5 Ways to promote your website like a pro

OK, so after months and weeks of hard work, you have a brand new shiny new website, and you can’t wait to let the world know about it.

If you’re wondering about how to promote your website after you launched it, there is your first big mistake. Your post-launch promotional plan should have started way ahead of the launch, and you should have a clear strategy in mind on what the message you are going to put out there is going to be. You also need to decide on the platforms, methods and timing of your promotions. Getting quality traffic to your website can be a daunting task, but with a clear cut strategy in place you will find that it surely not impossible. It’s all about the right mix of promotional techniques.

Before moving on to the methods through which you can promote your new site, keep in mind that it is pointless to get people to come to your website if they leave as soon as they enter, sending your bounce rates through the roof. So, before even thinking of starting the promotions, check, double check and triple check factors such as usability and content. It is understood that great content is the main factor in digital marketing. Regardless of how hard you promote your website, you will not be able to get results if the content you present offers no value to your target audience. To ensure that your visitors get value, you must have a well-defined content marketing strategy in place, so that your content follows the three pillars of SEO: credibility, relevancy, and recency.

SEO

 

Simply launching your website and praying to the SEO gods will not work; you will need a viable SEO strategy if you want to stand a chance to be found in the WWW jungle. The most important aspect of this is ranking high for the targeted keywords. Firstly, ensure that each page has a keyword-rich title, then write an adequate meta description tag. Meta tags are the descriptions that appear underneath the page link in search engines, write a sentence or two including your main keywords. You should also try to include keywords into you H1, H2, and H3 titles and in the ALT image tags. Keep in mind that it is pointless to complete all the step mentioned above if your site navigation is not search engine friendly as the SEO bots will not be able to find your pages. Inserting HTML links at the bottom of the page will help search engines to navigate to all of the inner pages of your site. These are only a few of the many, many ways in which you can optimise your site SEO, and this should begin well before the site launch, so ensure you get the help of an SEO professional from the very beginning.

Social Media

Social media should be an integral part of your site promotional strategy. Social media platforms give you an excellent opportunity to communicate with your target audience in a fun and personalised way. Creating hype about your new site ahead of the launch with a teaser, this will generate excellent word of mouth and get people interested in your brand. However, don’t just push your new website onto people, rather combine it with great content that provides value to your followers. You can also hold a competition rewarding people who sign up for your newsletter within a certain period of time with a prize. Another way you can leverage on the power of social media is through advertising. Select the platforms on which your target audience is more likely to be active and create advertising campaigns.

Mailings

Another great way to promote your new website is through mailings. You might already have a database of potential customers, create an eye-catchy and personalised email and send it out, possibly offering some incentive for visiting your new website and spending a considerable amount of time on it. If you already have a monthly newsletter in place, make sure you mention your new website in there as well. Another step you can follow is editing your email signature adding a link together with a short message announcing the new website, this will generate some traffic through an activity that you do daily without any additional effort.

PPC

 

PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising can bring traffic to your site through search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. PPC ads are placed either on top or the side of organic searches, and they are displayed when users search for one of your targeted keywords. You will be required to pay a predetermined amount each time someone clicks on your ad. The amount you have paid for a keyword bid, your quality score and the click-through rate on your ad will determine your ranking in the list of paid ads.

Guest Blogging

 

 Guest blogging on other blogs can be an excellent way to drive traffic to your website. Write for influential blogs in your industry and include a link to your website in your bio displayed at the bottom of the article. Select blogs that have considerably more traffic than your site does and get writing. The more high-quality content you provide, higher the chance of people visiting your site as this will increase your credibility.

These are few ways in which you can promote your new website, but don’t forget that there are traditional promotional strategies you can try, such as including your new site URL in your literature, business cards and stationery. You can also try leveraging on traditional media if you’ve found this to be effective in your industry.

Created: November 6th, 2015