MARKETING YOUR WEBSITE:
You've taken the time to ensure that your site is search engine friendly, meta tags have been added and you're ready to take the next step in establishing a successful website. So where do you go from here?
One of the best means of achieving your marketing goals is through the use of the website Self Promotion.com (http://www.selfpromotion.com/). This site provides assistance in learning the basics of website promotion. Multiple resources are available to teach you how to market your website and Selfpromotion.com is one of the best resources I've found for this purpose. It may seem daunting, but I suggest you take as much time as you need with this website to gain insight into the most effective means of marketing your site. By taking time you need for research, you should realize maximum long term benefits. Further, I would suggest you create an account with selfpromotion.com and utilize their services to assist you in the submission of your site information to all the major search engines. Selfpromotion.com will even allow you to place your site information on auto submission so your site details can be periodically resubmitted.
The best suggestion I can pass along is to submit your site to all major search engines first.
What follows is a list of the most highly valued search engines to submit to:
Google (http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl)
Yahoo (http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html)
MSN (http://beta.search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx)
AOL Search (http://dmoz.org/add.html)
Your selfpromotion.com account can be used to submit to each of these search engines. However, you should always read instructions carefully due to the fact that some search engines require manual submission.
A quick trip to your favorite search engine will likely provide links to hundred - even thousands of additional search engines and directories. It can't hurt to submit your information to any searchable resource you believe would be helpful in meeting your goals and objectives; however the major search engines listed above are the ones used by the majority of web users. Having your site indexed by the largest search engines will provide the most benefit for your site launch and long term site viability.
Site submission is the essential first step in website marketing. However, it can take time to get listed in the search engines. After submitting your information it can take just a few days or as much as several months depending on the individual search engine's policies. Once your site is listed, it can take many more months to find your site ranked highly enough on your most important keywords and key phrases to provide the needed benefit of site ranking.
At this point you will need to exercise great patience. If you've come this far it is because you believe in your site and the products, services or information it provides. Stick with your original course of action. Your site will continue to rise in the ranks the longer it remains an established enterprise. By remaining constant with your keyword and key phrase objectives you will begin to see results, but it takes endurance. There may even come a time when you are listed in the coveted top ten. You should know that there are many who will not stick it out and will close shop before their site has begun to reach full potential.
Should you desire increased short term traffic you may do well to consider advertising your site. It's true that there was a time when online advertising was cost prohibitive, however, with the advent of 'pay per click', web based advertising has become a real possibility for website owners on a budget. This type of advertising provides a rapid increase in short term traffic to your site.
Pay per click is simply a reference to the manner in which you pay for the advertising. You only pay for advertising that actually brings a visitor to your site. This means that your advertisement may be seen in numerous locations and provide multiple impressions, but you do not pay for any of this advertising if someone viewing the online advertisement does not click on the advertisement. You should seek to target ONLY users that are looking for the very thing your site, product, or service delivers.
We will deal much more with 'pay per click' in our next article.
Please look for Part 7 of Building Your Way to Online Success.
