If you have a business, you probably have a website – and if you don’t, then you need to get one – because your competitors almost certainly do.
One of the biggest problems that plague small businesses today is how to get more traffic, customers and sales to their sites. Believe it or not, there are many effective strategies that can help increase your ranks on search engines, thereby increasing your website’s potential visitors and customers. This can be done in a number of ways by using linking strategies, submitting your site to directories and industries that are specific to the business and writing keyword rich content in a subtle fashion that link to your site and that other online businesses can use in their newsletters. Blogging on business sites and press releases also helps in advertising, and can work wonders when it comes to the visibility of your website.
Then there are traditional ways of advertising your website like having your website’s URL embossed on stationery, cards, and other copy. Developing a free service, such as a periodic marketing report or contest, is a traditional advertising method that will help your website advertising efforts. Some other traditional methods of advertising such as newspapers, flyers and billboards also work – and though expensive, they effectively target a specific audience in your local area.
Starting a newsletter is also a good way to advertise your website. You can offer a free report or product on your site in exchange for email addresses. You can then use these email addresses to send your newsletter (with your website address) embedded. Such email strategies are quite effective and can generate a fair amount of Internet traffic on your website.
Sharing traffic with another similar site is also a great way to promote your website. For instance, find another site with similar products and services, request to share your email list with them and offer a percentage of the profits – this method is very effective, is free and works to the benefit of both parties.
Some other strategies that can be used to promote your website are:
- Site Promotion on Forums and Blogs
- Having online contests
- Requesting visitors to Bookmark your website
- Ad exchanging with related businesses
- Planning marketing techniques
- Paid Advertising (very effective)
- Purchasing Ad space in Newsletters
- Starting an Affiliate Program
- Product listings on Auction and Shopping Sites
Pay-Per-Click ads, such as Adwords, Adsense or Overture is an effective way of advertising your website since it routes targeted traffic to your site and helps in sales as well. Though it can be potentially expensive, if your website and the market is particularly competitive, it may just give your site the extra exposure that it needs. However, it is not the right solution to advertising for everyone – so before signing up, make sure you do thorough research.
Of all website promotion methods, Search Engine optimizing is perhaps the most effective, and works very well as a long-term promotional strategy. It is time consuming, but having the right SEO software can definitely increase your website’s ranking on the search engines and also provides you with a highly targeted audience.
In today’s online world of increasing competition, finding the right website promotion strategy is crucial to your business’ profitability and survival.
