Five free ways to promote your business website
1. Clean up your site.
Akin to washing the car before trying to sell it! Remove old content, ensure all links are working, correct spelling errors, and give it a quick sanity check. Do the pictures make sense? Is the navigation linking to everything which is important? Is the text brief? Use the free tools available at http://www.w3.org/QA/Tools/ to make sure your site is technically sound.
2. Create a site map.
This is a file, which search engines come to your site and read, so they know where to find your content. You can view our sitemap.xml file for reference, make one by hand, or find a site which can generate one for you. When you're done, upload it to your site.
3. Search engine submission.
4. Get your name out there.
Email signature, printed marketing collateral, letterhead, voice mail message, etc. Here's some Logo advice from Entrepreneur magazine
5. Talk to you customers.
Repeat business is just as good as gaining new clients. Follow up and see hoe things are going, explain any new products or services you're offering, and ask for a referral. Here's your script: "Do you know of anyone I should contact?" The power of a referral is much greater than any advertisement. After contacting their lead, be sure to thank the referrer. Mail them a gift at Christmas. Continue to build and strengthen your business relationships, but we'll save that for another article.
6. Call X13.
This isn't free, but it could save you money. X13 improves websites. Tell them what you need, and they'll let you know if it can be done. They manage the project, work with the developers, etc. It's like having a team of internet experts.
Akin to washing the car before trying to sell it! Remove old content, ensure all links are working, correct spelling errors, and give it a quick sanity check. Do the pictures make sense? Is the navigation linking to everything which is important? Is the text brief? Use the free tools available at http://www.w3.org/QA/Tools/ to make sure your site is technically sound.
2. Create a site map.
This is a file, which search engines come to your site and read, so they know where to find your content. You can view our sitemap.xml file for reference, make one by hand, or find a site which can generate one for you. When you're done, upload it to your site.
3. Search engine submission.
- Google (Also powers AOL Search)
http://www.google.com/addurl/ - Yahoo! Search
http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html - MSN Live Search
http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx - Ask, Powered by Teoma
http://static.wc.ask.com/en/docs/about/webmasters.shtml#18
4. Get your name out there.
Email signature, printed marketing collateral, letterhead, voice mail message, etc. Here's some Logo advice from Entrepreneur magazine
5. Talk to you customers.
Repeat business is just as good as gaining new clients. Follow up and see hoe things are going, explain any new products or services you're offering, and ask for a referral. Here's your script: "Do you know of anyone I should contact?" The power of a referral is much greater than any advertisement. After contacting their lead, be sure to thank the referrer. Mail them a gift at Christmas. Continue to build and strengthen your business relationships, but we'll save that for another article.
6. Call X13.
This isn't free, but it could save you money. X13 improves websites. Tell them what you need, and they'll let you know if it can be done. They manage the project, work with the developers, etc. It's like having a team of internet experts.