March 13, 2009
BY Dave Mason
So you just got your new website up and running. It's now been a day, a week or even a month and things seem to have not got off the ground. You search for your site in Google and can't find it, you barely (if at all) get any sales or leads and you start to wonder if having a website is all it's cracked up to be.
For many start up businesses and those new to running their own website, the most obvious and easy ways to promote your site are not always that obvious. Running a successful website is not as simple as paying a web designer to build and launch a site for you then sitting back and waiting.
Once you launch your website, that should only be seen as the start of the process of running a successful website. I have outlined below my top 5 tips for promoting your website and getting it kick started.
1) Submit your site to Google.
This is a free resource and is a way of getting your new website noticed and out there. You can do this by going to http://www.google.com/submityourcontent/index.html. Make sure you not only submit the URL (website address) of your website but also make sure you list your business in the business directory.
The business directory is used when people are searching Google maps and Google even uses the business directory to show the initial results when searching locations (eg. searching for solicitors in nerang, qld, Australia)
2) Signage
Do you have a shop front or office with signage? If so it is absolutely essential you update your signs to include your website address. You never know how many people passing by will take your website address down to check out later and even contact you.
3) Email signature
It is absolutely essential that all of your emails should have a signature which is basically your name, company name, phone number, email address and website address. This way people receiving your email (or even receiving emails forwarded that you had originally sent) can easily find your website.
4) Search engine optimisation
Just listing yourself in Google will not get you on the first page of results. It is best to either do a course on search engine optimisation or hire a professional such as Mantis Technologies to do the work for you. This could mean the difference between being in the top 3 of searches or on page 30 where no one will find you.
5) Facebook
Many of us now use Facebook to catch up with friends and family and stay in touch with people all over the world. Facebook has a great feature called 'pages' which allows you to actually set up a page for your business. This allows you to invite people to become 'fans' of your business and automatically be updated when you post comments, news, photos or any other relevant information to your business page.This is a free, easy to use and very effective service.
For more ideas on how to promote your website and harness the power of the Internet for your business, please don't hesitate to contact us at http://www.mantistech.com.au/contact_us.aspx