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| Web Site Promotion |
| Links and Tips to Assist your Efforts... |
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| The Basics |
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| Posted: September 30, 2007 by GTMO Web Lackey |
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Try and make your page as unique as possible. Surf around and try to think of something that no one else is offering. If your page has content that is hard to find, you will be sure to have traffic if your site is promoted properly.
Submit your page to Search Engines: Roughly 80% of traffic on the net comes from search engines. Unfortunately, it is not just a matter of submitting your page. The key words, meta-tags and even the name of your site may all affect your search engine listing. There are some good articles about search engine placement and some tips for getting a better ranking. You can find these under my general resource pages category.
Put the URL of your site with a short but accurate description of your page in your email signature and your signature for posting to newsgroups. Be sure not to leave out the http:// part of your address. If you don't include the whole address, the URL won't be a clickable link. Make it as easy as possible for people to visit you, provide the whole URL.
Join one or more banner exchange programs. These are a great way of obtaining free advertising. Most exchange programs work on a 2:1 basis. For every two impressions shown on your site, you receive one exposure on another site. The exchange programs allow you to monitor your click through rate, how many people are coming to your site from clicking on your banner. Experiment with different banners and see which ones get high click through rates.
Trade links with other pages of similar content. Links are the life blood of your site. Each one is a door to your site. The more doors you have the greater the chances are that someone will come knocking. When I am surfing and I come across a nice page that would fit in well to one of my sites, I email the webmaster and tell them I will be adding a link to their page and ask them to reciprocate. I have only been turned down once. If your page is still heavily under construction, wait until you have it more up to par. You'll have a better chance of getting a favorable response.
Give out an award. People love getting awards for their sites and displaying them on their pages. If you have the graphic skills to make a nice looking award, it is a great tool. People will come to your page to apply for the award and winners will display the award with a link back to your site. Everyone is happy. You can also reciprocate the link by adding a list of award winners to your site.
Sign guestbooks. I have found this a very effective away to promote. People always visit the pages of those who sign their guestbooks. People viewing the guestbooks will also drop by. Use a banner that you have found to have a high click through rate. Make sure you have a guestbook your visitors to sign.
Tell people you know about your page. This may seem obvious but many people forget to tell people who would almost certainly visit. Friends are also often are best critics; they will tell you something doesn't look right or some color doesn't work. They will also tell their friends and help get the word out.
Give something away. People on the net are used to freebies. They create traffic and create good will. If you are a graphic designer give away some graphics. Whatever your page is find something to give away even if it is only information.
Put the URL of your page on your business card and company stationary. Let your clients and contacts know you have a website. |
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- Make sure your website is tested for good load time, dead links and cross-browser compatibility. Netmechanic.com is a good website to do this.
- Optimize you web site pages by making sure your top keywords appear in your title, meta tags and content.
- Make sure you provide quality content that have something unique to offer and that have keywords or key phrases people might search to find your site.
- If you sell products, give something away free (The word "free" is one of the top most searched words on the internet).
- Build quality links to your site pages from other well ranked sites on your target search engine.
- Make a list of your top keywords and key-phrases and track your listings/ranking in the top 10 search engines and analyze it periodically.
- Submit to top directories there are many directories out there that list websites in their related categories - Just find the top ranked ones and submit your pages under related sections.
- Make sure your web site looks attractive and easy to use with clear navigation and easy to read layout and fonts. This is especially useful for directories as manual approval is required for them.
- Keep up to date with the latest in SEO by reading through articles, forums and related guides - remember SEO requires a lot of time and patience. You have to keep working on it.
- Keep your website focussed to cater to your visitors needs - don't throw in a free-for-all links program or forum to just attract traffic - in the long run this will pay-off as you website will be recognized for what it is.
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| The Basics |
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| Links of Interest |
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