Web Site Promotion

James T Kendall

The number one question we've gotten asked the most over the years is "how do I get people to visit my website". While there is not quick and easy answer to this question we decided to write this article so that we could refer everyone that asks us to it :)

The Big Search Engines

The first thing to do is get listed in the major search engines. While this sounds simple it's not. We suggest that our clients create a search engine checklist before they visit the engine. Our checklist has the search engines and directories listed in order of importance for each page of their site along with a place for a date submitted. We provide a spreadsheet for our clients to use but some prefer to use pencil and paper - however you do it keeping good records of your search engine submissions is very important.

Good records will not only show you where you have submitted what page, but it will also show when you submitted a particular page. This is important because you will want to resubmit if the page was not indexed within the time that it takes for that particular search engine to add new pages. Keep in mind that I am talking about submitting all the pages of your site to search engines, for directories like Yahoo!, you'll want to submit your web site once ( not all the individual pages ) and then check to see if it was included. If not try to submit it again in about 6 weeks. Yahoo! is the most important place to be listed and is the hardest directory to get listed in. The only advice we can give you is to follow their directions to the letter, and do not include any hype in your description.

Targeted Search Engines and Directories

One of the things we make sure we do for all of our clients is to get them listed in all of the category specific search engines that match their topic. While this won't bring the mass traffic that a good listing in a major search engine brings, it is very targeted traffic. Also keep in mind that if you are not listed in the topical search engines they sending visitors to your competition and none to you. For example a law site should make sure it is listed in findlaw.com collectible sites should be listed in Curioscape.com and coin collectors should get listed in coinlink.com

Affiliate Programs

If you are an online retailer and haven't set up an affiliate program yet, it's time. Not only are affiliate programs a great way to drive traffic to your site and make sales but with them you can set your own price and you can pay by the click or pay by the sale. A word of caution here, make sure you install quality tracking software that prevents fraud and accurately counts the number of sales or click provided. There are scam artists are out there ready to rip you off, and you don't want to get the reputation for under counting affiliate clicks or sales. The affiliate market is very competitive so initially you will probably have to do some promotion to get this marketing tool kicked off.

Community Building

Community building is the real key to mass traffic. What this means is that you need to develop content that brings all of the interested users of your website a reason to repeatedly visit. You can do this by setting up message boards, free email services ( user@yourdomian.com ), starting a web ring based on your sites area of expertise, creating your own topical directory, etc. If you do community building well it can bring mass traffic, the kind that would take thousands of dollars of banner ads to create. Also when users sign up for a service, you can ask them if it would be okay to send them your newsletter ( your site does have a newsletter, right? ), and having an interested base of opt-in subscribers to your ezine is money in the bank.

Snail Mail

Just because you are marketing an e business or service you shouldn't discount offline techniques. We have found that targeted bulk ( snail mail not spam ) mail is very effective if done creatively. We found that we can create a 4-5% conversion rate on bulk mail by combining proper targeting with a reason for the recipient to look twice at our mailing. Be it a cool, full color logo on the envelope, an alternative form of packaging, or a "call to action" printed on the envelope - as long as you get your foot in the door so to speak you can convert a sizeable portion of you mailing list.

Print Ads

Is your site marketing a particular demographic? If so print articles can be a very effective and cost efficient way to advertise your site. We have a site that is targeted at writers, and found that advertising our URL in college newspapers is very effective. Even those free papers that every community has can be a great way to promote your site, ad space in these types of papers is usually very affordable. If you are marketing a site that's demographic is regional or local this is a must! Standard ads in glossy print magazines are cost prohibitive for everyone except the very largest ad budgets, but many of those same magazines have ad sections in the back where you can include a text ad for a nominal fee.

Cool Content & Viral Marketing

You may not have heard this term before, but you know the concept, you tell to friends and they tell two friends, and so on, and so on… So how does this work for web sites? Well first you have to develop some content for your site that the masses will want to view and in turn tell their friends about. This can be as simple as giving away a free sample of your product or a complicated as creating a Shockwave game featuring your mascot. For example if you were selling roach poison you could spend a little money and hire a developer to create a "smash the roach game". When the game is over the user could be transported to the order page, or show an ad for the poison, etc. Done well this is an excellent marketing approach.

Everything Else

Your URL should be on your receipts, letterhead, yellow page listing, and business cards.

We've found that most people will wear a free tee shirt no matter what is printed on it. There are various services like cafepress.com where you can get a logo on a tee shirt cheaply and URL bumper stickers are a very good idea as well. Both can be given away as prizes to have people sign up for your mailing list.

Other tips, get yourself in your local paper and mention the URL. Depending on where you live this can be very easy to fairly hard but it can be done. Same goes for cable access or local network affiliate stations "Around Town" type shows.

Synergy

This is the real key. Synergy means taking a number of strategies and combining them to create something that is better than all of the individual tactics alone. Think of it as the sum being larger than the parts. By using all of the techniques in this article together you can begin to build a steady stream of traffic to your web site. What you do with them once they get there is up to you.

James T Kendall runs jtkconsulting.com and has created over 50 web sites since 1994. He and his staff can be contracted to provide real world solutions for your Internet business.