 Do
you know how many web sites there are in the Internet? I don't
either, but try this... Enter any common word or phrase into
Google's search engine and see how many returns you get. Unbelievable!
You'll see anywhere from tens of millions to over a billion "finds." And
that's just the result of 1 search on 1 search engine!
How do you get your site to stand out from among
the others? Promotion. Here are
four promotion strategies that will help bring new visitors
to your web site:
- Natural Internet Placement
- Free Internet Promotion
- Paid Internet Promotion
- Non-Internet Promotion
Natural Internet Placement
One of the primary means of increasing traffic to your web
site is by improving its ranking in search engine listings.
The higher your rank in a search result, the higher your
chance of attracting visitors.
The process of preparing your web pages for higher rankings
is referred to as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It
means to it your pages to be optimally conditioned for search
engine indexing. Pages that are optimized will show up higher
in lists of search engine results.
As opposed to web pages that are Search Engine Unfriendly (do
not have the necessary coding and content to list appropriately
in search engines) or Search Engine Friendly (do have
the necessary coding and content), a Search Engine Optimized page
will include the coding & content that has been researched
and strategically placed to gain an advantage over non-optimized
sites.
Question: How can I get
my site optimized?
Answer: A SEO specialist can work with
you to make necessary site adjustments, but even without
the assistance of an optimization specialists you can
improve your site's popularity by making sure your site's
content remains relevant, useful and fresh. Continuing
to give attention to what your visitors want or need,
and then providing it on your web site, is a sure means
of improving your site's popularity. Keep growing
your site!
Free Internet Promotion
With a little work, you can create new paths to your web
site without paying a cent. Here are two options:
- Back Links
Links to your site (often called back links or backward
links) are valuable if they come from a quality
web page. Not only do these links have the direct
benefit of leading new visitors to your site, they have
the indirect benefit of increasing your site's "value" in
the estimation of many search engines, which results in
a higher search result ranking.
Don't even bother adding your site to pages that are
nothing more than long lists of unrelated links. Instead,
look for sites that attract potential clients for your site.
You're looking for sites that compliment yours, not ones
that are in direct competition. Once you find a site like
this, contact the site owner to see if they are interested
in exchanging links (you link to that site, it links to yours).
To be honest, link "spamming" has become enough of a problem
that many site owners will ignore requests for link exchanges. That
doesn't mean you shouldn't try to build the number of links back to
your site, but you may find it easier to build the kind of pages that
people will naturally want to link to. If people like what
you offer, you'll find that back links tend to grow naturally.
- Online Directories
Search the Internet for online directories related
to your specific business. You may find that some of these
will add your listing for free, if you qualify. Get your
name out there! Add your site to as many appropriate directories
as you can find.
Start with the Open Directory Project (dmoz.org).
This directory feeds information to many other directories and search
engines, so it's important to be listed here. Read their submission
instructions carefully. Look at existing listings in your
business category to get an idea of what they're looking for. Submit
your site and wait. It can take months for your listing to show up.
Paid Internet Promotion
If you do it right, your online advertising investments
will pay for themselves. When considering your ad choices,
you'll likely be looking at these two popular methods of
online promotion: ad spots (including banner ads)
and pay-per-click ads.
- Ad Spots
Look for web sites that attract potential clients and then find out
what it would cost to place an ad on one of their pages. The more popular
the site, and the more popular the page, the more costly the ad is
likely to be. However, the more expensive ad spaces are often the ones
that bring you the most profit.
In addition to the advertising space, you'll also need to pay for someone
to create your ad. Make sure your ad reflects the "personality" of
your business (or what you're selling) and invites users to do
something... click through to your site, make a choice, act on
a special deal, etc.
- Pay-per-Click Advertising
If you do it right, pay-per-click services
can generate a much higher volume of legitimate traffic
to your site. Notice... I said legitimate traffic
-- qualified leads. If you're not careful,
you can spend money for traffic that just honks as
it passes you by, never converting into the kind of
sales or contacts that you need.
Pay-per-click basically works this way: You bid on
certain key words or key phrases that people use when
performing online searches. The higher your bid (and,
in some cases, the better job you've done at writing
copy for your listing), the higher your position will
be in the results of searches for that particular word
or phrase. (The particular search engines that are
involved in the program vary from service to service.)
The great thing is this: you only pay if someone actually
clicks through to your site! Depending on the popularity
of the keyword, each click may cost as little as a
few cents to a few dollars.
It may take a little time to learn how to do it right,
but it can be worth the effort. For recommended pay-per-click
services, see Resources chapter
in this book.
Non-Internet Promotion
Take every opportunity to advertise your web address.
- Include it as part of all your business advertising.
- Mention it in your answering machine message.
- Print it on your business card and stationary.
- Add it to your email signature.
- Pay to have it included in your phone book listing.
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