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Promoting Your Website To have a successful business, you must promote it.  To have a successful website, you must promote your website as well - both online and offline. The Hub of Your Marketing Wheel Your website is a marketing tool.  It is the hub of your advertising wheel.  If your website is the central source of information for everything about your company, what are some commonsense ways of promoting it? To begin, think of your website as the hub of a wheel. All of the spokes on your wheel point toward its all important center, where the information is. The spokes (places where your website needs to be mentioned) are: Any advertisement you run in any other media, including:          Yellow Pages, Radio, and TV          Newspaper and Magazine ads          Coupons          Flyers and Brochures   List your web address on your business card.   List your web address on all corporate paperwork, including:          Letterhead          Purchase Orders          Invoices          Packing Slips   Include your web address as part of the Signature in your emails.   List your web address in any signage, including:          Building signage          Roadway signage (such as billboards)          Vehicle signage          Shirts, hats, and uniforms   List your website on promotional items          Pens          Mugs          Mousepads          Any of thousands of other promotional items. Here's an easy way to think of it.  Include your web address anywhere that you would ordinarily include your phone number. The "Do's" of Marketing Your Website Announce Your Website When your website is ready, announce it to your customers, potential customers, friends, family and any one else you can.  A postcard mailing is an ideal way to announce your site. Make Your Domain Name Easier to Read Make your domain name easy to read.  Domain names are sometimes rather long.  Long names with a number of words run together can sometimes be difficult to read. Capitalization of each word can make it easier to read. For example: JanesComputersMadeEasy.com is easier to read than janescomputersmadeeasy.com.  It does not matter whether your customer capitalizes your domain name or email address when typing it. Use an Email Address at Your Domain Often, we see people who have a domain name and a website using email addresses from free mail services like Hotmail, Yahoo mail,  or email from their ISP, like AOL or Comcast.  Why advertise for your ISP when you could promote your website with each and every email you send?  Rather than someone@hotmail.com make your email yourname@yourdomain.com.  This way, every email promotes your website.  Use an Email Signature Most email programs allow you to add a signature to your email.  Use that signature to promote your website, a new service, or special offer. Your signature should include a company name, address, phone number, web address, e-mail address, and a short phrase describing a unique business offering or special.

Web Promotion Resources Cosmic Marketing Web Marketing Tutorial High Rankings (Articles & Forums) Web Pro World Forum   Avoid these "Don'ts" of Marketing Your Website Never Spam Spam is unsolicited, unwanted email.  Never send mail to people who aren't your customers and who have not requested email.  Always give readers the ability to remove their name from your list and respect their wishes. Don't purchase lists and databases from unreputable sources.  They may say it is an "opt-in" list, but those people have not chosen to receive mailings from you.  Rather they were to inexperienced to know how to "opt-out" of a list. Don't Pay for Monthly Submissions You do not need to submit your site to search engines each month and you definitely do not need to pay someone to do it. Search engines find your site through links on other websites.  Once your site is listed, search engines automatically revisit the site.  There is no need to pay for submissions. Don't Submit to Link Farms You do want to submit your site to quality directories.  You do not want to link your website to link farms.  A link farm is a Web page that is nothing more than a page of links to other sites.  There is no content or value to the page. Don't forget to integrate your URL into your business. You've spent your money on a website, don't forget to integrate it fully into your marketing plan.  See the section titled Hub of Your Marketing Wheel. Don't Use "Black Hat" Techniques There are ways to "cheat" your site to the top of search engine results.  These techniques are often referred to as "black hat".  Invisible keywords, Don't Use a Free Banner Exchange Service. You get what you pay for!  It tends to look cheap and you generally see very little increase in traffic. Don't Stop Promoting Your Website Promotion is an ongoing process. Always look for new ways to promote your website. Don't Stop Updating Your Website Your website is like your house - there's always maintenance and changes.  Search engines constantly change and your website needs to keep pace.

Send out Email Specials or Newsletters Collect email addresses from your customers.  Request their permission to send email specials or newsletters.  Providing offers and information is a great way of keeping in touch with your customers.  Each email offer or newsletter should encourage readers to visit your website for more information. If your customer opts to receive the email, it is not considered spam.  However, you must always include accurate contact information and provide a method for your customer to opt out of your mailing list. Submit Your Site to Directories Find appropriate directories including local and industry-related directories.  Follow their instructions to carefully submit your website correctly.  In many directories, you pay for links.  Examples of local directories would be InWestmoreland.com and PAontheWeb.com.    Write Articles for Publication Many websites and industry-related publications accept well-written articles on pertinent topics.  These articles position you as an expert in your field, supply great content for your website, adds inbound links to your site, and lead readers to your website. Good Old Fashioned Press Releases A press release to your local papers or business association publication may encourage readers to checkout your website. Find newsworthy events (like new products, new employees, an expansion), and write that press release.  Remember that there could also be websites ready to accept your press release. Seek Backlinks for Your Website Backlinks or Inbound Links (IBLs) are links on another website that point to your site.  Search engines count IBLs as a "vote" for the quality of your website.  If you have many links pointing to your site, you have many "votes", making your site more popular. Contact related websites about a link exchange or purchase links on local or industry sites. PPC or Pay-Per-Click Advertising Most of the major search engines offer Pay-Per-Click or Pay-Per-Impression advertising. This can be a very effective and affordable way to bring targeted traffic to your website. Pay-Per-Click ads are the small blocks of advertising you usually see running down the right hand side of the page after doing a search on Google or Yahoo. When the ads are Pay-Per-Click, it means you only pay when someone clicks on them and ends up on your website. When they are Pay-Per Impression, you only pay when they appear online in response to someone’s search. On most PPC advertising, you bid on a set of selected keywords and set a daily or monthly budget.  When a user types in the keywords, the search engine decides whether or not to show your ad based on the amount you bid.  When your budget runs out, your ads are no longer displayed.  This gives you control over the amount of money you want to spend each month.

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