You’ve built a website, now you need some traffic. Here are 20 useful ways to spread the word and draw visitors to your site.
1. Write Fresh and Useful Content
Everyone is a fan of well-produced relevant content. Fill your website with captivating content and you will grab people’s attention. Put yourself in their shoes—would the site appeal to you if you were a customer?
2. Optimize for Search Engines (SEO)
The key to SEO is to constantly work on it. Regularly update your content and fill it with keywords. Build up the number of links coming to your website. When the search engines see a ton of activity, you’ll go up.
3. Submit to Directories
Make sure you’ll be there when someone searches an online directory. The link to your website in your directory listing will also increase your search engine rank.
4. Write Articles
Writing for other websites is a great way to increase awareness of your business and gain visitors. There are plenty of websites that are hungry for more content and will be happy to include your contact details and a link to your website with your article.
5. Run a Competition
People love competitions and they will often link to your website. This is a great way to gain traffic, increase Google rank, and even get free advertising. If you are giving away a free product or service, you may be able to advertise the competition for free with the papers or a local business.
6. Create Business Cards and Flyers
Flyers and business cards are great. People leave them on their coffee tables for days even if they are not ready to buy your product or service. Every time they see the card or flyer, they will be reminded of your business. Remember to add your URL on both sides—in bold!
7. Give Away Freebies
Freebies are great—especially if they are branded. If possible, print your brand name and URL on all the free stuff you give away.
8. Put Your Web Address on Everything
That includes your letterheads, products, advertisements, and email signatures.
9. Create a Blog
If the blog is part of your website, it can be a useful way to regularly add new content to your website. Write blog posts that are relevant and appealing to your market. People will come back if they find useful and regularly updated posts.
10. Pay for Advertising
There are hundreds of ways to advertise if you are willing to pay, but finding the right one is the challenge. Pay Per Click (PPC) has become a popular and effective form of advertising on the internet. Google is the biggest PPC seller. When a user makes a Google search, both natural results and PPC results appear. Every time a user clicks a PPC ad, the advertiser pays Google a small amount.
11. Use Email Signatures
Every time you send someone an email, the signature will remind them what you do and provide a link to your website. People often refer to past emails to find your details.
12. Advertise on Your Car
Why waste the opportunity to have a moving advertisement wherever you go? Wherever you drive or park your car, there’s an ad getting the word out. Make sure the text can be read easily from a distance and at high speed!
13. Use Social Media
Facebook, Google+ and Twitter are all great tools to get the word out. Ensure you regularly provide informative captivating content that people will love. Show them that your business is alive and kicking. Make them want to be apart of the action.
14. Create Videos
Videos are great and people are more likely to watch a video than read a few pages of text. Invest in a decent camera and a good microphone. Talk about something that will really interest your viewers. Make them short; 2-3 minutes.
15. Give out Special Offers
Special offers attract people and many people find them simply irresistible. “50% off” or “2-for-the-price-of-one” sales can be very effective. You could even give discount vouchers to customers who tell their friends about you and direct them to your business.
16. Offer a Newsletter
Set up an ‘opt-in’ form on your website for your newsletter. Newsletters are useful for advertising new products and services and telling people more about your business. Remember to include plenty of special offers!
17. Provide Free Services
Many of the largest companies started off by providing a free service. Offer something useful and valuable and you will get traffic. Other sites will often link to a free service, thus increasing your search engine rank.
18. Use Press Releases
Imagine—free advertising through the press that people trust more than regular ads. It almost seems too good to be true! Although a press release is free, it does cost a certain amount of time. You will need to write the release and send it to the press. If your press release is successful, it will spread the word and produce positive buzz surrounding your business.
19. Target Your Niche Market
First of all you need to define who your niche market is, of course. Take a moment to sit down, do a bit of research and discover your niche market—it will definitely help. Finding a gap in the market can produce excellent results. If your niche market has low competition your advertising efforts will be easier.
20. Win an Award
It’s a great way to get publicity and increase people’s confidence in your business. Depending on what award you win, you may receive a lot of positive PR too.