The majority of business owners have come to the realization that they need to have a website. That is a good first step. However, having a good website is not enough. If you want to actually make money from that website then you need to promote it properly.
I like to use the analogy of a new business person who opens a retail store without any prior experience. You might know someone who has done this. The new guy opens this great store that has low prices and great service yet has no customers. He made this mistaken assumption that just by opening a store, people were going to flock to it and he would quickly experience success.
You don’t realize how ignorant you are about running a store until after you have learned from these stupid beginner mistakes. Before long, the business owner begins to realize why all of these other retailers spend money to distribute flyers and circulars that advertise their store’s products. They begin to understand the need for various types of advertising. They have that “Eureka” moment.
Let this be a “Eureka” moment for you and your website as it is really no different than the guy who opened that retail store and didn’t advertise it. If you want your website to generate new customers for your business then you need to promote it. Otherwise, the only traffic your site will get is from people that have already heard about you or already know about you.
Maybe all you use your website for is a means to contact existing customers. If that is all you want to do with it then fine. Most people would like it to act like a giant billboard on the internet to generate some new business as well though. If this is you, then you had better rethink your current methods of advertising that website. That is, of course, if you even have any current methods. Most businesses hire a web designer to build the site and then forget about it from then on.
Have you checked to see if your website is ranking highly at all for words that people are typing into the search engines? Do you even know what words or phrases people are typing into search engines to find a business like yours?
These are the kinds of questions you should be asking yourself. Then you should figure out how to get your site to appear in the search results when people are looking for a place that does what you do.
You should be asking yourself questions about your customers or about what kind of customers you wish you had. Then figure out how to get your website in front of those people online. If you want some ideas on how to do that, you can start by reading my homepage article that explains how to promote your website. That will get you going in the right direction.
