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Promoting A New (or little visited) Website
New (or little trafficked) websites are like new (or thinly read) books.
Even with the finest design and interesting content, without proper promotion the new issue will fail to attract attention.
Aspiring authors (and new website owners) have three choices towards promotion;
1. DIY (do it yourself) which requires time, knowledge and coding skills,
2. Buy advertising (Number 1, and miles ahead of 2nd place, is Google Adwords),
3. Employ a professional literary agent, or for a website, an SEO expert.
1. DIY is a possibility and consists of registering the site with all the Google Webmaster and Google Analytical tools, completing a Google Local Search form, and submitting the domain name and description to the “other” search engines.
Beyond that, many DIY webmasters frequent related blogs and forums, posting comments with a signature that includes their URL (for backlinks). And, others buy or swap reciprocal links with companion sites to build Google Pagerank.
Obvious, but sometimes forgotten, are the simplest forms of advertising. Adding a signature line to your email with your company's name, tag line and web site address will place your information in front of existing and potential customers. The domain name must be in the form http://www.yourdomainname.com/ to be “clickable”, allowing people quick access to your site. And, don't forget your print, TV or radio ads. Add your web site address to each AND every form of advertising. Watch what the “big boys” are doing. How many times have we heard on radio and TV, “navigate your web browser to sears.com”?
2. Armed with hundreds and thousands of advertising dollars, Google Adwords is a quick, easy, and “sometimes” effective advertising medium. The obvious upside is increased traffic, but conversions (sales) don’t always follow. For what a new webmaster may need to spend with GA to achieve measurable results, our recommendation is that a DIY’er needs to spend hours and hours of study researching GA techniques.
3. Employing an SEO Expert is always the least expensive and most effective method of website promotion.
Here’s why:
a. We have been doing this for over ten (10) years, have kept abreast, and constantly keep abreast of SEO techniques and trends. For every ten hours we spend promoting customers’ accounts, we spend probably two or three hours of “our” time simply researching the latest in how SEO works best in today’s marketplace,
b. To the extent that any mere mortals can “get inside Google’s head”, we understand the methodology (algorithm) that makes Google the #1 source for search engine traffic. Time and time again, we have achieved demonstrative success in putting our customers’ sites on the first search page for the intended search terms (or search strings). Many times, that website, given time and money, can be sent to the top of the search engine display page.
How do we do it?
a. Analyze your site’s HTML code for proper search engine keywords and phrases contained in the title and meta tags, alt tags, image tags, link tags, footer, sidebars, navigation links and last, but not in the least, content,
b. Registering your site PROPERLY with all the search engines and all their webmaster and analytical tools, including a Google sitemap (.xml),
c. Adding your site’s domain name, company name, and description to all relevant directories,
d. Initiate and manage an effective link campaign, timed to add links “a little at a time”, and only adding links from sites that will benefit your search engine placement (no casino or viagra links),
e. adding a Google (geo) Map to all relevant pages,
f. given the budget, generate unique and relevant content, posting articles to thematic sites and blogs,
g. promote to the social networks; digg, stumbleupon, facebook, linkedin, twitter, etc.
How much does it cost?
Every site and every business has unique needs. Please contact us for an exact quote, but here are approximate costs, item by item,
a. $25 per page
b. $200
c. $50 to $250
d. $50 per week (about $1.00 per reciprocal link) for first four weeks = $200,$100 per month for two additional
months = $200, then, $25 per month for adding links via direct inquiries (until cancelled by client).
e. $25 per page
f. $25 per article, original content, posted
g. $250 per month, daily post to blog, twitter, facebook.