Your ability to promote your new website in the early stages of your business can mean the difference between struggling through your first few years and flourishing. Regardless of whether you operate in the online space or own a brick and mortar business, a strong website that works as a powerful marketing tool should be the central pillar to all of your other marketing activities.

So how can you kickstart the promotion of your new website?

 

Spreading the word

The first option is the simplest and cheapest – tell everybody you know about your new website! Getting as much website traffic as possible in the early stages is great for a number of reasons. Although you’re unlikely to get new customers and leads through your friends, family and existing clients, having people visit your website will help the major search engines find and index your pages. This means you’ll start to show up in search results more quickly. If you can direct potential clients and customers to your website this is even better as you can start nurturing new relationships and engage visitors with your brand.

 

Social media

If you don’t already have a social media presence on the major networks, this should be your next step. Slowly building your following means you have a captivated audience that are already interested in your brand, products and services – you’ll want to brush up on some best practices (there are so many fantastic resources on this topic, you can start with this one). Circulating resources like blog posts or your product pages via social media is a great way to generate “social signals” which have a direct impact on your search engine rankings. Concentrate on posting daily about interesting things to do with your niche and engaging regularly with your followers. Before long you’ll have a decent following to continue to promote your website to.

 

Pay per click advertising

Pay per click advertising can be a great option for some businesses to quickly direct interested visitors to your website. The most popular options are Google Adwords and Facebook Advertising. Google Adwords is fantastic for positioning your website directly in front of people searching for businesses just like yours. Facebook is a good option for presenting your site before people that are most likely to be interested in your services before they have even thought about it.

Before venturing into PPC advertising it’s really important to do significant research on your chosen platform, possibly starting with a small budget and working upwards. Done well, PPC advertising can deliver leads at a small cost per lead. Done badly and you’ll be wasting a lot of money for very little return.

 

Search engine optimisation

A more medium to long term marketing solution, search engine optimisation is something no website owner should neglect. If you can get your website to appear on the first page on Google or Bing when users search for keywords that are directly related to your business and searches, you’ll start to see qualified leads coming through thick and fast. SEO is a very broad topic and again, will take some research to get your head around. You can start with a guide like this one – there’s a lot to take in but fortunately once you’ve wrapped your head around the basics, all it takes is time and a little motivation to improve your search ranking results.

 

Get blogging!

Through your research of all the marketing ideas above, one thing will become very clear. You need to invest time and resources in producing decent quality content on a regular basis. The best way to publish this is through a blog integrated with your website. Focus on writing about topics that your customers ask you regularly as well as things to do with your niche and local area. A well written blog post that delivers value to your ideal customer encourages visitors to stay on your website longer, builds trust and credibility with you audience and has a significant impact on your search rankings. Circulate links through your newsletter, social media platforms and anywhere else to drive more visitors to your website!

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