Marketing Your Website

Market my website? Why should I have to spend time and money marketing my website? It's supposed to be marketing my business!!!

That's how so many business owners feel, they spend a bit of money on their website design and then sit, doing nothing, waiting in vain for it to start paying dividends and bringing in the customers.

It's very simple really, nobody is going to come to your new site if they don't know about it - if they don't see mention of it, a link to it or aren't recommended it.

So how can you get your website noticed? Here's a list of the common methods you can use:

• Traditional Ads & Marketing
• Search Engines
• Online Directories
• Links Development Campaign
• Participation in Online Discussion Forums
• Article Submission
• Pay Per Click
• Banner Ads

Traditional Marketing

Magazine & newspaper ads, Yellow Pages, PR articles, leaflets & door drops, business cards, email signatures, company stationary, company vehicles, the front of your store. These and many more are places you can and should advertise your website's URL.

Search Engines

Getting to the top of a keyword search on the major search engines - Google, Yahoo etc. - is high on the wish list of most website owners. Unfortunately it's not something that will happen straightaway. It can take many months of adding content, getting links from other sites and optimising your content for keywords to get a high listing.

Online Directories

Directories are collections of website addresses that are collated by human beings. Most will charge a fee for inclusion, DMOZ/ODP is the one everyone wants to get listed in - it's free and will have a great effect on your search engine ranking, but expect to wait months if not years for a listing.

Links Development

This is one of the most powerful ways of promoting your site. It means getting other (hopefully related) sites to include links to yours. To get a link simply email the site owners and ask for one. Often you'll have to reciprocate the kindness i.e. link to their site as well but some will be happy to list your URL for nothing.

If you're a member of local business groups then don't forget to include your web address on their sites. What about all your suppliers, can you get a listing on theirs?

Not only will you get people visiting your site via all these links, you'll also improve your position on search engine listings (search engines algorithms take the number of links to your site to be an indication of its importance).

Discussion Forums

Another way you can attract attention is by participating in online discussion forums (to do with your area of expertise of course!). Most will allow you to include a website link in your signature, i.e. a link to your site in every post you make.

Article Submission

This is a brilliant way of getting noticed. If you don't have any problems writing essays then get your pen out! There are many sites that allow you to submit your articles for free and they should all allow you to include a resource section on yourself or company with a link back to your site.

Pay Per Click

Pay Per Click (PPC) is a very good way of driving traffic to a site in the short term. Google's Adwords is one of the best known PPC systems around, Overture provide another.

When somebody searches for keywords in Google you get a list of 'sponsored links' on the right hand column (go to Google and search for 'catering work' and see the sponsored links on the right). The owners of the sites don't pay anything unless the person browsing clicks through to their site.

Banner Ads

It might be worth putting up a Banner Ads on sites you know your prospective clients are likely to visit. The ads, which will be made to click through to your website, come in GIF format or, increasingly, are created in Flash for a more striking and memorable ad.

Pricing is often Cost Per Click (CPC) but most common is Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM). CPM is related to how many people see your ad.

As you can see, there are many ways of building up traffic to your site. If you've got products, services or content that people want and you're willing to put some effort into some of these methods then you will soon start to see a rise in visitors.

Trevor Lewis has over 10 years in the Software Industry. He is currently a Senior Consultant at EMNM. EMNM offer a range of new media design services including multimedia presentations and website design.

More Site Promotion Articles

The 4 Keys to Great Website Promotion ? Helping Others with Friendly & Useful Services
With all the ?How To? articles, and great advice available online today, great website promotion and running a successful online business still comes down to the simple act of providing great service and helping people with their concerns and/or problems. This article will give 4 key points in providing great website promotion.

3 Fast Ways To Get Free Content For Your Home Based Business Website
Is your website looking alittle bare? It's okay, you're about to learn 3 of the fastest ways I know to get free content for your home business website.1.

Why Your Site Needs Fresh, Relevant Content
It is said that content is king, but today 'fresh, relevant content' is the master - or is it?Every owner of a commercial web site knows that frequent fresh content is needed on their pages in order to achieve and maintain a high listing on search engines which actively seek fresh content. Google sends out its 'freshbot' spider to gather and index new material from all the sites which offer it.

Promoting Your Site Off-Line
The internet is a wonderful source of information and full of people that could be your customer. But there are many people that you would never meet online.

How To Turn Visitors Into Posters
So your having a hard time turning your visitors into posters And have no idea how to get your forum going? Well, if your someone with that problem and want things to change, look no further. In this article I will teach you different ways to encourage visitors to join your forum.

How To Stop Your Site Disappearing Into The Void
Repetition is the key to getting your adverts and promotion efforts noticed but when does repetition become over saturation which inevitably leads to boredom? Boredom and apathy. This is one of the biggest challenges you'll face when promoting your site in the hit exchanges.

Promotional Tools That Work For Online Businesses!
Promotion..

Advertising Approach For The First-time Webmaster
For the first time internet entrepreneur [newbie] the best ways to promote your website at first instance are :1. Express inclusion of your website for the usual 12 months offered by most of the major search engines.

How to Market Your Web Site Like Nobodys Business
Fresh Web Content Yields Better Search Engine ResultsAll too often, companies, organizations, and self-employed individuals spend a great deal of time and resources launching their web sites. Once the site goes live, people seem to believe internet search engines will bring them the business they need.

Fight For Online Visibility
Would you like to prevent Internet users from visiting your website? You may feel that you're asked a silly question. But then think about why so many investors are silently watching how their web projects are doomed to invisibility from the outset despite nobody wants to conceal his or her own website from the public.