Beyond bugging your real life friends and family (which has been a successful and valuable start for many entrepreneurs by the way); there are still more ways you can get more people to know about your site.
Take a look at the top 5 ideas to promote a website
Share it on social media
Did this seem like an obvious one to you? Surprisingly many new online stores don’t take the step of linking their website to social media channels. These include LinkedIn and Twitter too.
While it is true that not all entrepreneurs use social media for success, the opportunity that social channels provide for reaching an audience is wide and free. It is always going to be worth putting yourself out there for more people to get to know you.
As you get more familiar with interacting on social media on behalf of your business, you will understand how to entice people to actually click on your website and then explore it, and finally buy from it.
So take that first important step. For best results, research ‘best times to post’ and then share on social media.
Use keywords on your site; include long-tail keywords as well as keyword head terms
Keywords are important so get to know them. Every time you add new content to your site, use specific keywords strategically when you create that content.
Keywords are simply the words your potential customers use when they search for anything related to your business on their browser. For instance, if you sell fresh flowers, then ‘fresh flowers’, ‘bouquets’, and such words are your head keywords.
And “What flowers can be given to an office colleague”? Or searches like these are your long-tail keywords. You should spend some time researching the relevant keywords in your niche- what are people searching for- and use at least one or two in each piece of content you create. Keep a mix of the long-tail and head keywords for best results.
Link to other external blogs and internally to your own content
Internal links and external links are both remarkably valuable in building credibility, getting higher rankings, and in being seen by more people.
It’s like building your own reputation so to speak. Internal links direct readers to the targeted page on your website, and an external link directs readers to a targeted page on a different website.
You have the chance to manage the entire linking structure of your own website; and this is something search engines value too.
They use software programs that trawl the entire web, find links and index content pages accordingly. A well-linked page will be easier to be found by the software; ultimately more successful as on a search engine.
Run a contest and offer a giveaway
From encouraging viewers to post pictures using your products in creative ways; to a simple guessing contest, your options to run contests are many.
Reward participation with a giveaway of your product or service and increase awareness of the contest you are running by linking it on your social media posts, as well as encouraging others to forward the link too.
A well-worded contest invite can be a very good hook to pique interest in your brand.
Use email marketing
A traditional and still powerful way to reach your customers; email marketing is one you should not neglect. Be careful not to send too many emails; subscribers easily feel they are bombarded that way.
Instead use this method to spread genuine news, updates, friendly reminders, or invites related to your business. Give subscribers the option to unsubscribe anytime and also encourage them to forward the email to anyone they think might be interested.
Keep updated rules around data and privacy in mind as you build your email list of subscribers.
Start commenting and responding to comments
If you visit other sites that are relevant to your business, get involved in a positive way by commenting on posts there with the aim of making a name for yourself.
Keep your comments relatable, insightful and valuable. Don’t just post links to your website in an unrelated manner- that will give you a bad name instead.
Also, respond to comments or questions posted on your website or on your posts so that people get to know you and your brand better.
Examine and understand your analytics data
Platforms like Shopmatic give you access to Google Analytics and an interactive dashboard that gives you a wealth of information on just about every important aspect of your site, from your most popular pages to how, where and when your site traffic is coming from, as well as demographics of your visitors.
Learn how to read this data and to keep a close eye on this information so that you create more impactful promotional and content strategies.
These are great starting points; and once you get more comfortable, you will find and use more ways that work to attract traffic to your site. It is important for you to keep exploring!
