10 Ways to Promote Your Small
Business Website
This article highlights all you need to know about the successful ways to help promote your business, and I encourage you to study it very well, who know? the missing link to your business breakthrough just be lying somewhere within.
Your website is the most important element of
your small business marketing mix. It’s more important than a brochure or
a business card. Let’s face it—few people are using the yellow pages to find
vendors these days, so your no. 1 job is to make sure that your customers can find
you on the
Internet. So how do you market your website to build your business and get more
customers? Here are 10 tactics:
1. Fortify Your Home
Base. Make sure your site is professional looking, and that
all the links work! Have clear information on how people can hire you and
complete contact details, and use a contact form. Make sure that you have three
to five ways to engage potential customers once they arrive at your site. Examples: Offer them a free monthly e-newsletter, give away a
free chapter download of your book or e-book, or ask them to sign up for
the RSS feed of your blog.
2. Develop a
Blog. Make
sure that you know the search terms customers will use to find you online. Once
you have this information, you should develop content that specifically addresses
their needs. Create a content strategy
with articles, videos and audio clips that answer questions and
provide solutions. You must blog two to three times a week to be taken
seriously and to stay on your customers’ minds. The more the better. Producing
quality content is your best website marketing strategy.
3. Use Keywords Intelligently. It is important that you know your top 5 keywords. It
is particularly important to place the words in the titles of your blog posts.
They should be used throughout the website content too, but be careful not to
overdo it. You want to make sure that you do not turn off your target audience
or search engines by stuffing your site with unnecessary keywords.
4. Offer a Free
Giveaway. You
should create a special report from your signature content that you give away
for free in exchange for an email address. It should be your best stuff.
You will never get a client to do business with you if you start the
relationship by giving them junk.
5. Use SEO. SEO or
Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving the visibility of
a website in search engines via “natural” or un-paid search. Your activities
boost your online brand and you drive traffic to your website.
6. Set Weekly Goals to
Obtain In-bound Links. Ten to 25 links per week is a good number. List
yourself in business directories, comment on blogs and send out press releases
to help achieve your weekly goals. SEO optimization is highly reliant on
in-bound link numbers, but quality of where the links come from is important,
too.
7. Review Your Google
Analytics. Check your analytics for your “bounce rate.” Do people
leave your site quickly after they arrive? If so, why aren’t they staying? You
can do a lot to draw traffic, but if they come and leave quickly, you’ve wasted
all your efforts. Invest in having your Google Analytics results reviewed by a
professional so that you can tweak your content strategy. Once your figure out
what your audience likes, give them more over it.
8. Leverage Social Media Profiles. Take advantage of all opportunities to link your
website to your social media profiles. For example, if you use LinkedIn, make
sure your have pulled in your blog (if you have one) and list your website in
your Twitter profile. Also, create a Facebook Fan Page with a link back to your
business website.
9. Use Social
Networking Sites. Choose two social networks where your customers are
hanging out online. Use social media to network and push out your blog content.
Use a 4:1 ratio of promoting other people’s content over your own. Remember
that social media is about mutual interaction, so don’t be all about promoting
your business. Share other people’s content, and they will promote yours.
10. Build Community
Online. Use social media to win friends and ask and answer
questions. This will help you demonstrate your thought leadership. As you build your online reputation, it becomes a valuable asset
to bring in more site visitors.
Do you have another
method to promote a small business website?
Credited to Melinda.
Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. As CEO of MFE Consulting LLC, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. Forbes Magazine recently named her one of the Top 20 women for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource blog www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also the author of the national bestseller Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works. (Adams Media 2010)
