Thursday, December 18, 2008

Online Web Site Marketing Strategies

By Stewart Woyo

After weeks of putting in endless hours of production time, you have finally created the perfect website. With vibrant pictures and professional graphics, you know that this site is going to bring in a lot of money. The first thing you do after unveiling the site is release it to the top search engines, expecting to get an overflow of new web traffic. But unfortunately, it doesn't take you long to realize that the search engines alone aren't getting the job done. What you must realize is, the only way to significantly improve web traffic is to develop a comprehensive online promotion strategy.

You may be thinking that an online website promotion strategy is too difficult to come up with. It's easier then you think! Here are 5 ways to drive traffic to your site and get you the hits you need.

1) "Move the free line," is a phrase for a popular website promotion tactic. Offering a sample or service for free is a proven method of generating increased traffic to your site. Be sure that your company's information is included on your sample. In this manner, visitors who love your sample will constantly be reminded of where they got it, and be able to come back to your website again. Give the visitor something of value for free, and include a call to action.

2) If you are willing to spend money to make money, paying for traffic is a quick way to send visitors to your website. This also allows you to see if your website actually converts. Pay per click search engines and networks allow you to target visitors. With these, you only pay for visitors that actually land on your site. This very effective promotion method is best used if you have a specific targeted audience for your traffic.

3) Networking can be an extremely cost efficient way to drive lots of traffic to your site. Other marketers within your target market can partner with you, to open the door to a tremendous amount of free traffic. Build these relationships as much as possible. If the partnership is set up properly, it can be both a short term traffic winner and a long term profit bringer. Be sure to return the favor though, and add their links to your site to swap traffic. Make use of one another's email lists, and broadcast news and bargains to this wide pool of ideal targets. Many different types of partnerships are possible, so try and spend some time focusing solely on establishing these kinds of relationships. In my opinion, networking is the most effective method on this list for building lasting web traffic.

4) Content is king! Think about the sites you visit most often. They could be news sites, or weather sites. Maybe a site related to one of your hobbies. Why do you visit them often? Because each time you visit you read or see something new. Your content doesn't have to live on your website alone. Write articles and submit them to other websites and directories. Make sure they always reference, or better yet link back to your site. The person that was interested in your article will most likely be interested in your site. Before you know it you'll have created an endless stream of web viewers. Plus, as long as you update your contentthey'll keep coming back.

5) Studies have shown that video is one of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your website. Video has become a mainstay of the internet culture. The more video content you have, the better. Publish videos to your website, and then submit them to free web video sites like Youtube or Google Video. Every time one of your videos is viewed you'll improve your search engine rankings. Better search engine rankings mean more traffic. Without visitors your website is invisible to the world.

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