5 Ways to Promote Your Website

Your web site is just one of the billions of sites parked on the World Wide Web. Chances are, you wonder if yours will ever get noticed.

We take notice of your cries for cyber attention. Here are 5 methods to get people clicking on to your website.

1. Make Sure It’s Professional Looking.

No one likes visiting a site that reminds them of a book report they wrote back in school. Invest in learning a good web development program (Dreamweaver MX and Microsoft Frontpage are great picks), and let your creativity pour forth. Ensure it’s persuasive, well-considered, and structured. People don’t exactly find it enjoyable to work their way through tons of cyberfiles to get the information that they seek.

On that note, don’t make it a heavily graphic site. Putting up some flash intros may be great eye candy, but the typical internet visitor only waits 10 seconds for a page to load, and then they’re off to the next. site

2. Put Your URL on Every Search Engine Possible.

Putting your web address on business cards and bugging your relatives and friends to check out your site won’t exactly add to your traffic. Submitting your site to search engines can make it easier for people to find you, provided that your webpage carries the topics they’re looking for. To realize how a search engine works, think of it as a “spider”: it crawls all through your site, picking up words and content which would later be added to the search engine’s database. So make sure you sprinkle your web site with keywords you believe are pertinent to what people are looking for. Online directories, like Yahoo!, are operated by humans who actually classify the websites themselves.

If you don’t feel like submitting your site to numerous directories, think about subscribing to sites like www.submit-it.com, who, for a cost will automatically submit your website to search engines and directories for you.

3. Link Everywhere

Find other sites that carry similar content as yours and ask to exchange links. Develop banners to be located on other peoples’ sites, and offer to do the same for them on your site. Add your URL on your e-mail signature. Join webrings if you must-there’s nothing like strength in numbers.

4. Offline.

The world of cyberspace isn’t adequate to get you noticed. Write up press releases and distribute them to local media and magazines. Create fliers to be distributed. Simply ensure that your web site is already up and running to avoid giving people a poor idea (no one likes getting prepared for something only to become disappointed).

5. Communicate with Your Readers.

Put up forums or message boards for your audience to interact with each other. Chat rooms are often time-consuming for some, while message boards allow them to come back every so often for replies. Develop an opt in list so you can inform your visitors about new developments, and always be available to comments-that’s what will make your website even better.