Website Marketing is Crucial to a Site’s Success

You have a brand new killer web site and want it to get top exposure. However, just like a new storefront, no one knows of it when it first goes online. This is why an effective website marketing campaign is crucial to your sites success. People have to know it is there and the way this is done is through website marketing.

Announce Your Site on the Day It Is Published

Never attempt to announce your site before it is actually published. You do not want to risk driving away potential customers who visit a half-finished site as it will destroy your website marketing campaign. Search engine crawlers do not like half-finished sites either and they will have a difficult time classifying them. You can announce your site by submitting it to directories like the Open Directory Project at www.dmoz.org. There are many website submission directories. Some may review and submit your site while others may take some time to do so. Of course, if you pay for the submission, it goes much faster but beware that some pay submissions do not guarantee your site will get listed and have no refund policies. Just know the facts before you pay.

Send Announcements of Your Site to News Groups

Be careful here. Before sending announcements of your website to newsgroups, make sure that they will not consider it as spamming. If the news group is okay with it then this is an effective way to get the word out in your website marketing campaign.

When you do post to a newsgroup, pick a sub-group that is in a category that is relevant to your website. In fact, don’t just do advertising. Provide something useful in the form of an article, how-to, or some other bit of valuable information.

Obtain Quality Links from Other Sites

Having a link to your site posted on a related site is like gold in a website marketing campaign. Note that we said “related” site. This means that if you have a website selling vacation tours, then your link would go great on a resort hotel’s website and vice versa. The key in our example is that the two websites are related to travel and vacations. The best way to get other sites to list your site is to offer them the same. It might mean a little cold calling but it will be well worth the effort as you see your site gain in popularity and move up in search engine query rankings.

Use Traditional Marketing Methods to Announce Your Site

Do you realize how much exposure your web site will get if its URL is pasted across a rear windshield? Think about how many cars just sitting in traffic will see your website location and how that will more than likely leave an impression in their mind. This is why it is ever so important to choose a domain name for your site that indicates what your site is for. This is all part of your website marketing strategy. And pasting your domain name across a rear windshield costs you very little but can have some great results.

If you have the money, you can have your website printed across ballpoint pens that you give to clients or on t-shirts, caps, coffee mugs, and key rings. These are just more tools to get the word out. Of course you will want your website name printed on letterhead, invoices, and envelopes.

A Word on Direct E-mail Marketing

This is a spam-conscious world these days and direct e-mail marketing may not be very effective when it is part of your website marketing strategy. This is because too many spam filters catch unsolicited mail as just that. You should only send out e-mail newsletters when it is requested by someone signing up for one from your website. Otherwise, you could even get into trouble for sending the unsolicited emails.

The key to successful website marketing is to get the word out through the many tools available to you on the internet and through traditional methods. It takes a little work but in the long run your website could become a household name.