Setting up a business website takes a great deal of investment of time and money. You can expect to spend a great deal of time to establish a unique and successful brand which suits your business, to finding out the best way in which to set up your website (whether to build your own website using software such as WordPress, or whether to employ a professional web designer and developer). It then takes time to agree a good strong design to progress with, and then the development stage begins. Suddenly a lot of time, effort, and stress has gone into building your new online presence and this is just the start of the hard work.
How do you make your business actually gain exposure, and attract custom, rather than being a website which is left undiscovered and non-profitable?
Identity keywords and utilize them…
Identify which key words describe your product or think if someone were to type some words into a search engine, which words would you expect them to use to find you? Once you establish a set of these words/phrases, make sure they are included in the text of your site wherever naturally possible.
For example if you make handmade jewellery in silver. People may search for handmade silver jewellery to find you. If you use the phrase ‘handmade silver jewellery’ throughout your site, you will be deemed relevant by search engines, and included in the search results for these keywords. Make sure it is natural, for example:
‘Kirsten creates unique handmade silver jewellery from her workshop in London.’
Labelling your photo files and site navigations with some of your keywords can also really help boost your website traffic. The more you make absolutely everything relevant on your site to potential searches, the more of a chance you have at being found.
Set up social media pages…
Social media can take time initially, but there is no doubt it is a great resource to get people to interact with you, give you feedback and help you spread the word about your business. It is also a great way in which to humanize your business and build relationships with your customers.
There is also the option to run competitions and shout about your website which will attract more interest in your products.
Use Pay Per Click Advertising…
You can pay to be placed at the very top of Google/Yahoo etc for searches which relate to your business keywords. Each time somebody clicks on the link to your site, you will be charged a small amount. This is a good way to get straight to the top and could be a good initial way to get noticed, but in time the costs soon add up. However while you market your website, this is a good, quick way to get some initial customers, and get noticed.
Gain links…
Write for blogs related to your industry and ask for a link to your website in return for an article. Place a hyperlink somewhere within your article over selected natural keywords which you should have already established.
You are swapping your knowledge which can be shared with others, in return for a link to your website to help you boost traffic. There are a lot of ‘link farms’ out there, which are essentially a way in which to gain several links to your site by swapping and sharing etc however this can be seen as spam, and the links you gain are likely to be from low ranking, dodgy websites. Work hard to build quality links, write strong articles about your business or experiences and do it properly, while it takes time, your site will be more successful and not become penalised for spamming.
About the author:
Kirsten works for whoishostingthis? an online rating and review site for online businesses who seek good and reliable hosting. Kirsten has great experience in all areas of online marketing and website developement. If you are setting up and need advice, visit our website for more details.
