Advertising your website in 2012 and beyond

Your site is only worth something if people see it. And getting people to visit your website can certainly take a lot of effort these days.

With a multitude of ways to advertise, it can be hard to know where to start. Especially if you haven’t had experience in the online industry before. With that in mind, here are a few places you can invest your time and money to bring traffic to your site.

Search Engine Optimisation

Nowadays, if you’re looking for something online then you’ll head for Google or Bing and search for it. Whether it’s for a takeaway or a new part for your mountain bike, most of us will hop onto a search engine and search for a website.

Search engines don’t just randomly guess which sites will be the most relevant; they use complex algorithms to return the best set of results.

Their primary method for picking websites is based on the links that the website has – these are usually earned from publishing quality content that people share and link to from other sites. By publishing quality content and having a search friendly site, you can get your site to appear higher in the search engines and receive more ‘free’ traffic. There are a number of amazing blogs to get you started.

Pay Per Click

On the flip side of the coin to Search Engine Optimisation is pay per click advertising (PPC).

Rather than letting the search engines naturally rank your website, you can pay to have your website appear for popular terms.

With this model, you can quickly research keywords and pay for the traffic to your website. Although it costs you directly, it can send highly targeted traffic to your site in a manageable and cost controlled way that usually converts very well.

If your website receives a low amount of traffic, PPC could certainly give you it the jump it needs.

Email marketing

Websites that have been around for a while will no doubt have an email list (if your site doesn’t, then you should start one right away). Former customers or people who’ve shown an interest in your website in the past offer a fantastic opportunity to reengage and drive people who may have forgotten about you back to your website.

Email campaigns don’t need to be a nightmare. There are plenty of great email marketing platforms out there, such as Mailchimp, that make sending emails a breeze.

Social marketing

Social media has taken the world by storm. There are close to a billion users on Facebook, almost half a billion on Twitter and millions on other various networks.

They offer a fantastic opportunity to connect with and carefully keep people engaged with your website and brand, most even offer a paid model to push your website to new people. Check out Facebook ads and engage socially with your visitors.

To conclude…

The key to getting more visitors to your website is consistency. If you have a plan – and continue to action it – you’ll see the benefits quickly.

There are hundreds more ways you can use to get traffic, including offline marketing and affiliate marketing. But, the above can make for a very strong core to your marketing strategy.

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