A List of Ideas to Keep You Busy

Now that you have a web site what should you do to promote it?

By Keith Johnson, Biz-Sites, Inc.

If you answered, "you’ll want to register it with the major search engines" you are partially correct. First you should go through every page and check your Meta tags. Make sure every page has descriptive Meta tags including content and key word descriptions.

When deciding on your keywords think like a person searching for your site or content. What words would they type in to find you? Use those words first. Also take a look at what’s between your title tags. Many engines will display this as a description of your site when displaying the results of a search. Make your title as enticing and descriptive as possible.

"Now on to registering with the search engines?" Maybe, but have you thoroughly checked your site? Did you run a spell checker on ALL of the pages? Did you read every page? You may pass the spell checker but are there other mistakes that you can correct? Are there any bad or broken links? Is your site easy to navigate?

Once you think everything is perfect have a friend or two go through your site. Ask them for constructive criticism. Make any necessary changes and recheck everything once more.

"Fine, all of that is done now but I’m afraid to ask what next?" It depends. If you plan on exchanging free banners through a banner promotion service now would be a good time to register with them.

The big ‘two’ are Link Exchange and SmartClicks, both offer 'targeting'. Basically targeting means more clicks on your banner because it is displayed on the type of sites that had the most clicks (interest in your banner) during an initial trial period. It’s your choice on whether to join a banner service and which one.

We suggest designing your banner and registering with these services prior to registering with the search engines. By doing this first you’ll have one last chance to fix something if it gets messed up when inserting the HTML codes for these services.

Plus the traffic generated from the search engines can be used to generate even more traffic because your banner will be displayed once on another site for every two displays on your site. It’s a great way to get started attracting traffic to your site.

Now we are ready to start registering with the major search engines. If you think about doing this before the items recommended above consider this. I sat down on a Sunday afternoon and started registering my site, http://www.biz-sites.com , of course I had my email program open so I could read the messages generated by my actions.

Some search engines will auto-respond with a message on how to update, change, or cancel your submission or ask if you want to invest in a larger or more prominent display. It’s a good idea to read and save these messages. It’s also a VERY GOOD idea to keep a list of each and every search engine you register with.

Some search engines will have your site listed in seconds while others may take up to six weeks. Sorry, back to the story. It was now getting late and I had stopped reading every email message I received immediately. Maybe once every half hour I’d take a break and browse my mail.

Lo and behold someone had actually visited my site, filed out my form and requested more information. What a rush! It kept me going for another hour or so before I finally went to bed. I checked my mail first thing the next morning and there was another request for more information. In less than 24 hours we had our first sale.

Both requests had come from Infoseek. I checked my log files later to find out. It pays to be ready. So if you are ready then it’s’ time to start registering with the top 400+ search engines.

There you’ve now completed the mandatory (getting your site ready) and the basics (registering with the top 400). What you do next is up to you. Determine which of the following would help you the most and work down the list.

Here we’ll discuss links and reciprocal links. Perhaps you’ve been adding bookmarks to your folder as you’ve surfed the ‘Net over time.

Go through your bookmark folder and see if there are some sites that could provide links to your pages. Contact those sites and make a proposal to them. See if they are interested in trading (reciprocal) links with you. Explain what your site offers and why you think it would be mutually beneficial. Most sites I’ve contacted have been very accommodating. Be open to all suggestions and take those that could help you in building traffic and potential sales.

You are looking for sites where your target audience hangs out or that are complementary to yours, a value added service. Don’t accept anything from your competitors obviously.

Don’t stop thinking about your site when you’re off-line. Can you purchase a sign to display on your car with your business name on it?

Maybe a small advertisement in the newspaper classifieds or in a trade magazine. Look around you for cost effective was to promote your business off line.

Then there are various Review and Critique services where you can submit your site for an award. Winning an award can generate immediate and significant increases in your traffic. Make sure everything is in order and your site can handle the traffic if you should win a ‘Cool Site of the Day Award’.

Few of these visitors are likely to become customers but it is a nice ego boost to win an award and see traffic increase. Just think of the extra banner displays you are getting credit for now. You are set up for a banner service, correct?

There are also various ‘Classified Ad’ sites on the Internet. You can submit your URL with many of them for free. Use a well thought out, short, and pretty hard hitting sales message in these.

These visitors are more likely to make purchases if they have followed a link from your classified ad so make sure your sales presentation is solid prior to submitting your ad.

As always make a list of where you have advertised and track the results. In three or four months you may want to revisit these sites and submit your ad once again.

You’re thinking you’re glad all of that work is finally crossed off your list and now it’s time to relax. Wrong! Spend the next month or two before it’s time to review your status in the search engines and classifieds by browsing the newsgroups and subscribing to on-line lists or ezines in your subject area. The purpose is threefold. The first is to find out where your target audience, those potential customers of yours you’d like to reach, hangs out. Which newsgroups do they frequent and which list or ezines do they subscribe to? You need to know this in order to reach them.

The second is to make yourself known in these areas by responding with accurate and informative answers to their questions and offering help. Most newsgroups and lists are frequented by both the net savvy and newbies. Tailor your answers to both groups and those in between.

Do not blatantly promote your product, services, or web site in your responses! Use a custom signature which gently promotes your wares. If your on-line signature is kept to five lines or less and is not overpowering most people will accept it.

By being responsive, informative, accurate, and helpful people will start to respect you and you can develop working relationships and potential customers. Devote some time to this area of your marketing.

Those are a few pointers for marketing on-line.

In summary:

:: Use Meta tags correctly.
:: Have someone review your site.
:: Register with the free banner promotional services.
:: Register with the search engines.
:: Develop your links.
:: Submit your site to the Review & Critique Sites
:: Submit your site to some classified ad sites.
:: Join discussions in newsgroups and on-line lists.
:: Check your status with all of your search engines.
:: Go back to the top and continue with the list of things to do.

As you can see it’s a never ending job if done properly. Good luck.

Free use of this article is granted so long as the entire article, including this message area, is posted with working links and the author is given credit in the title and here.

Keith Johnson - http://www.bizsitesinc.com
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