How to Promote My Web Page
by Brandy Alexander, Demand MediaOnce you have done the hard work of designing and building your Web page, you want to make sure that people can find it on the Web so they can benefit from your information. If you are a business or simply have a page that you want to advertise to the general public, you can use a variety of methods, many of them free, to promote your Web page and drive as much traffic to you as possible.
Step 1
Join forums that relate to the content of your Web page and create a signature that contains a link to your URL address. This way, when you participate in the community other members can see the link to your site.
Step 2
Create a video that enhances the topic of your site and post it, along with your URL, to an online video sharing site like YouTube or Google Video. Doing this helps gather more visitors for your page and it also provides another link that search engines can include in their results pages.
Step 3
Find organizations or communities that share the topic of your page and ask for your link to be added. Some organizations do this for free, others charge a fee and others may do this if you provide a link back on your own page.
Step 4
Create a newsletter that can include your latest news, products or tips and send this to interested parties. Email communications help remind people about your site, but be sure to include an "unsubscribe" link at the bottom in case recipients no longer want to receive the newsletters.
Step 5
Include your website address on any physical materials, such as business cards or brochures, that you distribute.
Step 6
Write articles for other related websites and ask that the owners include your URL and perhaps a one line description about your site in return. This helps drive more traffic to your own page, especially if these sites are well known.
Step 7
Purchase Pay Per Click, also known as PPC, ads on major search engines like Yahoo! and Google so that your page name and URL address appears on the side of the page during related searches.
Step 8
Join well-received social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, and create a page that includes a link back to your Web page.
Step 9
Advertise locally. Don't ignore your local community. A small classified ad in weekly newspapers are usually inexpensive and reach a lot of people.
Tips
- You can submit your site to key online directories like the Open Directory Project (ODP) and Yahoo! Directory to provide another method for visitors to find you easier (see Resources).
