Marketing Your Website
Have you just had a new website designed or your current website redesigned? Not sure what the next step is? Or maybe your current website isn't getting the traffic or search engine ranking you are hoping for. What can you do to improve the visibility of your website? Here are a few tips or ideas that will help get your website out to more people.
Website coding: Make sure your website is built right from the get-go. Your website designer/coder should make sure they use all the proper meta tags on each page. Those tags would include keywords, a description and a title tag. Search engines use these tags to determine the relevance of the content and what position your site is going to show up at in searches.
Pay per click marketing: Sometimes referred to in online marketing as PPC, pay per click marketing gives you the opportunity to be the #1 ranked advertisement for specified search terms in a search engine. How does it work you ask? You first sign up for an account with a major search engine such as Google or Yahoo. You then enter keywords that may relate to your website and that you think people may be searching to get to your site. You can then place a maximum bid amount you are willing to pay for each term each time that it is clicked, or let the search engine automatically set bid amounts. On a tight budget or only want to spend a certain amount each month on pay per click advertising? No problem! Search Engines let you set a monthly spending limit so you don't go over that budget. The great thing about pay per click advertising is that you only pay for the ads that are actually clicked on.
Sharing links: In many smaller communities it is vital to build relationships with other businesses in the area. Maybe it is getting them to recommend your business by word of mouth, or perhaps getting them to sell your goods or services. The more exposure you have, the better, right? The same goes for your website. Ask other local businesses to trade links with your website. Get your site linked to as many websites as possible. Search engines crawl the web and search incoming and outgoing links on each page. The more links you have going to your website, the better your ranking will be in search engines. Wonder who is linking to your website? Go to a search engine and type in the term link: followed by your website's url. For example, link:www.mysite.com. This will show you which sites have links to your website.
E-newsletters: An e-newsletter is an inexpensive way to keep in touch with your customers and drive them to your website. You can keep them up to date with your business or any current sales offerings. Often times you can include a sign up form for the e-newsletter on your website. Try offering special deals or discounts for people who sign up to receive the e-newsletter.
Contests: Another way to drive people to your website is to hold some sort of contest. Invite people go to visit your website and sign up for a prize drawing. Have them submit some of their personal information, such as e-mail address and home address, in order to register to win. This will give you a great foundation of mailing addresses or e-mail addresses for future direct mail or online promotions.
Chambers of Commerce or Visitor Bureaus: Are you a member of your local chamber of commerce or visitor bureau? These sites often see a lot of traffic each year. If you are a member, see if they will put a link on their site to your website if they haven't already done so. Make sure you are making full use of the benefits of your membership.
These are just a few tips and ideas for promoting your website. Some are free, and all can be set to fit just about any marketing budget. If you are interested in services such as pay per click advertising but don't know how to get started, we'd be glad to help. Give us a call at 920-818-0377 or e-mail info@boettchercommunications.com to set an appointment.
Thank you and remember to keep your code clean,
Mike Jarman
Web Designer
Boettcher Communications, LLC
920.818.0377
mike@boettchercommunications.com
Interested in joining our e-newsletter mailing list? Fill out our e-newsletter signup form to be added to our mailing list.
