The competition that exists on the internet is staggering. If you have a very tight niche you have an excellent chance of being found. If you have your site optimized for the search engines. But what if you’re trying to sell shoes or art? The odds are not with you. Putting up even the most fabulous website simply wont’ work. What you have to do is market your business using all of the various ways it can be done.
Here’s some ideas to get your website seen:
- Simply interacting with others and letting them know about your site
- Commenting on other people’s blogs or chats and pasting in the URL for your site
- Advertising using Facebook or AdWords
There is no perfect solution to get the traffic you want. However, there are some tips you can do that will increase your chances of being seen and therefore, be successful.
Tip 1 Have Your Domain Name Reflect what your Business Does or Provides to Your Customers
An example of this is from a woman who came to me years ago. She had a business called Self Coach Now. She had already purchased a domain name, selfcoachnow.com. We set up the site, used the proper keywords, had great navigation, on-site SEO… everything was done well. But she got next to no clients. So I suggested she purchase the domain name life-coach-san-diego-ca.com. After all, she is a life coach in San Diego. Your domain name does not have to be your business name. Remember the search engines use all kinds of parameters when placing your site on the first page. This worked for her and she is consistently on page 1 of Google when someone types in “Life coach San Diego”. And her business is flourishing.
Tip 2 Start Blogging
Search engines want to know that your website is ALIVE! Seeing fresh content shows them that you are involved in this website, and therefore, your business. If you don’t update your website frequently, the search engine spiders won’t visit it very often. Unless you can update your web portfolio every day (or every few days), The easiest way to post new content is to start a blog or have a ‘news’ section. Use this to talk about:
- What you’ve been doing recently
- Where your work is currently featured
- Tips and Tricks for those interested in your product or service
- Industry observations, etc.
Update your site regularly and write about anything that will appeal to your audience. You can hire a Copywriter or do it yourself but be very careful not to plagiarize content from other websites. Your website rankings will suffer for it.
Tip 3 Shout it from the Rooftops!
Unless you begin shouting about yourself, no one will do it for you. You simply must be your own advocate. Do simple things like:
- Add your website’s URL to your email signature so that it shows up on every email you send.
- Put your website URL on your business cards and letterheads, your invoices and thank-you notes, your Facebook profile, MySpace page, forum signature and portfolio pictures.
- Get your friends to link to your website from their own sites.
- Include a link to your website on the bottom of every website you do for your clients.
- Show off your new websites by posting them out to your Facebook and Instagram account.
Tip 4 To Get Your Website Seen… Give Something Away
If you’re reading this article is probably because you clicked on the free give-away on my home page www.websitessandiego.com. Everyone wants something for free. Once you click on that I have your email address and will carefully contact you in case you want a website or want to take your existing website to the next level. It’s easy to create one of these embedded forms. Simply set up a site with MailChimp.com and then create an embedded form. If you need help with that contact me. I’ll help you get that done which will build your contact list. Then you can send out a monthly or weekly newsletter. You want to keep in touch with potential clients. These sort of emails keep your business in the clients mind. They will also tell their friends about you.
Tip 5 Analyze Your Stats
To analyze your statistics you need to submit your site to Google Analytics. This is an easy process and should be done on every website. You want to know what pages your audience visits most frequently and where they are coming from? By installing Google’s Analytics code you’ll get all of that information. (https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/) Get your website seen by getting your Analytics dialed in.
If all of this is over your head you can hire someone to help you or do a tutorial. Once you understand this information you can:
- Modify the content and keywords on unpopular pages to see if you can drive traffic to them
- Or work out what content on your website is proving popular and produce extra related content to tap into the demand.
Is getting your website seen a lot of work? Yes, it is. Do you need help? If so contact me and I can help. I’ve been doing this for over 20 years and have made a ton of mistakes. Save yourself the trouble and call an expert. 951-623-6715
