How to Promote your Website
Now that you've finished creating your Server101 Home Page, you'll want to make sure
Internet surfers can
find you. Too many Web developers and marketers work on the
if-you-build-it-they-will-come model. They won't.
You have to stimulate traffic.
Here are a few helpful steps to make your hard work pay off.
List your site in the Server101 community that
best matches your industry/hobby.
There's no easier or faster way to get some traffic to your site. You can do that in your member services section
Prepare your Web pages for optimal indexing in Search Engines.
a. Pick a Page Title. Write a descriptive title for each page of 5 to
8 words. Remove as many "filler" words from the title, such as "the,"
"and," etc. This page title appears on the Web search engines when
your page is found. Entice surfers to click on the title by making it a bit
provocative. Place this at the top of the Web page between the
<HEAD> </HEAD> tags, in this format:
<TITLE>Server101 - Reliable Web Hosting</TITLE>
b. Choose Keywords. Prepare a list of 50 to 100 keywords -- the kind
of words you hope someone would type in and find your site.
Make sure that you don't repeat any word more than
three times. Place those words at the top of the Web page, between
the <HEAD></HEAD> tags, in a META tag in this format:
<META NAME="KEYWORDS" CONTENT="Web Hosting, free homepages,
Free Web Hosting, ...">
c. Write a Page Description. Write a careful 200 to 250 character (including
spaces)
sentence or two. Eliminate as many "filler" words as
you can, to make room for the important keywords which
do the actual work for you. Place that description at the top of the Web
page, between the <HEAD></HEAD> tags, in a META tag in this
format:
<META NAME="DESCRIPTION" CONTENT="Server101 provides free domain
name hosting, free business and personal web hosting">
Register your site with search engines.
When you have all Meta tags in place you can submit your page to the important Web search engines and directories.It
doesn't take long, and most Internet users use one - Yahoo, Lycos, Infoseek, Excite and AltaVista, and there are dozens of
smaller ones.
Put your URL in your e-mail signature file. That way every message you send - to
anyone - reminds people where your Web Site is out there.
Request Links on Industry Sites. You probably belong to
various trade associations that feature member sites. Ask for a link
Include URL on Stationery, Cards, and Literature. Make sure that all reprints of
cards, stationery, brochures, and literature contain your company's URL. And see that your printer gets the URL syntax
correct, with slashes leaning right rather than left.
Issue News Releases. Find newsworthy events (such as the launching of your free
service), and send news releases to print and Web periodicals in your industry.
Send your URL to your local newspaper's technology editor. Many newspapers
regularly review, mention or feature unique or topical websites in their tech or business sections. But they can't mention yours
if they don't know about it.
Join a "web ring." These rings, which link people who visit a site to the next person
in a circle of members, are popping up everywhere.
Promote Your Site in Mailing Lists and News Groups. The Internet offers
thousands
of very targeted mailing lists and news groups. Use DejaNews http://www.dejanews.com to find appropriate newsgroups. Don't bother with news groups
constituted of pure "spam." Instead, find groups where a dialog is taking place. Don't use aggressive marketing, even if you see
other idiots doing so. Rather, join in the discussion and let the
"signature" at the end of your e-mail message do your marketing for you.
The soft-sell approach is key here, because if you barge into an online community and start plastering your URL everywhere,
you'll make plenty of enemies and do yourself absolutely no good. So don't go spamming the net - it's a violation of our Terms of Service, and believe me, we'll hear about it and take
action.
Join a Banner Exchange Program. Of the many banner exchange programs,
LinkExchange is the biggest.
http://www.linkexchange.com Essentially, you agree to show a rotating
banner on your site for other LinkExchange members, and they do the same for you.
Tell everyone you know or meet to visit your web site. Tell your family, your friends,
your colleagues and the butcher. You should be able to persuade a few of them to visit your pride and joy. :)
This list should get you started and send you well on the way to running a sucessful web site. If any of you can think of
any additional ways to promote a Web site please send your suggestions to info@server101.com