If you have just launched a new website or you have had your website for a while, one of the key questions you should always ask yourself is, how do I promote it?
We have put together a list of 10 ways you can promote your website and help drive traffic.
1. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
SEO is the process of increasing your website’s visibility on the search engines (Google etc.) by optimising every page to include keywords and phrases that users are searching for.
To achieve this there are two main areas to consider when it comes to SEO – On-Page (or onsite) and Off-Page SEO.
On-Page SEO – This is everything you can see on your website pages, from your copy, headers, images, video, meta information (the link and description you see under every Google search result listing) to the urls of each page, mobile friendliness and speed of loading.
Off-Page SEO – Areas to consider here are who is linking to your website, e.g. directories or social media etc. increasing the amount of links to your site will enhance it’s popularity and importance with search engines.
Improving these areas mentioned can be achieved yourself using free online guides or with the help of an SEO professional (like us). Get in touch if you need a helping hand.
2. Get Active on Social Media
Let’s focus on the big four…Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Instagram. If you aren’t using these social media platforms to promote your business you are missing a trick. It is online word of mouth. These are the places where most of your family, friends, competitors and all their family, friends and competitors spend time most days.
Be sure to write compelling content to increase the chances of engagement and your post being shared. The amount of people who will potentially see your business can be huge, and the more people that click on your content, the more chance you have of getting traffic to your website and that traffic turning in to new business.
Being active on social media can also give you the opportunity to showcase recent updates, products, projects and more to your existing customers, this gives you a great opportunity to sell to existing customers again.
3. Start a Blog
Adding free, useful content to your website can bring in new visitors, help you standout to search engines and put you ahead of your competition.
A lot of the content on your site may stay the same unless you add new products/services. Therefore, utilising a blog to post informative information, updates on projects you are working on, or even fun informal content, will not only help keep your site up to date but it will also improve your search engine position. The new content you post will give the search engines a reason to keep visiting your site and index all the relevant key terms and phrases included in each of your posts.
4. Try Guest Blogging
Once you get your head around your own blog and become an authority in your field, why not try guest blogging. It is a fantastic way of increasing links to your website.
Guest blogging involves you writing guest posts for an authoritative blog in your industry or adjacent industry. You have the opportunity here to add at least one link back to your website with each post. This will help improve your off-page SEO as discussed earlier.
It may be difficult to get a spot as a guest blogger on many popular sites. However, you can start with smaller sites and begin to build relationships with different publishers to become a regular contributor in your field, all the while improving the presence of your own site.
5. Email Marketing
Email marketing is a great tool as people usually need to engage with you a few times before making a purchase decision. Email Marketing has been around for a long time and is still one of the best ways to communicate to potential and current customers.
Put together a monthly newsletter with great content, important information and news. Keep the content punchy and direct so people do not lose interest, use prominent calls to action and give them a reason to visit your website and not unsubscribe. You can also add a subscription option on your website to increase your audience.
If you are interested, we can help set you up with email marketing software – contact us
6. Submit your Site to Google My Business
Google My Business is a free business profile on Google Search and Maps. If you haven’t setup a profile already there may be a listing already which you can claim.
Search for your business on Google and look for the business profile on the right hand side of the results page.
You can add your all business contact information as well your opening hours, service area, images and reviews.
Make sure you complete the profile fully in your Google My Business account – you can add keywords to your attributes and overview which will boost your local SEO.
7. You Email Signature
Your email signature should be treated like an online business card. Make sure your signature includes a link to your website, your logo, social media platforms and contact information so that every email you send is promoting your business.
8. Google Ads
Use Pay Per Click, or Google Adwords as it is also known, to bring traffic to your website from Google.
Adwords work by choosing keywords that you want to trigger your adverts. e.g. Web Design. You setup a budget for each time your ad is clicked and track your conversion rate – this could be a call direct from the ad or user making contact through your website enquiry forms.
There are no spending limitations so you can setup a budget that suits you. Whether it is a $1 a day or $500.
9. Facebook Ads
Millions of people from all different types of demographics use Facebook every day. Facebook ads allow you to create an advert for your business that can target specific people by location, age, interests or based on their likes. Similar to Adwords, you can set a daily budget, pay for clicks or pay when people see your ad. It can be a really cost effective way to bring in new website traffic.
10. Make Sure Your Website is Responsive and Fast
If you are going to be focussing time marketing your site, you must make sure that it is fully responsive. This means that not only does it look great on your laptop or PC but also on your mobile phone.
Well over half of all users browse website’s using their mobile phone. Depending on your industry this may be even higher. It is important that all your great content is easy for them to read, easy for them to navigate around, and most importantly, easy for them to get in touch with you.
If your site is slow then it is likely users will give up and go somewhere else within the first few seconds of waiting for it to load.
If you need any help with your site performance, responsiveness, speed or anything else you have seen in this post then please get in touch to speak to a member of our team.
