Building your website is the first step to gaining online exposure. Customers are using mobile phones, tablets, and desktops to research a brand or product before setting foot in a store, so it’s essential to have an online presence. Websites are the perfect opportunity to showcase what products and services you offer, as well as give users an opportunity to contact you without having to head to your store.
But designing a website is just half the battle. The next step is to ensure that your website is heavily promoted so that it will generate traffic and revenue for your business. Below are a few of the best (and most affordable) ways to promote your website.
How to promote your new website
- Improve Search Engine Optimization. Website SEO is one of the critical factors to ensuring that users can find your website online. There are two things you will need to keep in mind when optimizing your site for search engines: first that you have unique and original content, and second that you have both internal and external links built out. Do some keyword research to determine what phrases you want your website to appear in search results under, and write content around those keywords. Pro tip: make sure you choose a website builder that can be optimized for search engines. Performing SEO on your new website is free if you know how to do it yourself. Many content management systems make it easy for first-time web designers to optimize their website on their own. There are also plenty of online resources that can give you a crash course on website optimization.
- Custom Logo for Branding. If you have a new website but no logo, then chances are users won’t remember your brand after they’ve visited the site. Think of your business logo as a capstone to all your branding and marketing efforts; everything should revolve around that logo. Design a logo that incorporates key features of your industry or business values. Don’t forget to include your company name or slogan in the logo as well. Once you create a logo, you can then showcase it in email signatures, on your website, and social media. Signature branding will help boost awareness for your website through the use of your logo on other online platforms. Logo design doesn’t have to be expensive. In the past, it often costs businesses hundreds or even thousands of dollars to get the logo they want. With online logo maker tools, you can create a logo in a matter of minutes for a fraction of the price.
- Link Building. Building both internal links and backlinks is a vital part of any SEO strategy. Google’s search algorithms rank websites based on the number and quality of links they have going to their site. Try reaching out to guest bloggers, or post on popular industry forums, or publish a press release on a noteworthy online publication. Make sure you are ethically building your backlinks; don’t purchase links from unknown websites as this can hurt your online visibility and thus your ability to promote your website. While link building may be the most expensive recommendation on this list, it is still less costly than running a paid ad campaign. You can also set up a content swap system where you write a piece of content for a website and they write a piece of content for your website; in the end, you both get quality backlinks for free.
- Local Listings. Millions of online users use local listing websites on a daily basis. Business listing sites such as Google My Business, Yelp, YellowPages, and FourSquare house the information of businesses such as address, phone number, hours of operation, and list the website. Whenever a user makes a local search for your industry or product, chances are your business will appear in one of these online business directories, which means more traffic to your site. Most local business listings are free to set up as long as you provide your name and email address. Be sure to keep track of all the logins for these listing sites because if your business relocates or you need to change your hours of operation, you will need to log back in and make these switches. While you can hire an agency to add your business to local directories, a little time and effort will end up producing the same results for no cost.
- Quality Content. Content is king when it comes to trying to promote your website. Without content, it can be challenging to tell users what type of product or service you offer. Adding in much-needed descriptions of products can mean the difference between users purchasing or not purchasing. Quality content can be placed anywhere on your website, such as the homepage, product pages, and even blog posts. Publishing new content on a regular basis can also ensure that your website will remain visible in search results for keywords you are trying to target. The best part about having quality content to promote your website is that it’s free (if you have the time). While many large e-commerce sites will hire freelance writers to generate blog content for them on a regular basis, even writing 2-3 blog posts per month on your own time can be a huge boost to online website promotion.
- Social Media. If you’re constantly searching for some extra website traffic every month, we highly recommend ramping up your social media game. Social media may be fickle sometimes and dealing with online users can often lead to PR issues, but when done correctly it can generate a large amount of traffic to your site. Be sure to always double check whether or not a post you are about to make is appropriate for your audience, and have someone read the copy for any grammatical errors. Posting to social media is free, easy, and best of all you can immediately determine whether or not your strategy is working. Be sure to check the insights that platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram provide their users so you have a better understanding of what audience to target and what time to post. Pro tip: try to always include a link back to your website with every post, and always include either an image or a video to increase engagement.
- Email Marketing. The whole purpose of email marketing is to redirect users from your initial email to your website. Make sure to include a catchy title for your email so that users are enticed to open it, then include an eye-catching image and header phrase that details what the sale, promotion, or announcement is about. You can send emails for a variety of reasons, such as a discount, a thank you, a welcome, or a holiday email. No matter what you decide to do, always make sure that there are a few links back to the most popular pages on your website. Don’t forget to always include your contact information and business logo at the bottom of the email so that users can easily reach out to you.
Next steps to promoting your website
Ready to start driving traffic to your new website? These affordable ways to promote your website are a great starting point. As your site establishes itself on the internet, you can always change up your strategy. Carve out a marketing budget for your business and start to incorporate paid advertising strategies into your free online marketing strategies. Having a paid marketing strategy will help pick up any slack that organic marketing growth fails to provide.
