This has got to be one of the biggest concerns of my family roster (my word for my clients) - how do I get more people to visit my website? The adage, 'If you build it, they will come' does not apply for your online component. If you build your website, not only will they not come but, your hard-earned money will leave, if you don't take the necessary steps to market and promote it.

During the building of your website, you should have or be in process of defining your target market, your company mission and your available products or services. Being clear on this preliminary business information will really help you to determine who, where and how you should be marketing your business website.

For example, if your business sells t-shirts with catchy phrases on them for women and you've built a website that will allow consumers to purchase t-shirts, you will want to put together a campaign that reaches people in a position to purchase your feminine t-shirts. That may include, flyers or postcards with your website url on it, placed in hair salons or beauty spas. Or joining the message boards for iVillage or Oprah.com and letting their 95% women-based membership know about your site and product through your email signature [that better have your website url, web email and contact phone number]. You certainly wouldn't spend much time promoting your website to an all boys basketball camp in your neighborhood because the odds of them having an interest and visiting your site are very low. When you want to draw traffic, qualified traffic (visitors who are actually interested in your product or service, or know someone who is, and can make a purchase), you have to focus on your target market and spread out from there.

So once you've clarified your business, your products and services and how you fulfill a need, you can follow these 7 suggestions for increasing your web traffic. Always know that marketing your website is a constant activity and you shouldn't be afraid to be creative in the way you do it. Take these basic ideas and alter them to fit into your campaign because when you really think about it, most businesses attract customers not only by the product or service they provide, but how they provide that product or service. Here's the first steps to take. Let's Go!

Make a list of the places you can put your web address. For example, business cards, postcards, flyers, t-shirts, email signatures, pens, human bodies (yes, I said it), and anywhere else you can think of. Your web address should be on all of your current and future promotional materials - online and offline.

Search Engine Optimization. Be sure that your website is equipped with meta tags (supplies information about a webpage ). Major search engines like Google will automatically crawl or spider your website within 60 days of your site being up but, if your website doesn't have the best title or site description, you may not be indexed in the best category.

Partner and swap links with complimentary, reputable websites. In our t-shirt example, the company may have their website address placed on the home page of a women's networking organization. You don't want to link your site with any and everybody because it is like your mother warns, 'Mind the company you keep.'
Collect emails and stay in contact through a newsletter, holiday greeting or special coupon offer. Building your own in-house email list is a great way to communicate with those consumers that are interested in your business and foster more than just a business relationship. You should also use an email acquisition service to help you collect emails from anyone who visits your site. Constant Contact is a service that many business owners use and it includes email acquisition, forwarding and marketing services starting at $30 per month. Couple this with our next tip and you'll have people who visit your site to see what new information you have to share.

Keep your site up-to-date and relevant. Even if your website is similar to an online brochure, you can still make sure to keep your content interesting and varied enough for people to want to come back. Place a new poll on your site every week that your consumers may be interested in or feature an expert in your industry on your site every month. Don't let your website become static. Creating a 'sticky' website (fresh content) should be among one of your goals because then you're giving your visitors a reason to stick around and take a look at your website instead of your competitors.

Use press releases to announce significant changes in your company like, your newly built website. A well written and distributed press release will get you in front of another audience including news media, journalists and writers. As an owner of a jazzy, t-shirt company, it wouldn't be so bad to have a fashion journalist come across your press release, visit your site, like what he or she sees and contact you to do a short piece for their magazine, right? There are free and paid press release services that you can use for your campaign. PRweb.com and BlackPR.com are services I would suggest.

Network, network and, uhm, network. Meeting people and being able to personally share information about your site and the benefits of your products and services is invaluable. You can pass them materials with your web address on it or get their information to add to your database for future mailings and marketing campaigns. Effective networking can greatly increase the chances of someone visiting your site and if your site has good content, then word of mouth will kick in.

Bonus: I didn't want to leave this out because it's a really fun way to increase visitors to your site and let people get to know the fun and social part of your business.

Host an event, small gathering or flat-out party. This is a great way to introduce consumers and other businesses to your website and increase awareness of your company's products and services. Throughout the event, offer goodies with your web address on it, collect names with emails at the door and during the party and make sure everyone has a good time. Photos from the evening can be displayed on your site and you let everyone know that, you'll instantly have people visiting to see themselves and their friends.

Increasing web traffic takes persistence but if you keep in mind what you're doing and why, you'll find more people visiting your site and coming back.

Dannielle Brantley, is the founder of Mocha Works, Marketing - Web Design, Print Design and Marketing Consulting for Start-ups, Entrepreneurs & Small Businesses. www.mochaworksdesign.com. Email at dbrantley@mochaworksdesign.html.

Article Source: http://www.therealarticles.com

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