How to Promote Your Website

It’s estimated that there are about 90 million websites. By the time you launch your next website, it will probably be closer to 100 bajillion-gazillion. The good ‘ol days of "If you build it, they will come" are gone for good.

Woe is me!

Don't lose hope, though. Your website can get the action it deserves by following some established techniques, tricks, and principles.

Search Engine Optimization

"Search Engine Optimization" is the craft of modifying a website to rank highly in search engines. In the early days, it was a ridiculously simple: You added popular words to the header tags of each page, and then that page showed up in search engines when someone searched for those words. Eventually more and more websites came online and a battle of epic proportions began between the army of Ph.D. researchers at Google (and others) and the specialists trying to game the system.

There are many techniques that rely on deception, redirection, and other artificial means to generate results. Using these techniques to promote your site are tempting, especially when they can produce dramatic short-term results. But you should know that search engines are always trying to penalize techniques that don’t end up showing the most relevant results. Using deceptive techniques can even get you banned from search engines. And search engines are getting very good at spotting the bad guys and kicking the websites they've worked on to the curb.

By creating valid HTML code, well-written and keyword-rich content, and a carefully organized website, specialists seek to create the kind of site that search engines and people are looking for. The strongest benefit of proper optimization is it doesn't require constant monitoring in order to perform well. But it can be more difficult to pursue because it relies on so many "soft" factors like high quality content, effective site organization, building strong link relationships, blogging, etc. In general, though, quality search engine optimization can perform better with less maintenance and reduced risk. Despite it's complexities, it usually makes more business sense.

Inbound Links

One of the most critical factors in promoting your website is getting other websites to link to yours. The more sites that link to yours, especially if they have similar or related content, the more of an "authority" you become in the eyes of the search engines. Because you have no control over other websites, it often takes a lot of person-to-person communication to make these links happen. Strangers probably won’t link to you simply because you ask them, so you need to take the time to establish relationships with other site owners. Tips for building inbound links:

• Have a high quality website to which site owners can feel comfortable sending their visitors
• Create content worth linking to (articles, how-tos, games, lists, etc.)
• Try to get listed in industry directories, association websites, etc.
• Create your own side project sites that can link to your main business website

Blogging for Business

A "blog" is a website (or part of a website) that is regularly updated with new articles, thoughts, opinions, etc. Many businesses have found that blogs have provided a significant boost to their website, often becoming a primary source of traffic. There are a number of reasons that blogging can be a powerful marketing tool:

• People love fresh, interesting, and useful content
• If you write an insightful "top ten" list about your industry, dozens or hundreds of people may link to you within a matter of days
• Journalists increasingly look to blogs to get a sense of what's hot, and posting industry-related articles can help you generate free media coverage
• The constant addition of fresh, keyword-rich content will give your site a boost in the search engines
• It keeps people coming back to your site for more

Blogging is easy to do poorly, though. Before you start, spend some time reading existing blogs, particularly within your own industry. Think about what you like and dislike about them. Some quick tips for great business blogging:

• Post regularly, but not obsessively. Once or twice a week is a good pace
• Try to give each post the same attention you'd give to a magazine article submission
• Strive to provide useful, practical content that people will bookmark, send to their friends, or link to from their own website
• Don't rant, babble, or preach
• It's okay to note that your baby was just born, but listing the items you ate for breakfast isn't all that useful to people (unless you're a food critic, of course)
• Get involved with other business bloggers and exchange ideas and tips

A Word on Traffic

It's easy to get dazzled by the notion of "traffic," and to assume that the more hits you're getting on the site, the better the site is performing. However, it's common for high-traffic business sites to perform poorly when it comes to sales conversions. What really matters to your business isn't the total number of visitors your site receives, but the number of relevant, qualified visitors. A site that converts 25 out of 100 visitors into customers is significantly more effective than one that converts 10 out of 1,000 visitors. Higher traffic can make you feel cool, but it doesn't necessarily improve your bottom line.

While promoting your site stay focused on getting in front of the right people. Don't worry about getting linked from the biggest website in your industry; sometimes small links from your immediate peers can do a better job of sending potential customers your way.

Above All, Try to be Useful

If your site isn't helpful or relevant to your potential customers, there's no reason for them to get excited about it, regardless of how well you might sell it. As long as you are genuine in your communications, and strive to provide a truly high-quality website to your target audience, it will be relatively easy to promote your site.