Site Promotion is the process of making your web site and its address known to those who might be interested
in what your site has to offer. Web sites can be promoted "online" or "offline".
Costs: Depends on the type of service. There is usually a one-time charge for submission to search engines, for
example, $160 for submission to 100 sites, while directories may charge a small
monthly fee ($9.95 per month, for example).
Issues:
- If you located a business next to an interstate where there are no exits, don't post any signs, and don't advertise its
address, you shouldn't expect many customers. Likewise, you shouldn't expect many visitors to your web site unless
you promote it. The information on your web site is useless to people who don't know it exists.
- One way of promoting your site online is by establishing connections ("links") with other web sites. This is what puts
the "web" in the World Wide Web. The most common services which will provide links to your web site are
submission to search engines (for a one-time charge), directories appropriate for your site's content (for a small
ongoing charge), and banner advertising (with costs based on the number of times an advertisement is displayed).
- If your web site is generating revenue, from subscriptions or sales for example, a good
way to encourage other sites to link to your site is to have an affiliate program which gives
them a small percentage of the income from users they directed to your site. There are several
companies which can manage affiliate programs for you.
- The highest-activity search and directory sites, also known as "portals," index a large number of web sites, and the
results, especially in searches that return a large number of "hits," are often not relevant. For example, if your business
happends to be located in an area called "South Park", the results of your customers searches for "South Park" will mostly
be sites that are related to the television program, not the location. If the links to your
web site are not listed on the first few pages of results, it is unlikely that it will be found.
- General-purpose directories are usually organized by subject, contain fewer entries for each subject, and change less
frequently. Because links are manually placed in a subject category, they typically provide results that are more
relevant to the user, making it easier to use and more likely that your site will be found.
- Single-purpose directories related to your site's content are among the best places to promote your web site. Since
their users are already interested in a particular type of content, it is more likely that they will also be interested in your
site's content. Plus, since there are fewer listings, users will be able to find your site's listing more easily.
- Another good method of online promotion is to allow users to sign up for an e-mail mailing list, and remind them
occasionally with notices such as announcements of important changes to your site. However, unsolicited e-mail is
generally considered an abuse of web site resources, and may result in a site being shut down by the hosting provider.
- Your web address can be included on business cards, mailings, signage, etc. to promote your site "offline" at no
additional cost, or you can purchase newspaper, radio, or television advertising.
- Many sites display banner advertisements at the top of each web page.
Banner ads can be purchased from some sites directly, from banner advertising companies,
or obtained through a banner exchange program, where your ad is displayed on other sites in
return for your displaying ads supplied by the program.
Recommendations:
- When selecting a hosting provider or content developer, consider whether or not they also have relationships with
other sites, especially directories, that are related to the content your web site.
- Include your web site address on your business cards and with any mailings you send out. If you can easily add letters
to your outdoor signs, add your web site address (without the "http://" part, if necessary); otherwise add your complete
web site address to your signs whenever they are repainted or replaced.
- If you are interested in advertising on a specific site, check for an "Advertising"
link on their home page or contact page.
|
