You want to know what the best website promotion techniques are for you so that you can focus your energy on them and avoid wasting time on less effective tactics. Right?
Well, the best technique for you is going to depend on a number of different factors. Some methods take longer to start seeing results with. Some cost more than others. Some are harder to execute than others.
So when trying to figure out your smartest approach you should ask yourself these questions:
- How much time and money am I willing to dedicate to promoting my website?
- Which method(s) can I implement within my budget?
- Which method will work in the time frame I want?
- Which method(s) can I execute properly?
Your answers to those questions should guide you in the right direction. Then look down the page here and you will find more specific advice that applies to different situations.
Best Promotional Methods For Immediate Results
- Paid advertising on Google’s Search Network using the Google Adwords program
- Paid advertising on other well chosen websites whose regular audience matches your target audience
The fastest methods for bringing in targeted website traffic are going to be your paid advertising options. Paid advertising can get you immediate results because you can get your message out in front of prospects right now. You don’t have to wait for this method to work. It works right away. You can just go out and buy traffic from wherever your target audience is at right now.
The most reliable place I know of that you can buy that kind of traffic is the Google Adwords Search Network. Google allows you to show ads to their search network and to their content network (display network). In my experience you have to target those two networks differently. If you want to bring in people who are shopping right now for what you are selling, then you want to advertise on the search network for the keywords that represent hot prospects.
You can accomplish the same thing, although probably to a lesser degree, by purchasing advertising at other websites where your target audience is spending time right now. The most common ways to do that is through banner advertising or paid listings on other websites. It might take you a while to identify the right websites to purchase banner advertising or paid listings from however.
Other forms of paid advertising could be immediately effective also depending on if you are getting your message in front of your prospects right away or not.
Best Promotional Methods For Long Term Results
- High Quality Content Marketing (both on your own website and through content distribution)
- Search Engine Optimization – advanced SEO campaigns for specific keywords
- Social Media Presence Building – building a loyal following over time
Content marketing is probably the ultimate long term approach for generating new business. The reason it is so effective is because you can generate publicity, links and traffic simultaneously from one content marketing campaign. It would be even better if doing that would also bring in a big rush of immediate traffic to your site. In my experience, it does not work that way. In most cases, the content that you produce either for your website or for other websites will take a while (probably months) to gain traction and start paying off. It also takes you a while to get good at content marketing. You improve a lot with experience.
Search Engine Optimization is second on my list because if you do a good job of it, you will bring in lots of highly targeted prospects for many years to come. The reason why I put content marketing ahead of SEO is because when you are doing your content marketing, you are also usually improving your SEO at the same time. So, content marketing is more beneficial because of the double benefit.
SEO also takes quite a while to see results from if you are doing it safely according to the guidelines Google provides. There are ways you can shortcut your SEO and get ranked much more quickly, but those methods come with a lot of risk and can result in getting your website demoted in the search results or even removed from Google completely. If you stick with the commonly approved of approaches, it will take months to see a big improvement.
Social Media has been the hot topic in website promotion for years. Yes it has the potential to bring in lots of website visitors and to create lots of sales for your business. The biggest downside to Social Media Marketing is that it takes a very hands-on approach and constant monitoring. That makes it unpractical for many business owners to use. They are generally pressed for time enough as it is. In the right circumstances it is very much worthwhile. And, it can also be worthwhile if it is outsourced to some extent or even if you appoint a dedicated employee to handle it.
What Are The Best Free Website Promotion Methods for Do It Yourselfers?
Basic Do it yourself SEO
- Learn how to create your web pages so that they tend to rank well. You don’t need to try to get every page ranked at the top of Google. But you should fix your pages so that you have the basic SEO stuff right. That way, as your website earns more and more links over time, you should achieve the highest rankings possible given your situation.
- If you are relatively inexperienced with search engine optimization, then you should not bother trying to conduct your own specific SEO campaign for a specific keyword. You are more likely to do damage than you are likely to get it right. But, you definitely should do the basic SEO stuff that will account for more than half your ranking power anyway. If you go ahead and do the basic SEO stuff, then you will get semi-decent rankings without having to put a ton of effort into link building or link acquisition.
- Do it yourself Content Marketing
- First launch a blog on your website. Write a handful of blog posts that help solve problems and answer questions for the people that you want to get to come to your website. Those types of blog posts will attract your ideal type of visitor to your website.
- Comment on a few other blogs that are in your own industry to generate publicity and a few basic links for your blog.
- Seek out opportunities to guest blog for other people. Use those opportunities to get some higher quality links pointing back at the inner pages on your blog and pointing to other pages on your website.
- Wherever it seems appropriate to do so, place a link from inside your blog posts to other pages on your website that you want people to find. Do that from within your own blog and from within any guest blog posts you get published.
- When you feel experienced enough as a blogger, try to create some kind of link bait or publicity bait for your blog. Then go tell people about it and encourage them to share it with social media. Encourage them to link to it also.
- In addition to using blogs to promote your site, you could produce videos that do the same thing. Pick a handful of questions that are commonly asked by people who would be interested in your website. Create a video to answer each one of these questions and publish those videos on YouTube.
- Another exceptionally effective form of content marketing is to participate in interviews wherever possible. You can seek out places to get interviewed or else just take advantage of the opportunities whenever they present themselves. Being interviewed is a great way to promote yourself because you always look like a real expert when you get interviewed. And you usually get at least one link back to your website from an interview also.
- Take me up on my offer to generate some free publicity for your website and your business.
- Do it yourself Social Networking
- Create accounts at major social media networks
- Share useful content you come across online
- Network with other people in your field
- Increase your following as much as possible
- Forum Marketing
- Identify the 3 or 4 most popular public forums in your industry where people gather to discuss things related to your field. Create accounts at each one of them. Spend an hour on each one each week answering questions as intelligently as possible while trying to be as helpful as possible to the people who ask those questions. Most forums allow you to create a signature that shows your website URL every time you leave a comment. Once you have developed a good reputation on the forum (that takes approximately 2 months or more) then you will start getting traffic from that forum to your website. You will also likely build some friendships with other people in your industry that might lead to great things.
What If You Are Running A Local Business That Uses A Website For Advertising To Your Local Community?
If you are running a common type of local business that sells to local customers, then the absolute best way to promote your website and your business is to get your business listed on Google Places, Bing’s Places and Yahoo’s local listings. That step alone will probably bring you the most business compared to anything else you do online.
Once you have your local business listed in the major search engines, then come back and explore other ways to promote yourself. But definitely start by getting it listed in those local places directories. Those places are goldmines for any type of service business that caters to its local community.
