Let me ask you a question - what good is having a nifty new website if nobody knows it exists? What many clients don't understand is that people won't come to your website just because it's there - they have to discover it first. Okay, so how can you help people discover your site? It's easy, really. There are some free, as well as paid, ways you attract visitors to your site. With a little bit of effort you can make sure your new web investment really pays off and doesn't go unnoticed.

Free Promotion

Become a Social Media Maven

I'm sure you've heard of sites like Twitter and Facebook by now (but it's just fine if you haven't). You may already be signed up. If you're not, you should be, because these sites are a great way to promote your website for free. In fact, many people will fully expect to be able to connect with your brand through these social media channels.

Twitter is a service that allows you to post updates of 140 characters or less. It has become an internet phenomenon since it's launch in 2006 attracting many millions of users. What's great about Twitter is that people can follow (subscribe to) you and receive every update you post (or "tweet" as they are called on Twitter) which is a great way to spread the news about your company and products. Did your company hire a key executive? Post a tweet about it. Launch a new product? Write a tweet. Offering a special promotion? Tweet it! One tricky thing about Twitter is linking. Since you only have 140 characters of space to write each tweet you'll probably need to use a "link shortening" service such as bit.ly in order to post a link in your tweets. Give it some time, and tweet often, and you'll soon see a Twitter-based spike in your traffic.

Facebook on the other hand is a good old-fashioned social network. To properly use Facebook to promote your business you will want to create a "page" which is basically a profile for businesses. In order to create a page, however, you will still need to have a personal profile. Having a Facebook page allows people to become your "fan" through the service. Having a bunch of fans makes your business look good but it also provides you with another channel of communication between you and your customers / potential customers.

Show Up in Search Engine Results

Properly written and formatted website content (also called Search Engine Optimization) can dramatically increase your chances of showing up in a potential customer's web search. Correct use of headings combined with proper keyword usage in your site's copy will help you attract more visitors "organically". For more on this topic, see our recent post on writing great web content.

Use Your Blog

Another great way to increase your chances of being found through search engines is to provide them with more content, essentially increasing your opportunities to be found. To learn about successfully using your blog to get more visitors, view our recent article on blogging.

Get Linked To

One of the easiest ways to get more traffic to your site is to get linked to from another site. One way to get another site to link to you is to propose a "link exchange" where they link to you and you link to them in return. Another way to get links pointing to your site is to submit your site to industry directories. In addition to the immediate traffic incoming links can provide, you will also rank higher in search engine results based on how many links there are pointing to your site.

Paid Promotion

Advertising

Of course the easiest way to get found is to pay for the privilege. The most popular form of internet advertising is Google's AdWords program which lets you bid for ad space on specific search results pages. Of course, you don't have to advertise only online. Traditional advertising in magazines, through direct mail, on billboards and television still reaches people. It all depends on where you can reach your audience. Check out a service called Spot Runner which can help you place any kind of ad, even a TV ad, for less than you might think.