Marketing Your Web Site Effectively
A web site is used for two main purposes: 1) Advertising your business' goods and services, and (2) providing customer service. Therefore, it is important that your current and potential customers can find your website address easily.
You can start by making sure that your website address is printed on all your letterhead, business cards and brochures, just like your phone number and address.
If you have company vehicles, print your website on them.
During non-business hours put your website address on your answering machine. Let customers know that even though you are closed, they can find important information immediately on your site. If you have a shopping cart or online catalog, customers can order your product without waiting until you are open for business.
Another effective way of drawing customers to your website is offering special discounts online. This motivates customers to visit your site who may not otherwise take the time to do it. It also exposes your customers to your other products and services and increases the possibility of repeat sales.
There are two main areas to understand when using search engines to market your website: Search Engine Advertising and Search Engine Optimization.
First, Search Engine Advertising is paying search engines like Google and Yahoo to list your website. Depending on your budget, this may be a reasonable marketing strategy. While you should see increased traffic to your site, only time will tell if those visits are turning into real sales and customers.
Second, Search Engine Optimization is listing your website with various search engines. It is important that your web designer created your website with specific content that is invisible to humans but necessary for search engines to read. These are called Meta Tags and are embedded in your web page code and placed "under the hood". Effective web design should always include these tags.
If a web designer claims to guarantee high placement on a search engine, they are not being truthful. The fact is Search Engine Optimization is an inexact science. Web search engines use carefully guarded formulas and they are changed often. A web designer can guarantee you that he will place important key words and descriptions that are vital for search engines to list your site.
Listing Industry Specific Web Directories
Take some time to list all your suppliers. Many suppliers keep a directory of their dealers on their website. It is important to contact all your suppliers to make sure they list your website.
Making sure you are marketing your website effectively will increase the value of your website and will lead to greater sales.
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