You just finished your new website? Super! This is your p promotional web-site atron that must be! But have you thought about this little detail will be more and more important to you: how do you promote it?
Ah, I almost perceive a long silence on your screen! You will not have ever thought?
Do not panic! This article will offer you some very practical tips to help you establish yourself some promotional ideas and also to better understand what your web consultant tries to explain.
Why promote a website?
Silly question, you say? No, I do not think so. This question is still valid when I see the number of people who feel that a website will proclaim better than its competitors and thus appear first in Google results in a few days.
There is really not much difference between the years "before the web" and now. A TPE or SMEs should always make themselves known and the web is definitely a good way to do this . The only problem is the number of sites that are based on the same theme as you.
In 2011, the promotion of a new site is paramount and unfortunately many companies forget to include in their initial budget. Moreover, the lack of promotion is certainly a leading cause of failure on the web for the most part of small and micro businesses.
So, in this context, it is important to find good ways you can promote your business more effectively. Sure, it will be more effective to use a web consultant or agency but some tasks can be handled daily by your internal teams.
How to promote your site?
Worldwide IRL ("in the real life")
Before embarking on SEO and the use of social media, some "action" in everyday life can already bring a little more for the visibility of your website. Like, for example, sending an email to your suppliers and customers by explaining the purpose and services offered on your new site or adding the address of your website in all official documents and your business cards. Sometimes it is quite interesting to talk with friends and try to promote it by word of mouth.
Obviously, there are other means of promotion in the world IRL. You just find the right channels to suit your situation. I suggest you contact an agency communication quality to best exploit these possibilities.
On the Web
Now, let's see what are the most important ways to promote your site directly on the web. I mean the fact of promoting themselves to the users but also to the search engines . Google has become your new life partner because it can actually provide you qualified traffic ;-)
Search engines inform
The first step is to inform the major search engines of the existence of your new site. The procedure is quite simple, it is usually the creation of a user account and the use of a proposed no matter the engine tools:
Google: the fastest way is to use this page , but the most effective method is to use their "tool Webmaster Tools . " This tool will also give you a range of relevant information on your site.
To Bing: This is quite similar is this page , or even via their webmaster tools
For Yahoo (yes, it still exists): you can register here
The hard part is to do!
netlinking Report the existence of your site to search engines is unfortunately not enough. You will need to use different ways to explain to Google that your site is of good quality and good reputation . This is what we call SEO (SEO or English) . One of the most important parts of SEO is backlink is to say the creation of links to your site . This is a fundamental criterion for Google. In fact, the more you quality links to your site, the more you will have a good reputation with Google (do not forget that Google is a stupid and evil algorithm).
Basic actions to get a good netlinking are:
- Submit your site in reputable general directories . Please do not use the same text for these books! Google hates duplicate content (not so stupid that Google still!). It could penalize the directory and yourself. The company offers Atypicom ranked top 30 directories that you can use
- If you have a regional occupation, I also invite you to submit your site address in Google .
- Also try to find local or specialized directories in your field while properly checking their quality. I present to you, in a future article, some examples of research that will help you achieve it.
- Publish press releases on the web. I also recommend taking the proposed Atypicom list . Always based on the same principle, avoid duplicating the same text on multiple sites press releases.
- Find f orums based on your theme and participate in conversations in a constructive manner. Do not forget to add the URL of your website in your profile and occasionally in your messages.
- Comment on specialized items s you can find on sites based on the same theme as yours.
- Ask your partner if they would agree to put a link on their site. Offer them in exchange for a small service that would make them happy :-)
In short, you guessed it, you need to constantly get quality links to your website by checking each time the quality of the sites.
How social media can help you?
Promote your site can, of course, through the use of social media (blogs, social networks, micro blogging, ...).
Write quality articles that will inspire users to create links to your site! Write a blog publishing articles attractive to your prospects and customers: advise, inform, inter pellez ... Even if you are a plumber or seller of oil Heating, try the experience of blogging! You'd be amazed what people search for like information. Again, editors and web consultants can help you.
There are other interesting platforms:
- Platforms sharing of documents and videos (youtube, slideshare ...). Feel free to create a profile on these platforms for your company and share it all a series of documents that could enhance your business.
- Bookmarkings platforms such as del.icio.us and stumbleupon. They are a little less known by the general public but they are interesting to disseminate such specialty items.
- Social networks with mainly Twitter and Facebook. A presence on social networks is going to take time (or money), but they become increasingly important to promote your site. Before rushing headlong, I invite you to educate yourself on the topic by reading my previous article on Twitter for SMEs .
Some paid solutions
Knowing that SEO can take several months or even a year to get a good result, it may be beneficial to exploit promotion solutions pay. They can actually help you increase your visibility on the web, especially at the beginning . Here are some examples:
- The banners whose cost can vary either in print or click. They can run on specialized sites.
- Advertising campaigns targeted at search engines such as Google Adwords.
- Targeted advertising campaigns on social networks (eg Facebook or Linkedin).
- The affiliate campaigns.
Sponsorship event, application or specialized blogs.
A major advantage of these paid solutions is that you can really target your campaigns based on the theme, geographic location and other criteria to achieve a particular type of user.
Diversify you!
Promoting your site is not an action to be only at the beginning of the existence of your new site . You must continue to do so throughout his life. The creation of new links and your activity on social media allow you, day after day, increase your fame. This will also be a decisive factor in your ranking in the search engines. diversity of your links is equally important . Do not try to focus you on one aspect of netlinking and try to build quality links where your competitors are not yet present.
Time or money!
What good is creating a stunning website with features avant-garde if nobody knows it exists? There is no miracle! As the competition is becoming stronger on web site promotion is vital. Unfortunately, it will take time and money.
Either you manage yourself, or you use an agency or an independent consultant. Instead of rewriting what already exists, I invite you to visit two very interesting articles. A must read before continuing your efforts!
- The first is proposed by csstricks " The referrer? Stronger than the trader! "In this article, we present a very specific case explaining the ROI of SEO.
- The second " No sub, no time, no strategy, no visibility! "proposed on the blog Axe-net, has the same kinds of arguments. In summary, Sylvain advises its prospects to wait for a real budget before embarking without thinking too much.
For my part, I am in favor of start as soon as possible, even in beta. It is better to have a smaller site and promote early . Then you are free to add new features. Current solutions are flexible enough for that but it should still have a long-term vision and define all your goals from the beginning .
Hard drive life and referrer web marketer, right? And you? How to promote your website do you do?
