Mouse Will Play
Skipton Web Design & Development
Search Engine Optimisation
Marketing your Website
Here are a few ideas for getting your site and company noticed:
Social Networking Sites
Create Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter profiles for your company. Be sure to update them regularly to maintain interest. It's a great way of keeping in touch with your customers, getting feedback and developing a community around your brand. To keep up to date, check out Mashable - a blog all about social media.
Image Sharing Sites
Set up a profile (for you or for your business) on a photo sharing site such as Flickr. Add images of your products and tag them with keywords. Add a link to your website on your profile page and in the description for each image. You could also great an open group for your company so customers can add their own photos. Image sharing sites are a particularly useful means for artists and designers to share their work. Again - it's about community.
Maps & Directories
Add your business to Google maps. It's free and will help reach a local audience.
Don't forget to include your web address in traditional business directories such as The Yellow Pages and Thompson Local.
Investigate niche directories for your industry and local area. For example, the Craven Herald has a directory of local businesses; for artistic types there's Creative North Yorkshire.
Email Signature & Newsletters
Add you web address to your stationery and email signature. If you'd like a hand setting up an email signiture like the one shown below, just get in touch.
Consider adding a 'sign up to our newsletter' link on your website. It's a great way to keep in touch with existing customers.
Community Participation
Post on forums that are specific to your location, business or service and use your web address in your signature. For example, if you are in the tourist industry, answer questions on Lonely Planet and Foder's. If you are a photographer, post on photography forums. Just posting a link to your site (spamming) is usually frowned upon but if you're providing helpful information and adding your address at the end, that's fine. It might seem like a lot of work but remember – it's not just the person you reply to who will see your post but everyone who looks at the posts thereafter.
Press Coverage
Press coverage is a great way of getting publicity. Think of an angle - something that makes you stand out and would make a good story. Are you raising money for charity? Do you have an unusual new contract? Have you won any awards? Are you involved in a community project? Are you doing something special for a big event, e.g. the World Cup or Olympics? If so, it's worth approaching the local press with your story. You can make a busy journalist's job easier by including a 'Press' page on your site to provide press releases, photos and logos.
Videos
Imagine uploading a video to YouTube that is so funny, unusual, inspiring, controversial, moving or eye opening that the people you send it to immediately forward it to their friends. They in turn post it on their Facebook walls and tweet about it and before you know it, your video has gone 'viral'. Creating an effective viral campaign is the Holy Grail of internet marketing. It's tricky to get right but if you do, the awards are huge. What's more - it's free and these days can have more reach than TV advertising. Click here to see a particularly effective viral marketing campaign from Samsung that at the time of writing has had over 12 million views.
Blogging
Blogs are an excellent method to share your expertise, build additional web traffic and connect with potential customers. You might choose to build your whole site in a blog format or have your blog separate from your main site. The key to a successful blog is keeping it up to date. Nothing looks more unprofessional that a blog where the latest entry was written in 2007.
