Webdesign & Promotion for Musicians, Artists & Writers

Further Steps to Website Promotion

This is the fourth in a series of article about optimizing and promoting your website, and getting it found by the search engines. Read the previous articles in the series.

Whew! Is it over?

So...you've researched your target keywords, written your text, made your site friendly to search engines & visitors. You've submitted your site to the directories, and gotten some links to your site. The search engines have begun to come around to see what your site's about. A few more visitors are beginning to find your site.

What now?

Don't relax for too long. I wish I could tell you you could put your feet up & never worry about promoting your site again. But to truly be successful, there are things you should do, on a continuing basis. (Like housework, websites & web promotion are never really finished.)

The Fruits of Your Labor - Analyzing Your Efforts

who's linking to you?

Some directories will add your link right away; other within weeks, or months. (A few will never add it.)

Links to your site are called incoming links (IBL) or backlinks and there are several easy ways to find them.

At Yahoo.com search on "linkdomain:yourdomain.com" (without quotes) to see existing links to your site. (This report is updated every few months.)
Join Google Webmaster Tools. They will list all the links they know about to your site. (This report is updated every few months.)
Check your email; some directories notify you when your link is approved.
Your website statistics app (perhaps Webalizer or AWStats), provided by your webhost, will be able to show you how folks found your site. You can see what keywords they searched on, which search engines they used, and on which pages they found a link to your site.

how many visitors are you getting?

After a few weeks, or a few months, compare the number of visits your site is getting with the number it got before your optimization and promotion efforts. Your website statistics report (provided by your webhost) will give details about how many visitors you're getting.

Be aware that you won't get an enormous amount of visitors right away. Even with a lot of links, it takes time to develop a popular site. But links will help.

Compare Yourself to the Competion

Check out your competitors. What are they doing? Who links to them? What do they offer on their websites? Can you get links from some of the same places, or offer some of the same type of services or information that they do? What have they thought of that you haven't?

To see which websites link to your competition (or to you), just type this into the search box at Yahoo.com:
link:example.com
Do not use any spaces between the colon and the domain name.

(You can do this with Google, too, but they'll only show you a fraction of your links. Sign up for Google Webmaster Tools to see all your links.)

Further Promotion

further real-world promotion

Have business cards made & leave them everywhere (friends, bulletin boards, etc.). Always carry some with you.
Send out press releases to local newspapers & newsletters.
Is there a local radio show that would like to interview you?
See if the local newspaper will write an article about you. (The little local weeklies that are distributed for free are a good bet.)
Put up flyers on bulletin boards at your school, church, grocery store, work, etc.
Include your web address on any advertising material you produce for your business.
Writers should include their web address in their books, musicians should put it on their CDs, and so forth.
Promote your site with free merch. Give away stickers, guitar picks, pens, buttons, or other stuff with your name, logo & web addres s on 'em.

further free online promotion:

Put your web address & brief description in your email signature.
If you participate in online forums, newsgroups, or blogs, use your web address in your signature (if permitted).
Add fresh material to your website regularly to keep visitors & search engines coming back.
If you publish your work online (in online magazines, newspapers, music sites, etc.) make sure those webpages link back to your new website.
You could also write articles and submit them to ezines & article databases such as Article City. This can lead to many links and helps to establish you as someone knowledgeable in your field.
When your site goes online, send an email announcement to your mailing list. (But don't spam!)
Start an email newsletter & send one out about once a month. This will keep your site fresh in people's minds.
Offer free stuff with a purchase from your website, or to your fans. (See "free merch" tip under "offline promotion" above.)

further paid online promotion:

Buy pay-per-click (PPC) ads from Google, Yahoo, or other providers.
Paid directory listings and paid links and on successful sites related to yours may be worthwhile. Choose carefully. Paid links are often frowned upon - or discounted - by Google.
Banner ads are often tuned-out by web surfers, but it's something to consider.

Website Promotion Results...

How long does it take to get results, after your initial promotion campaign of your well-designed, well-written, optimized website?

In a few months - often 3 to 6, but perhaps even sooner - you will see more visitors to your site. And, the visitors will be better quality - by focusing on specific keywords/phrases, the visitors to your website will be more likely to be the ones looking for the information that you are providing.

You've made a strong start. But don't expect thousands of visitors or hordes of paying customers overnight. Hang in there, give it a little time, and you will see results.

Good luck with your site! Please let me know if you'd like to use my services, or if you have any questions!

best regards,
Denise