Marketing your website

If you want people to find your website, try turning the problem around. How would you find your website if you didn’t know it existed? What words would you type into the ‘Search’ box?

And remember to be realistic about your chances! If you simply type ‘Investment’ into the search, you are likely to find millions of websites – and the chances of your being ahead of those companies with multi-million pound web marketing budgets are slim. That’s why you need to be clever with your key phrases. Look for key words or phrases that are relevant to your business.

Some research using your own key phrases will also help you identify who your competitors are – so what are they doing on their sites to make them visible? The beauty of the internet is that you can carry out most of your research from your desk – and your only investment will be in time.

To get a website effectively optimised will also almost certainly require some specialised assistance - that’s because the keys to success are contained within the coding used to drive your website. Techniques such as giving each of your pages a unique title – by using the exact key phrase you want to describe the page – will help ensure that people looking for your services end up on the relevant pages within your site.

Beyond the page titles your page content will become the focus of attention for the search engines. The engines like web pages that are well structured and contain classic pages - one that contains a title, a paragraph of text and a sub heading that represents the paragraph. A good tip is to start a paragraph of text with a key phrase.

The importance of links

Hyperlinks are what you use to navigate your way around the internet. And they are also what search engines use to find their way around – which is why links are a crucial part of any web marketing campaign.

Search engines such as Google and Yahoo will help rank a website by assessing how many other websites are linked to it. Links may be one-way inbound links – or they may be two way, or reciprocal, links. In short the more websites that are linked to yours, the more important the search engines think your site is. That’s why it makes good business sense to try and establish these links with complementary websites. Don’t make the mistake though of simply aiming for volume – there are many directory sites that will quite happily accept a link to your site. However, the major search engines are highly sophisticated and will look to ensure that links are relevant and that your links are with ‘ranked’ or popular sites. They have devices that can spot so-called ‘handshakes’ sites ensure there is a relevance to links.

Once again it is worth looking at your competitors to see what kind of links they have. The ones that are successful will have good key phrases a good ranking and relevant inbound links.

Refresh your site

One of the big turn-offs for website visitors is an out of date website. That’s why you need to work on your website on a regular basis – making sure your site is up to date and that it contains modern and relevant information. For instance, if you have a ‘News’ section make sure that you are posting new stories to the site so that visitors know that it is up to date. Remember too that your website is equivalent to a high street shop window. Your favourite store will probably change its window display on a regular basis to continue to attract visitors – your website requires exactly the same attention. If you fail to refresh your website you’ll turn off repeat visitors. Always give visitors a reason to re-visit your site - for instance why not consider publishing articles you have written on to your website?