Web Site Promotion Tutorial
Web site promotion
tutorial includes search engine optimization, pay per click advertising,
how to write a press release and more ways to promote your website
7 Simple Ways To Promote Your Website
Back to basics.
Web site promotion
does not have to be difficult:
- Learn the
basics like search engine optimization;
- Test what
works and what doesn't;
- Do more
of what works (repeatedly).
This web site
promotion tutorial covers the basics, and makes an ideal introduction
to promoting your website.
1. Search
Engine Optimization - Optimise Your Pages
What is the
point of a website if no-one can find it! The very first thing you
should do, as you build your website, is make sure it is optimized
for the search engines (a process known as search engine optimisation).
This requires
that you:
- Decide
on suitable keywords ( three sets of keywords, say), and
then
- Put these keywords in your page tittle, page content,
metatags, and alt tags (more or less in that order of importance).
Yes, it is
a bit more complicated than that and yes the SEO rules keep changing,
but it's important to get started with search engine optimization
and that you keep on learning from your successes and failures.
Learn more
about choosing suitable keywords here:
Using Wordtracker to find 'Most Searched Keywords'
(Read my review of Wordtracker and discussion on 'most searched keywords')
2. Add Your
Site To Search Engines & Directories
Once your
site is optimised then it's very important that the search engines
(and directories) know about your site. The major search
engines and directories include Yahoo!, Google, and Bing for search
engines, and Yahoo! and the Open Directory Project (DMOZ) for directories.
There are a few other important directories, too. (Botw.org is a great directory to submit to, also.)
There are two steps to follow, in order of importance:
- Let the
search engines 'discover' your site; i.e. do not submit it
the major search engines. Instead, get a link to your new site
from a web site already listed on the search engines .
- You can add your
site to the directories using their 'submit your site' link
Here are a few directories you can submit your site to:
- Strongestlinks
Directories (includes free and not free directories)
- Botw.org (oldest web directory, not free)
3. Build
Incoming Links
Get people
to link to your site. Not only do links bring new visitors, but
they can also help your ranking on search engines.
The best kinds of links are one-way links; i.e. the site links to your site only. Reciprocal links can also work, for non-competing sites. (And the only 'automated' way I recommend to reciprocal link is SiteSell's Value Exchange - sign up for free, here!).
There are many, many
link-building strategies but a basic one is to simply create a fabulous
website (how many links do you think Google, Facebook, Twitter and the BBC websites have
to their respective websites!) You should also link out one-way, too, when appropriate. Ideally, you don't want to swap links with sites (and definitely do not do 3-way swaps) but link-swapping is okay IF you include the link in real pages rather than a dead-end links page.)
Learn more
here:
4. Write
Articles
A great way
of building links is writing articles, actually. Write articles
relevant to your website and let others reuse them on their website
or in their newsletter or ezine on condition that they use the author
resource box at the bottom of the article, which contains links
to your site!
This is such
a popular website promotion strategy that there are thousands of
article directories (some much better than others) that will accept
your articles. Learn how to write good articles (and how to promote
them successfully) and you will succeed in promoting your website.
Learn more
here
- Write
Articles
5. Use Social Media
Everyone has heard of Facebook, Twitter (and even less likely social media candidate YouTube). These sites provide you and your business an opportunity to interract, and build relationships with your customers and potential customers.
You simply cannot afford to get your business involved with either Facebook marketing or Twitter marketing (or both - depending on the type of business, and the type of customer you're targeting). And if you can use YouTube to engage and educate you really should be doing tihs also.
Two words: do it!
Learn more
here
- Link coming soon
6. Write
A Press Release
Press releases
(news releases) can be one of the most effective ways to generate
traffic to your web site. If written well, they can produce startling
results. But only if you have a genuine story to tell.
There are
sites that give advice on how to write a press release, and sites
that will compose and distribute your press release for you too.
Learn more
here
- How
To Write A Press Release
7. Post To
A Newsgroup (Or Forum) Discussion
Somewhere,
there's a newsgroup or forum involved in discussions relevant to
your site. You can find a great variety of newsgroups at Google
Groups, which allows you to search all of the Usenet newsgroups
for a particular term or phrase.
Post a message
to a suitable newsgroup using Outlook Express (or other newsreader
software), or via Google's newsgroup site, or via the forum itself.
Do follow the newsgroup guidelines - but it is usually okay to use
a signature file with each of your posts.
Learn more
here
- Forum Marketing Supertips
Created by online friend Harvey Segal, this is an excellent, free guide to using forums
So there you
are: 7 simple ways that you can promote your website. All that's
left to do now is to get out there and do some promotin'. (So, what
are you waiting for!?)
Website promotion.
Get the basics
right.
By the way,
if you're reading this article with a view to building a new website,
and then promoting it, then I recommend you visit Site Build It! first. It is, after all, how
I promote this website
Reminder:
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