Once you have built your new website, you don’t have time to sit back and admire your creation, the work is just beginning. Thousands of web pages are being added to the Internet every day and if you want your page to be visited, then you have to make special efforts to promote your site. No two sites are equal and there may be a particular promotion method that works best for you, however, here are seven methods that you can consider before launching your promotion campaign:
1. Get your site listed in the major search engines.
At the present time most Internet traffic is delivered by three search engines: Google, Yahoo and MSN. If you want “free” traffic, then your site must be listed in these search engines and it must appear prominently when someone makes a query using a keyword or phrase that is related to your business or your activity. Getting listed is not a big problem as the three major search engines use “spiders”(robotic programs) that scour the Internet constantly looking for new sites. The best way to be found by the spiders is to get a link to your site from a website that is already listed in the search engines. Ask your web designer, your hosting firm, your friends or business associates to link to your new site.
After a few weeks check to see if your site is listed in the search engines. If you are not listed then you will have to manually submit your site using these urls: Google: http://www.google.com/addurl.html . Yahoo: http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html and MSN: http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx
2. Distribute an Online Press Release.
In the offline world of business, whenever your company does something new you should let the media know about it by issuing a press release. The same goes for the Internet. Write a one page press release, around 400 words, letting the world know about your new website. Put emphasis on the aspect of your business or website that you think is newsworthy. The press release can be distributed through online services such as www.prweb.com . If you write a good release it will picked up by journalists, by blog publishers and webmasters looking for news.
3. Participate in Forums and Blogs Related to Your Industry
The Internet is becoming more interactive with each passing day. If you want to get known then you have to take part in this interactivity. Visit blogs and forums that are of interest to you. Learn something from them, and from time to time leave a comment. Don’t try to push your website or business, but add something useful to the conversation, and of course put your website’s address in your signature.
4. Write and distribute articles about your area of expertise
Webmasters and newsletter publishers are hungry for good content. If you write a 500-800 word article about a topic that is related to your business, then you can easily get it published on hundreds of websites around the net. As with your forum participation, you should not try to directly sell your business or products. Rather, if you offer good information people will begin to respect you as an expert in your field and will click on the link to your site which is usually provided in the author-information at the end of your article.
5. Submit your site to directories related to your website’s theme
In addition to the major search engines, you should look around and find directories that list sites in your field of activity. For example if you are a web designer, then you would want your site listed in directories of webmaster resources. To find these directories make a search online for something like this: “pet supplies directory”, “pet suppliers directory” and you will find strategic places where you can add your link. Just substitute your field for the term “pet supplies.”
6. Exchange links with complementary websites
One of the oldest forms of promotion on the Internet is the trading of links between two websites. Make a search for websites that are related to yours and propose an exchange of links with each of these sites. The process works faster and more efficiently if you place a link for the other site before requesting a link to your site.
7. Use paid advertisements
It takes time for some of the promotion methods to pay off. If you want to start doing business immediately, then you will have to pay for online advertising. The most effective way to do this is to participate in Google’s Adwords program. The small advertisements that you see in the right hand column of the Google search results pages, and the advertisements that appear on many websites are placed by advertisers who pay each time someone clicks on the link. Go to http://adwords.google.com to learn more about this program.
If you use a combination of these seven methods to promote your website, then you will be more than satisfied with the results.
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Fei Lim owns and operates Flizard Technologies, www.flizard.com , a firm that provides web hosting services, sells domain names, develops web applications, installs network hardware solutions, repairs computers, and designs websites.
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