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Web-sites are very much a secondary marketing tool. They will not bring in business unless people know where to find you, or more accurately, your website. There are two main methods to promote your website, these being what I will refer to as 'mainstream', or conventional press/literature and search engine optimisation (or SEO for short).
Mainstream promotion of your website involves nothing more than ensuring that your site address (URL) is published on all of your company literature (letterheads/invoices/statements etc) and on any vehicle livery. This is a step that is often overlooked by on line marketing consultants (after all we all know it is cheaper to maintain an existing customer than to find new customers).
Search Engine Optimisation is a growing business area and there are all too many people willing to sell services and advice that will not boost your rankings. They may offer number one position etc, however in my experience, people know what they are looking for and will look through the first two or three pages of results until they find the product/service they require.
Marketing your own site on the Internet is relatively easy, although it can take up to 60 days to start showing results.
The first step is to make sure that you have as many relevant sites linking to your site as possible. Obtaining links can usually be achieved by emailing the web master of any sites where you think visitors may also find your site useful. The email address of these people is usually postmaster@url.com, where url.com is the address of the site. Of course, the higher the profile of the site, the better...
Avoid getting your site listed on 'directories'. Most search engines now 'black list' directories and penalise sites that are listed there.
Make sure your site has as many internal links as possible, that is visitors can get from any one page to another with as few clicks as possible (preferably two). This can affect what is referred to as the 'page rank'. Ask your web designer for more information.
Do not worry about submitting your site to search engines, if you have links from other sites, their 'spiders' will find you as they crawl links from other sites.
Where possible, subscribe to on-line forums and ensure that you include a link to your site in any posts that you make. Of course ensure that your posts are relevant to your line of business.
Although they may be regarded as outdated, ensure your web designer has included key word and description tags on every page." |
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