How do I market my web site?

You finally have a great big beautiful website! So, now what? In the great big world of the Internet, how is anyone going to find it, you, and what you are selling? It’s time to put on your marketing hat and sell, sell, sell.

Even if you never wore a marketing hat, there are some easy and cost-effective ways to fill the Internet airwaves with news about your web site. Consider these ideas as a good starting point:

• Register a domain name that describes your business, grabs someone’s attention, and is relevant to what someone might type into a search engine box as keywords.
• Search Engine Optimize your web site with Meta tags, alt tags, title tags, and keywords within the content of your site.
• Register your site with major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN) and directories and include it in local search functions with Yahoo, Google, and SuperPages. This way, customers who are seriously looking for your product or service can find you. Google makes this easy and it’s free to submit your website for crawling. Others may charge a small fee, but consider the potential traffic your site can then get.
• Build links by linking to related sites through blogs, articles, and content. Invite others to visit your website as well as create an agreement to exchange links for a win-win marketing strategy.
• Make your content helpful to visitors with press releases, articles, tools, and tips that can also be submitted to directories for further links. Visitors are looking for information that makes their life easier or enriches them.
• Announce your site on social networking sites and spread information virally through blogs and forums.
• Develop a mailing list of interested customers and send them regular information as well as ask them to forward this onto other potential customers.
• Consider some type of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising that also helps specific customers find your web site. This is cost-effective because you only pay for the ad when someone clicks on it and comes to your web site.
• Print marketing is another great way to get your website out there.  Custom web business cards, postcard mailings, and fliers will get your current clients visiting your web site. Just make sure you have information that keeps them coming back.

Contact Simons Studios to learn how to successfully market your web site as one component of your overall marketing strategy, including a range of cost-effective solutions for domain name registration, search engine optimization content and strategies, web site refreshment, online ads and banners, blogs, and a variety of content options (e-zines, web site content, ad content, articles, etc.).