Web address to offline advertisements, to maximizing your site design and setup all the way to submitting to search engines and purchasing premium services. Let's begin with the basics and go from there. By the way, if you'd like to see visual examples of what I'm talking about, be sure to visit the demoLAB.
3. Setup your site to maximize search engine results.
After you've finished building your Web site and before you submit it to search engines, make sure your site is setup to maximize these tools' results. First, complete your site. I know it sounds pretty basic, but many of these companies will not list sites that are "under construction" in order to maintain the quality of their lists.
Here are some more concrete techniques to maximize search engine results:
Use the 'Recommend this Site' Element so visitors can send your Web site address to others they think would be interested in your site.
Add customer testimonials to lend credibility and showcase your best customers.
Use the Mailing List Elements to set up a member or customer mailing list to let everyone know about the latest news, specials and products or services.
Add a 'Guest Book' Element to collect visitor comments and feedback. This can help you keep up-to-date with visitors' needs and result in a better site.
1. Incorporate your Web site into current advertising and marketing efforts.
Review what you're currently doing to attract and maintain customers and incorporate your Web site into these efforts. If your Web site is not a business site, think about how you would normally tell friends and family of a new interest or hobby. For example, if you currently use flyers, business cards, and yellow pages, newspaper or trade magazine advertisements make sure to include your Web site address. Also, get the word out about your Web site when you participate in trade organization meetings, club gatherings, and relevant online discussion groups.
Insert well-chosen meta tags into your Web site. Meta tags are words and descriptions about your site that are embedded in the HTML code on each page of your site. This information is used by search engines and Web directories to classify sites for their indices. "Page description" and "keyword" meta tags are the most commonly used so you should add this information to at least your 'index' page. Refer to the Q and A section to see how to do this in SiteBuilder and for additional meta tag tips. Also, if you are having trouble coming up with variations of your keywords, Wordtracker (http://www.wordtracker.com/) offers an online service that helps you generate additional keyword combinations.
Use effective page titles that include keywords you would use to describe your site. See the Q and A section for more details.
Include keywords you would use to describe your site in the opening paragraphs of your Web pages.
4. Submit your site to search engines
Once you've maximized your site for the search engines, it's time to submit your site! Homestead offers a TrafficBuilder upgrade that enables you submit to over 100 search engines, along with other tools to help you attract customers.
To learn more or to sign up for TrafficBuilder, do the following:
Click the 'Promote My Site' link under Web site services.
5. Manage your search engine submissions and expectations.
Don't think once you've submitted your site random people searching on the Internet will come rushing to it. Submitting your site is not the same as getting it listed. Each search engine has it's own policies and timeline for determining how and when a site gets listed. It can take a couple of weeks to a few months to list your site and there are no guarantees that it will be accepted. To understand their process and policies more clearly, go directly to the search engines' sites. The FAQs and Help sections are usually the best places to find information.
All these online promotion tools can be very effective in reaching visitors and customers but remember to weigh the cost of these services with the gain in traffic and revenue. Sometimes you'll find the best visitors come from qualified leads in the offline world. Remember to focus on your overall advertising and marketing strategy.
