5 Easy Ways To Promote And Market A Website
This afternoon I’m going through the applications for our weekly SEO clinic and every single website seems to need the same tips. I thought it would make sense to write them all down in one helpful article as well as choosing one site for review in another post.
Blogs & social media
This is a no-brainer and is one of the main things our clients are wanting at the moment. There simply is no better way to market a website than by getting your products and services mentioned on as many blogs as possible.
Not only do the links help you shoot to the top of Google for your target keywords but your brand will be seen by some of the millions of people reading blogs every day.
Getting mentioned on blogs can be the easiest thing in the world if you have the right product but unless you know how to promote your product to bloggers the likelihood you will create a successful blogstorm is pretty slim. Start engaging with bloggers and find out what they like, perhaps meet up with some to get expert guidance on what they write about and why.
Design
Having a nice looking website is the most important step. Beautiful & easy to use websites attract more links and are, in general, more likely to be successful. it doesn’t have to be anything amazing but it does need to be well organised and easy to use and navigate. Google isn’t heavily designed but it’s the easiest site in the world to use.
If you don’t want to invest the money in good design why would anybody trust your site?
Credibility
Closely related to design is credibility and trust. If you have a nice office or offline store then put a picture of you and your staff outside the office on your “about” page. Add press cuttings and links to any online publicity. The more legitimate your website and company appears the more likely it is to attract links and new publicity.
SEO
Getting traffic from search engines is what most website owners expect when they launch an online business. The best way to achieve this is to find a well known SEO company and get them involved in the project before any designers or developers start working. SEO needs to be integrated in every part of the website and every change needs to be signed off by your SEO consultant.
Marketing hooks
Most people who commission a website think about how it’s going to sell products and ignore the marketing hooks that will draw links and help the site market itself. A good SEO company will help you insert the right marketing hooks in the site from the start and make ongoing promotion a lot easier.
For example an e-commerce site could have a product information wiki, buyers guides, video tutorials, suppliers directory and a blog to draw links and traffic.
Hire an offline PR agency
One of the most effective ways to get brand awareness and traffic is to be mentioned by a large newspaper either in print or on their website. The best way to achieve this is to hire a good PR agency.
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Patrick Altoft is Director of Search at Branded3, a Leeds SEO & Digital Agency specialising in SEO, Web Design, Development & Social Media.
Comments
Read the 6 comments below, or add your own!
At last someone who says that design is important because I think this overlloked and yet when I am looking at a site I will leave if it wasn’t easy to navigate and looks amateur. I think good,simple and clear desin is an SEO pre-requisite.
EDIT. Apologies for my rubbish spelling but I’m using a new Blackberry!
Would take credibility over all other. Too many websites and blogs promising you the moon but not quite convincing. Nice points though. Design is highly underrated and thanks for highlighting it.
Nice! its a excellent small summary. of promoting your Site…and as per my expertise in SEO …i highly underline what you say about SEO
Props
~~Wissam D.
LebSeo Design
The internet brings enormous potential for marketing your business and just about everything your business has to offer; the networking has just begun.
Business directories have become an effective way for the public to express opinions, make comments and select the appropriate business to deal with. On the same hand, business directories offer the business a great opportunity to advertise and get enormous internet exposure. For businesses that increase their exposure and generate interest through listings in business directories has become the smart thing to do. The powerful marketing tool of business directories will be enjoyed by the innovative public for a long time to come.
Businesses that use internet business directories enable them to receive instantaneous feedback. Enhancing the relationship with a customer can increase business success. Customers always look for the opportunity to give feedback to the business and the internet business directory has made it a great quality control avenue. Scary? Not for the business that is willing to adapt and market their business with this technology.
For marketing and promotion, the internet business directory has become an important part of business strategy.
Tristen Thomas
Email marketing and building a list of targeted opt-in emails, can be helpful too.