While many options exist to help you increase web presence and market a web site, this brief list of web-marketing basics goes over some of the more useful and widely-trusted tactics.
Provide Quality Content:
The #1 thing you can do to attract a steady stream of visitors is to provide a steady stream of interesting content that other people will use, read, and link to regularly.
Social Media:
Creating a Facebook Fan page and a Twitter account (and keeping them regularly updated with fresh insights) can help you create the global link popularity that is essential to high SEO rankings, as well as help you target specific user demographics.
Page Titles:
Make sure you title each page within your site according to each page's particular content. The words between the
META Tags:
Though hidden, search engine spiders value these tidbits of code. Because of this, your META tags should be carefully crafted. Most search engines ignore meta keywords now, but do use meta description as the snippet of page content in search results.
Structure:
Text in HTML ‘header’ codes (<h1>, <h2>, <h3>, etc.) carries more ranking weight than basic text. Search engine spiders index and rank web pages more accurately when you organize the page's content using standardized document structure methods. For more information see this W3C page: http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/global.html.
Submit URL:
Submit your site for indexing to the larger search engines:
Linking:
Many search engines consider the number of incoming links to a site a good indicator of that site's importance. In other words, when other sites—especially other higher-ranked sites—link to your site, the higher your site's ranking will go.
Directories:
Visit the Open Directory Project and submit your site: http://www.dmoz.com/add.html. Google uses this service to help determine ranking. Also, search the internet and/or ask colleagues for other online directories specific to your industry or business type. These directories often will list your site for no charge. Alongside free directories, sites like Yahoo!, for example, offer a paid service to include your site in their directory: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/busexpress.html.
Reciprocity:
Opportunities to trade links with other sites or organizations abound on the web. Think of those sites you'd like to be associated with and ask them to trade links. Also, devise a format for how you would like them to link back to you (ie.g., using chosen keywords).
News & Press::
Articles, newsletters, and press releases are excellent ways to promote your site. While they act as advertising materials, press releases drawing on your business's strengths and expertise, for example, can also become valuable resources when distributed for free to your field's online and in-print publications.
Traditional Ads:
Remember to publish your website's URL on all of the printed materials your company distributes—from business cards to newsletters to financial reports and otherwise. This applies equally to any TV or radio advertisements you might do.
Pay-per-Click:
Many companies and search engines offer the ability to purchase placement on their sites and charge you, the advertiser, when someone clicks your link. Depending on your industry, this can lift your site to the top of targeted keyword searches. Some places to start learning about this type of advertising include:
Search Engine Optimization:
Search engines send out software 'spiders' that browse a web site's content and determine the site's rank; in other words, a site's importance or relevance compared to other sites. Following the guidelines below, you can begin to increase your site's ranking:Provide Quality Content:
The #1 thing you can do to attract a steady stream of visitors is to provide a steady stream of interesting content that other people will use, read, and link to regularly.
Social Media:
Creating a Facebook Fan page and a Twitter account (and keeping them regularly updated with fresh insights) can help you create the global link popularity that is essential to high SEO rankings, as well as help you target specific user demographics.
Page Titles:
Make sure you title each page within your site according to each page's particular content. The words between the
META Tags:
Though hidden, search engine spiders value these tidbits of code. Because of this, your META tags should be carefully crafted. Most search engines ignore meta keywords now, but do use meta description as the snippet of page content in search results.
Structure:
Text in HTML ‘header’ codes (<h1>, <h2>, <h3>, etc.) carries more ranking weight than basic text. Search engine spiders index and rank web pages more accurately when you organize the page's content using standardized document structure methods. For more information see this W3C page: http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/global.html.
Submit URL:
Submit your site for indexing to the larger search engines:
- Google: http://www.google.com/intl/en/submit_content.html
- MSN: http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx
- Yahoo!: http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html
Linking:
Many search engines consider the number of incoming links to a site a good indicator of that site's importance. In other words, when other sites—especially other higher-ranked sites—link to your site, the higher your site's ranking will go.
Directories:
Visit the Open Directory Project and submit your site: http://www.dmoz.com/add.html. Google uses this service to help determine ranking. Also, search the internet and/or ask colleagues for other online directories specific to your industry or business type. These directories often will list your site for no charge. Alongside free directories, sites like Yahoo!, for example, offer a paid service to include your site in their directory: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/busexpress.html.
Reciprocity:
Opportunities to trade links with other sites or organizations abound on the web. Think of those sites you'd like to be associated with and ask them to trade links. Also, devise a format for how you would like them to link back to you (ie.g., using chosen keywords).
News & Press::
Articles, newsletters, and press releases are excellent ways to promote your site. While they act as advertising materials, press releases drawing on your business's strengths and expertise, for example, can also become valuable resources when distributed for free to your field's online and in-print publications.
Other ways to drive traffic
People discover new ways to steer visitors to their websites every day, but these models never fail:Traditional Ads:
Remember to publish your website's URL on all of the printed materials your company distributes—from business cards to newsletters to financial reports and otherwise. This applies equally to any TV or radio advertisements you might do.
Pay-per-Click:
Many companies and search engines offer the ability to purchase placement on their sites and charge you, the advertiser, when someone clicks your link. Depending on your industry, this can lift your site to the top of targeted keyword searches. Some places to start learning about this type of advertising include:
- Google Ad Words (http://www.google.com/ads/)
- Microsoft adCenter (http://advertising.msn.com/microsoft-adcenter)
- Yahoo! Search Marketing (http://www.content.overture.com/d/
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