Advertising a New Website

© 2005 Lea de Groot

My clients are often starting their very first website, and one of the things they don't know how to do is advertise the new site. This is the advice I give them - the first place to advertise your website is on your stationery - it should appear on all your business cards, on your letterheads and on any other preprinted items you have printed in bulk. I wouldn't suggest you throw away any existing stocks, but do ensure that the next batch you have printed also includes your website address.

The next place to look is any other paperwork you generate - all invoices you send should include your URL, and any other paperwork you generate internally and send externally should include your website address in your contact details.

Then move on to any existing advertising you are doing. Do you have a standing order in the local newspaper? Have it amended to include your website address. Do you place an ad in a trade journal? Have it amended for the next issue.

Basically, make a change to all the places you would change if you were to move. All of the above may seem obvious, but its important to list the obvious and make sure it is implemented.

In addition, a new website is an exciting change in the prospects for your business - make sure you send out a press release. This can be done both offline and online.

Then we move on to less traditional ways of advertising:

Your best form of online advertising for your website is the search engines. A well-structured and carefully worded website will appear in the search engine results for the goods or services you sell without any further work from you (well, that isn't quite true - offsite search engine optimisation is more of an ongoing task than a one-time set and forget item). Having customers find you as a first page result gives very qualified customers.

Keeping in mind the size of your advertising budget, you can then move on to actual web advertising. Its important to exhaust all of the above options before you start spending cold hard cash! Industry-specific advertising niches are ideal, but the next best choice is the biggest - Google Adwords at https://adwords.google.com/ provides a good, simple example of a generic advertising venue 

Clearly, there is a lot to keep in mind when advertising your site. Make sure you start at the beginning and cover all your bases. Think about what you have read here and what changes you can make in your plans for your next website.


 

This article has been reprinted with the kind permission of Lea de Groot

Lea de Groot is CEO of Elysian Systems (http://elysiansystems.com/), a leading Australian Search Engine Optimisation & Web Development company based in Brisbane. A shorter form of this article originally appeared in 'WebTalk: Putting Businesses on the Internet', a newsletter for companies who wish to use their website more effectively (http://elysiansystems.com/newsletter/). You may contact Lea for all your web needs at seo@elysiansystems.com

 

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