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Promoting Your New Website
By Scott Van Achte, Senior SEO, (c) 2008
StepForth Web Marketing Inc.

A few weeks ago I wrote about building your website from the
ground up (http://news.stepforth.com/blog/2008/09/
your-website-from-ground-up-in-10-steps.php). This article did
not dive into great detail on any specific topics, but rather
touched on the key points you will want to address. In this
article I will place most of the focus on the promotion aspect
of this previous article. Image of bullhorn saying 'Promoting
Your New Website'

While at times new websites can experience organic search
rankings in a matter of months, for the most part, it can take
well over a year before you start to see any progress, and that
is if you start promoting right away!

SEO
If your new website has not been properly optimized for the
search engines, then this is a necessary first step you must
take. Ensure that your new site has integrated the appropriate
keywords into all the fundamental areas of the site. Without
this critical step of optimizing your site, in many cases no
level of promotion will help you get those search rankings.

Note: Extreme numbers of inbound links can sometimes cause an
un-optimized site to rank, but an optimized website will
drastically reduce the number of links needed, and its
associated cost. This varies from industry to industry, but is
true as a general rule.

Ideally the optimization of your site occurred during the
planning and building stages, but if it did not be sure to get
this completed as soon as possible.

Press Releases
The first thing you should do when your site goes live is issue
a press release. Be sure to include a link back to your website,
preferably with your target phrase hyperlinked as well. Submit
this press release to an aggregator such as PRWeb
(http://www.prweb.com/). This will help get the word out that
your site is live, draw some attention from the public, and also
get you that first valuable link to your website.

Search Engine Submission
These days search engines will find your site on their own, and
submitting to them is not necessary. If you feel you must submit
your site to the engines, submit it only once and shortly after
the site goes live.

In order to help the search engines fully spider your new site,
the best thing you can do in terms of submissions, is to create
and submit an XML sitemap. Submit this sitemap to your Google
Webmaster Tools account, and also be sure to include a call to
it within your robots.txt file by adding the following line
including a complete path to your sitemap:

Sitemap: http://www.domain.com/sitemap.xml

There are many tools out there to help you build your xml
sitemap. Google has placed a list of some of these tools on
their "Third Party Programs (http://code.google.com/
sm_thirdparty.html)" page.

Directory Submission
Back in August I wrote about using Directory Submission to help
build links. The general gist of it is to be sure that there is
a high level of relevance in the directories you submit your
site to, especially if it is a paid directory. Currently DMOZ
still has a high level of value as it is seen as a strong
authority at Google. Make the attempt to have your site listed
here in the most relevant category possible.

Link Building
There are a number of ways you can work to increase your back
links. In July I wrote about 13 ways to help build links
(http://news.stepforth.com/blog/2008/06/
bakers-dozen-ways-to-increase-link.php). Links are one of those
strategic tools that will never be a bad investment. Today they
play a significant role in search rankings for most industries,
especially in Google. While the future will almost undoubtedly
still see search value in links, even if that value declines,
or disappears entirely, quality links can still help drive
traffic as well, and a strong base of inbound links can deliver
you customers well into the future.

Explore the different ways to build links to your site. A steady
progressive increase in inbound links will help Google look
positively in your direction. Do not be afraid of reciprocal
links either. If you are trading with highly relevant websites
to your industry, then you should have nothing to be afraid of.

Social Media
Promotion largely consists of building links and becoming
recognized by the search engines, but in order to help you build
those links, getting your name and brand out there can really do
wonders. By increasing awareness of your site and product, the
public will often help create the buzz you need, and often, this
can result in fresh links to your website.

To help get your site in the eyes of as many people as possible,
take a look into Social Media and consider creating profiles on
some of the popular platforms. This can include creating a
YouTube account and uploading instructional, informational, or
interesting product videos. You can set up a Facebook page, and
work to build a community around your product. Create a profile
page on Squidoo, MySpace, and Flickr, amongst many others.

These pages often act as backlinks to your site, and also help
spread awareness. Be sure to keep your social endeavors updated
regularly or any viewership you have will dwindle as people lose
interest. If you are able to build a strong following, this can
result in many individuals linking to your site and spreading
the word, resulting in long term benefits for you and your
site.

Your use of social media does not have to be exactly about your
company. For instance, let's say you sell cars. Your use of the
social platform, while it may note your business, can focus on
other car info including trivia, news, photos, etc. The key is
to keep it relevant, not identical - you are not looking to
create a mirror of your site.

Article Writing
Write articles about the subject of your website and submit them
to various services such as EzineArticles
(http://www.ezinearticles.com/). Consider also writing for your
own blog to help grow your site content. By writing and
distributing relevant articles you can create a nice cushion of
relevant incoming links. By writing articles that closely match
the topic of your site, and including a link back to relevant
content within your site, you can help out not only with search
engine rankings, but by creating an extra traffic stream for
your site

Pay Per Click
While Pay Per Click (PPC) will not give you many long standing
benefits, it can help you to start making sales immediately
which in turn can give you the funds needed to promote your site
via other means. If you need that immediate traffic, this is one
way to get it, but at a cost, and as soon as you stop paying,
your traffic stops, so it is far from a reliable long term
means. In some industries however, it can pay off, so it is
definitely worth considering.

Summary
In general, reference your website everywhere possible. Get
links from every relevant source you can think of, issue a press
release, and get your site listed in the key directories for your
industry. The more eyes you can put your URL in front of and the
more relevant sites you can get to link back to yours, the
sooner you will start to see progress in the search engines.

For many industries it can literally take years to get those
coveted first page results - in some industries it may be near
impossible, but if you want a chance, you need to start
promoting that new site of yours immediately.
================================================================
Scott Van Achte is the Senior SEO at StepForth Web Marketing
Inc.; based in Victoria, BC, Canada and founded in 1997. You can
read more of Scott's articles and those of the veteran
StepForth team at http://news.stepforth.com or contact us at
http://www.stepforth.com/, Tel - 250-385-1190,
Toll Free - 877-385-5526, Fax - 250-385-1198
=================================================================

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