Marketing Your Website
Whether you are in the process of having a website developed or you’ve had an online presence for years, don’t believe anyone who says, “If you build it, they will come.” It’s just not true. Here are a few common questions that business owners have about marketing their websites that I hope will guide you as you develop a marketing strategy for your website.
I have a website, but I don’t think anyone’s visiting it. How do I find out?
Sign up for Google Analytics. It’s a free service that will not only tell you how many visitors you have, but it will also tell you how they found your site and much more. Once you sign up, you just need to give a piece your webmaster a snippet of code to add to each page of your website.
How can I market my business online?
There are many ways to market your business online. Here are a few:
- Article marketing
- Comment on blog posts (be sure to type your url in the “website” field and not in the comment box)
- Be a valuable contributor in online discussion forums
- Help others by answering their questions on websites like Yahoo! Answers, askville or LinkedIn Answers – Don’t forget to leave your link behind where appropriate
- Identify companies and organization with which your business is affiliated and ask them to place a link to your business on their website
- Identify online directories in your industry, city or town and submit your website
- Create accounts and profiles on LinkedIn and Facebook and include your website address in the “website” field
- Create presentations and upload them to SlideShare
- Add your url to your email signature
- Host a podcast and direct people to your website in each episode
- Claim or submit your business to online review sites like Yelp, Judy’s Book, Kudzu, Yahoo! Local, Chowhound and others and ask your customers to post reviews
How should I market my website offline…in the real world?
There are a number of ways you can market your website offline including placing your website address on all printed material, announcing it at meetings and presentations and sharing it during customer service calls. Read more about marketing your website in the real world in this blog post.
What is Twitter and how can it help my business?
Twitter is a microblogging site. That just means that you can post short messages…up to 140 characters. Individuals and businesses are all using Twitter differently. Some use it to help them be more transparent…show the face behind the business. Others are sharing useful links and information. The best companies use Twitter to identify people who are talking about their company and industry and engage them in conversation and/or provide them with help to solve their problems.
I have a Facebook account. Can’t I just post links about my business there?
Each social network has a different culture. Different unspoken rules exist in each. Break one and you’ll know. On Facebook, it is not a good idea to use your personal profile to market your business. It will quickly be viewed as “spammy.” People connect with you on Facebook through your personal profile to get a personal connection not to be bombarded with marketing messages.
If you want to market your business on Facebook, it’s best to set up a Facebook page, where customers can become fans. Check out this strategy for increasing the number of fans on your Facebook page. There are several others, but the main idea is to market your Facebook Page just like you market your website. Tell people about it anywhere you have their ear and give them a reason to visit. Make sure there’s something in it for them.
I have a LinkedIn account. How can I use it to market my business?
LinkedIn has a different culture than Facebook. it is geared toward business men and women who want to network, so it’s perfectly acceptable to use the status updte to promote your business. In fact, the prompt that you respond to is, “What are you working on now?” Like Facebook, your updates and profile changes are automatically shown to everyone in your network. LinkedIn also has applications that you can add to your profile or on your network’s LinkedIn homepage. There are a few blog applications that allow you to show your blog posts, an Amazon application that can share books you’re reading, a polling application and many more to help you connect, share and collaborate with your network.
LinkedIn also has groups that you can join or begin to network with others in your industry or organization.
I’ve never heard of SlideShare. What is it and how can it help my business?
SlideShare is a website dedicated to sharing PowerPoint presentations (and recently Word documents) with the world. Check out the many ways you can market your business using by posting presentations on SlideShare. Here are great tips for creating better presentations.
Should I start a blog?
Absolutely! Not only are blogs extremely popular for people, but search engines also love them. Regularly updated content is what all readers want. Use your blog to share news about new products and services, industry news, success stories and case studies, events and other information that will be useful to your market. Aim to update your blog at least three times a week.
How do I get people to come back to my website over and over again?
The first thing is to make sure you update your content frequently. If you have a blog, this is really easy. The second thing is to get them to raise their hand and give you permission to stay in touch with them. By doing this, you can now communicate with them and tell them about new information, offers and services on your website.
How do I get my site to rank #1 in Google?
There are many factors that impact whether or not Google shows your website when a visitor enters a specific term or phrase in the search box, including, but not limited to:
- Relevance – Do the words on your site match the visitor’s search terms?
- Popularity – Are other websites linking to your site? Are they in a similar industry?
- Competition – Are there thousands of other websites who have mor popularity and relevance than yours?
Sign up for my free 6 week email course, Website Marketing 101 by typing your name and email address at the top of this page to learn more and find out how these factors work and how you can improve your website marketing strategy.
