How to Promote Your Site

Promoting your web site

... is critical to the effectiveness of your site.   A well designed web site is only the first step towards creating a successful site.

There are many different methods of promoting your web site and there is no such thing as too much.

Some methods as you might expect cost money, but there are other extremely effective methods that are practically free!

Traffic Analysis
First of all, you need to know if your web site is being visited.   Otherwise you have no idea if your promotion strategies are working.   All of our web sites have incorporated into them a sophisticated traffic analysis tool, which collects data about the use of the site and can report back to you on a regular basis information such as how many visits, where from, which pages, how long visitors are at your site and how many visit more than just the page they arrived on (i.e. they looked further into your site than just arriving and then leaving)

Search Engines
Most people know about Internet Search Engines like Google and Yahoo.   These organisations provide a directory of web sites on the internet.   If you don't already know the location/address of a business or organisation, you can use these services to search web sites listed in their databases using relevant key words.

In the past, use of search engines contributed on average a relatively small percentage of hits on web sites, but in more recent years the significance of search engines, especially Google, the most frequented one on the Internet, are accounting for a much more significant amount of web traffic and so must be seriously considered when thinking about the marketing of your web site.

Getting onto a search engines database is generally done in two ways.  By paying them or by them finding your web site and adding you automatically.

We can connect you with agents for Google and Yahoo, just let us know, regardless of whether you have a site developed by us or not. and a custom strategy can be worked out to best suit your needs.

The free options (which are just as relevant whether you have paid advertising or not) are also very important to you.   These include such things as reciprocal linking, good web site copy, and a web site that incorporates features attractive to the search engines making it easy for them to automatically categorise your site and prioritise it (Search Engine Optimisation(SEO).

We design your site to be friendly to search engines by default, so if we have designed and built your site then you can be happy that we have also taken into account SEO techniques to ensure Search Engines take notice of you.

Local and Specialist Online Directory Services
Another excellent method of promoting your site to local visitors to your site, which can often be free, is to register your site with local search directories.  Two examples are www.finda.co.nz and www.searchnz.co.nz

More extensive paid listings are usually offered along with the free that promise higher exposure in search results.

Some types of business have specialist directories such as accommodation sites for you to register with.  Make sure you do a search yourself for directories, especially in your specialist area.  If you find something then odds are other people will find them too and so it may make sense to add your site to their databases.

Good Copy
Some clients like to write their own copy or content for their web site.   This is good in that you are the expert in your field and you know best how you would like your business portrayed.   However, there are experts in the field of copy writing and it can be advantageous to take advantage of their skills to make sure that not only the right technical information is passed on to your site visitors, but it is written clearly for lay people to understand and in a way that search engines can use to help classify your site.   We can write the content for you or we can refer your to a professional copywriter.

Reciprocal Linking
An area where you need to take the lead is reciprocal linking.   Reciprocal Links are as the name suggests, links from your web site to other web sites in exchange for links back to you.   There are a number of significant advantages in doing this.  One key advantage is that Search Engines when scanning the Internet, note how many sites they can find that contain links to your site.  The Search Engines treat these links like testimonials about your site.  Therefore the more links going to your site the more significant your site appears to be and so the higher in the Search Engine's ranking your site goes.  This is important as you would rather be in spot number 1 of a search engine search result than spot number 1,234,555. 

The other significant way Reciprocal Links work is as a part of your own web network.

Imagine you are a person living in Christchurch and you want to go to a concert in Auckland.  The first thing you might do is go to an online ticket seller and buy a ticket to the concert.   While on that site you then think about how you are going to get to Auckland and where you might stay.  On the ticket sellers web site there is a reciprocal link to an air line web site, so the easy option is for you to click that to book a ticket.  On the air lines web site there are reciprocal links back to the ticket sellers web site and to other sites.  You now need to make sure you have somewhere to stay in Auckland and transport for when you get there.  Reciprocal links from this site take you to some hotels and perhaps a hire car operator.   Once you have booked your accommodation, you wonder what else there is to do while you are in Auckland and the hotel site has reciprocal links to attractions in the area which you can find out more information.

So from these reciprocal links, you have achieved all the planning/booking you need for your trip without needing to use a search engine or refer to any other external source of information.  Without the reciprocal links, all of those businesses may have missed out on your custom because you didn't know about them, they weren't the first convenient option made available to you or weren't on the top of a search engine's list.

The easiest way to get reciprocal links is to approach businesses you already have a relationship with and ask them if they would consider setting up a reciprocal link arrangement with your site.   They would then set up a link to your web site through their web master and you set up a link to theirs through your web master.

Having said all that there are tactics you should avoid as search engines may block your site if they believe you are participating in these schemes. The sites that link to you can provide context about the subject matter of your site, and can indicate its quality and popularity. However, some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. This is in violation of search engine guidelines and can negatively impact your site's ranking in search results.

Mainstream Media Advertising
Whenever you use any form of other media to advertise your business or organisation, make sure you take the opportunity to advertise your web site as well.  Your web address (www.mycompany.co.nz) should be included somewhere.   If you have give aways like pens, business cards or other items, your web address must be on it.   As an additional cost it is minimal to include this information but provides and ongoing link to your site and vastly more information than can be contained on the give away item.   Remember also, that your web site is working for you 24 hours a day 7 days a week.  Even if your business isn't operating those long hours, people should be able to find out about it and what you offer any time they want to, not just when you are ready for them.   So providing links to an informative web site is very convenient to your potential clients and they are likely to appreciate that convenience by contacting you when you are available.   Any other forms of advertising such as advertising in newspapers and magazines, billboards, letterheads or even radio should include your web address.