In the maze of sites that make up today’s Internet, the question for site owners becomes: How do I increase my web presence? Without being too pushy or scaring off potential clients with unwelcome adverts, we’ve found five ways to increase the popularity of your site.
1. A quality host
Partnering with a company who has a strong reputation and experience with hosting and marketing business is a good idea.
When comparing features offered at each hosting company, look for high percentages of uptime and user-friendly customer support. Get information on the amount of disc space and bandwidth you’ll be given and allowed to manage. Are you planning to upload video or audio files? Check to see if this activity is allowable; some providers are non-negotiable in this area. Also, ask about information regarding your domain name registry. How will you be protected? What amount of email accounts come with the hosting plan? The answers to these questions will help you find the best plan for your needs.
2. Are you optimized?
If you’re not familiar with the phrase search engine optimization, or SEO, you need to do some research. For your website to experience success online, your site must be optimized. This means that you are using the right keywords in your content. Write content for your site visitors as well as for the larger search engines. The latter will get you higher rankings in a search, but the former will keep customers returning to your site once they find you.
Once you’ve gotten the keywords and content up to speed, focus your attention on link building. Your worth as a website is determined by your number of inbound links. Some sites attain higher rankings by participating in link exchange. To get started, browse around to some sites like yours that you enjoy and contact the Webmaster to see if he/she is interested in a link exchange. Easy, right?
3. Be the Social Media butterfly
Social Media is daily becoming a stronger and stronger force in marketing. What’s fun about it is that it’s highly personal. If you want to make friends, be a friend. If you want comments, give comments. Be neighborly. If someone friends, retweets, likes, pins, repins, stars, or takes some positive action to your benefit, thank them. Then, return the favor. Other tips? Keep the content on your site relevant and up-to-date. Also, make sure the platform for your campaign is user-friendly. This will make it easy to create and edit content.
4. Get personal
If you are able to get your visitors involved in your website, you’re going a long way in building the relationships that are essential to a strong web presence. How do you do this? Check your writing style. Is it personal? Try leaving open- ended questions and ask for comments. Not only will you increase the opportunity for return visitors, but you’ll also get valuable feedback on your site, product, or service.
Is your site one in which you can hold a contest? Creativity is key here. A contest is a quick way to get people talking about your site. Don’t feel pressured to offer pricey rewards. Often the simplest thing will go a long way.
5. Let your design shine
When you walk in someone’s home, the design tells you a lot about the person. Is the floor clean? Are the shelves orderly or cluttered? The same holds true in web design. By investing in a quality, clean design, you are communicating to your clients what you value as a business. A beautiful design will build trust between your business and its site visitors.
While you can build your own website, it’s safer to call on a website designer who can guide you through the array of design options available. Keep in mind that some browser settings prevent Flash animations, which means you may lose valuable visitors if you rely too heavily on Flash. A quality web designer will be well versed on the pros and cons of each choice, so you can make the best decision for your web needs.
