Once your website has been set up, how can you let the world know that it exists?
1) Set up a reciprocal links campaign.
An incoming link acts like a vote for your site. The search engines will reward you for relevant, quality links from sites with a good Pagerank (PR). Gaining links not only sets up a pathway to your site, but also increases your own PR. The higher your PR, the better will be your search engine performance. Placing useful outbound links makes your site a valuable information resource.
2) Blog about useful tips and tricks relevant to your industry.
Become an expert in your field and offer regular tips that your visitors will refer back to from time to time. Show your passion for your product or service and offer your visitors a direct benefit.
3) Give something away for free for registering on your site.
Offer a free fact sheet or piece of software by installing a downloadable file, which your visitors can receive on registration. You will then build a database of potential customers that you can offer your products or services to in future.
4) Create regular newsletters for all registered members.
Keep your business firmly fixed in the minds of you clients by sending them a regular email or newsletter. Creating awareness of your brand emphasises your committment to your industry, offers new products and services and reminds your clients that you are still there and ready to work for them.
5) Register with as many relevant forums and directories you can find.
Spread the word about your business and provide links back to your site.
6) Make sure your site is optimised for your chosen keywords.
Use lots of pages, each with their own keywords. Make sure your site structure is wide rather than deep, because many search engines stop crawling multi-tiered websites.
7) Advertise offline.
Dont forget the old-fashioned way. Reinforce your special message using posters, flyers and business cards.
8) Use Socio-networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin to create a following.
It can seem like a lot of hard work for little return, but create a relevant following and you can direct your posts and tweets back to your blog and/or website.
9) Make sure your web address is on all correspondence including emails.
Place your web URL everywhere and make it work for you. Think about how many emails you send out in a day. Each new person you email then has an easy way to find your website.
10) Ensure that your site has many text-rich optimised pages.
At the time of writing, web browsers cannot read images and Flash files, so make sure that your site contains plenty of HTML to enhance your search engines positioning.
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