Search Engines
The first place to start with your web site promotion is the search engines. You will want to get your web
site listed on search engines so that people have a chance of finding you when they are looking for material
that you have on your site. Best of all, for the large majority of search engines this is a free service.
Tools
It may be rather tedious and time consuming to submit your site to all the search engines by hand,
so here are some tools to help you submit to many search engines at once. Also listed are tools to
help you get placed higher up in search results.
Submit-It
Promotion Services
Get help on promoting your web site by using these services.
WebYield.net - Search engine optimization (and more)
Links to top 100 search engines
Advertising
Links on related sites
One of the better ways to advertise is to get links to your site on other sites that are closely
related. Find other site which are not nessecarily competitors, but which offer other services that
compliment yours, usually they will be willing to add a link to your site if you add a link to
theirs.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising on Search Engines
Perhaps one of the best ways to get highly targeted visitors to your website is by advertising
on search engines. Most search engines now allow you to bid on keywords and phrases that will
show your ad. This means you can target a specific set of words that when somebody types those words
into a search engine your ad will be displayed on the results page (usually on the side or at the top).
If you choose the right words and have a good position (pay more than most others choosing those words),
then you will probably see some pretty good results since the users are already looking for what you
are offering. And you only pay everytime somebody clicks on your ad; so if you word your ad carefully
so that the viewer knows exactly what you offer then only those interested will view your site and
cost you a few cents. The top two Pay-Per-Click search engine advertising services are:
Google AdWords and
Overture.
Advertising Services
If you have money to spend you may want to check out some companies that specialize in advertising
and promotion on the internet.
Affiliate Programs
Affiliate programs can be good ways to help drive taffic to your site. You generally pay
companies by how much traffic they send your way. This is nice because you won't be paying
for something you don't get. A few companies that help you with sell an affiliate program
on their site are:
Commission Junction
ValueClick
BannerSpace
AffiliateZone
Banner Exchange Programs
Banner exchange programs are another way of promoting your web site. Although by using one of these
you must display a banner advertisement on your web site. The way these generally work are that you
create a banner advertisement of a certain size that will be displayed on other peoples web sites.
You send this banner to a banner exchange company, and add some HTML code to your site that will
show banners off of their site which they will rotate. You generally will get more rotations on
other sites for the more traffic your site sends to other sites participating in the exchange. This
is usually free, but like most other free services you can usually pay money to get more exposure.
AdvertWizard.com
Other advertising
Having a web site does not mean you should stop your normal methods of advertising. You should keep
advertising through you standard sources, keep doing what brings you the greatest results. But now
you will probably want to include your web site and an e-mail address on your standard advertisements.
Literature
You will also want to be sure and add your web site address and any e-mail addresses to your
companies literature: Brochures, business cards, etc.
Attract new customers (get traffic!)
Be creative, be useful.
Offer free stuff
If you offer something for free, the people will come.
Services
You could offer things like free e-mail, games, message forums, chat, e-greeting cards, etc.
Or you could try to think of something more unique, maybe have a program written that is
related to your web site, which is free for all visitors to use.
Tangibles
Content
A good way to get people to visit your site is to offer good content. Offer something your target
audience would be interested in. If your site offers a lot of content you will be found much more
easily on search engines and you will be linked to by more webmasters.
Dynamic
It is good to have your pages change all the time. You can do this with scripts and by
changing your site by hand.
Modify frequently
It is good to change you site and keep it up-to-date. If somebody visited your site
a month ago and they come back to check it out and it has the exact same content,
there will be no reason from them to stay, and maybe no reason for them to check
back again.
Unique
Have content that nobody else has or that few people have. Of course keeping it related to
what you are trying to sell, or what the main topic of your web site is, is generally a good
idea.
Your own
Write articles/content yourself instead of reffering to others. Doing this is sure
to bring in some visitors and other webmasters may link to the original content.
Information
The World Wide Web started with information, and it is still a place that many people go to
look up information on various topics. Anything sort of information you can offer relating
to your web site that isn't just sales mumbo-jumbo is sure to attract some new visitors.
Content Providers
There are web sites that will provide you with content that you can put on your web site.
A simple example of this would be the latest news. Listed here are some content providers:
None yet.
Try before you buy
If you offer some sort of service, software product, or anything else which may permit somebody to
have a little taste before they actually buy can be a good way to sell your service or product.
International support (different languages)
Be different
Your site should have some sort of personality, in other words, it shouldn't be "just another web site".
You need to make it different, add your own style to it, if there's nothing that stands out there will be
no reason for somebody to remember or come back to your site.
Word of mouth
Word of mouth is one of the best ways to get visitors to your site, and is the best way to sell your
products. If you have a great site or product people will talk about it. Even if your site is a good site
if you have nothing that stands out, nothing that people will want to talk about, then you will lose out on
much of the traffic you could have.
Watch your results
You should, of course, keep track of what gives you the best results, and put more effort into that.
