Sometimes, promoting a website seems like a big job made up of a thousand little things. That’s because it is. Overwhelmed? We all are. So let’s take a minute or two and put things in perspective.
Here’s how to promote your website: a summary of everything all at once, all in one place.
The top of this chart shows the things we do as web marketers when promoting our websites. Ultimately, our job is to do three things:
Below it is a funnel that shows what our audience and visitors do.
“Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.” Henry Ford had the right idea. So let’s break down each step in website promotion and add some links to useful resources.
This is your plan. Let’s assume you already know who you are, your goals, and your place in the market. Assuming you already have a blog, newsletter template, email list, analytics, and a website designed to convert, here are the content strategy basics:
It starts with web pages. This is your most important and visible stuff, often called “cornerstone” or “evergreen” content. Next come your blog posts and newsletters. This is your ongoing published content, and it includes guest posts on other sites, guests on your site, and earned media (PR). Don’t forget media, such as video and audio. Finally, consider “big content” such as ebooks, infographics, white papers, research, industry surveys, etc.
This is often listed as the number one challenge for promoting websites. Don’t panic. Start with baby steps, and focus on efficiency.
Ranking in search engines is a great way to create awareness and fill the top of the funnel. If you’re good at search engine promotion, your traffic from search might look like this:
Search marketing can be very slow, but eventually, it can lead to a long, steady line or curve upward.
Assuming the website doesn’t have any technical flaws causing trouble, there are three main activities for promoting a website in search engines:
Social media is a way to grow interest in your website. It can drive traffic and awareness at the top of the funnel, but also to strengthen the middle of the funnel. If you’re good at social media, your social traffic might look like this:
Traffic from social sources might have lots of ups and downs, but it’s consistent over the long run.
This is a super powerful way to promote a website and especially useful at keeping in touch with people who are already aware of you. They’re in the middle of the funnel, and email helps to keep them interested and considering your brand. If you’re active in email marketing, traffic from these campaigns will look like this in your Analytics:
If links are tracked properly, traffic from email will be segmented in your Analytics …like a heartbeat.
As you can see, we’ve been measuring things all along. Make sure that goals are set up so you can see how many visitors become leads and subscribers. Also be sure that filters are set up so traffic from your office isn’t affecting your stats.
Wait. What about advertising? We’re focused on content marketing here, not advertising. There are many ways to promote your website by buying traffic, but they are generally more expensive and less effective.
That’s it! That’s everything you need to know to drive traffic and promote your website. I realize this was a long post, but we hope that this breakdown makes it all seem easier. Remember, baby steps!
If you’d like to add anything (or complain that this was just another overwhelming to-do list) let us know with a comment below!
By signing up you agree to our Privacy Policy.
It wasn’t just another overwhelming to-do list! It was really nice experience to read your article. Why? Because it’s full of useful knowledge in a short form. Thanks for so many links to interesting content. I’m sure I’ll use it to
You wrote about three things to do:
1. Create content
2. Promote content
3. Measure results
I would like to add to this list one more point:
4. Draw conclusion to do things better.
Paulina from PressPad
I’m no expert but I am of the view that relationship building is the key to success in internet marketing, much like the case in traditional forms of marketing – particularly given the exponentially increasing amount of information on the net. In this context, email marketing would be an appropriate medium for the message.
I completely agree. I’ve often said, “If you’re not making friends, you’re doing it wrong”
Thanks for the comment, Gavin.
Andy,
I thought you used to say always have a product to sell. Have you changed your position on that? And I thought you used to have a downloadable marketing booklet for sale on your site didn’t you? I am interested in what you think about that now unless you feel that just representing your companies services is sufficient. Thanks for such great information. Your site is really impressive.
Susan Fox
gagasgarden.
Hello, Susan.
I don’t think I was the one who recommended having a product to sell. There are many ways to connect content to revenue separate from products. For us, it’s about lead generation.
I’m glad you’re enjoying the site! If there’s ever a topic that you’d like to learn more about, just let me know and we’ll write about it…
Appreciating the time and effort you put into your blog and in depth information you present. It’s awesome to come across a blog every once in a while that isn’t the
same unwanted rehashed information. Excellent read! Bookmarked.
Thank you very much, looking for something similar and found well written on this blog.
wow.. such a great and helpful article.
Its more than a year old article but still on the top of the first page of gogle.
well, thanks a lot for lot of info.
roys
Andy Crestodina Nice post. You mentioned great points for promoting websites. Seo and Social media best way to promote sites and products. One point I mention which is Live Chat. When visitors visit your website, the live chat team answer all visitors questions and tell them all about your services or products.
Live chat might answer visitors questions, but I don’t think it will affect traffic. Some actions affect the number of visitors and other affect the conversion rates. This post was mostly about driving traffic. Thanks for the comment, Adam!
Try this project: metrics11.com It helps you find profitable keywords niches you can use on your site to get free traffic from Google.
It shows you how many people search for given term per month in chosen country, what is competition for that term, and other metrics like trends or domains availability. It focus mostly on competitors metrics. I think it is the most comprehensive keyword research tool on the market right now. Try the demo on the front page.
very good article thanks for sharing
Easy and quick way to promote your website:
http://www.sharemywebsite.com
Very nice article indeed!
Thanks Andy
In your article, you did not write about http://ganted.com
The site gives the opportunity to acquire high quality links and traffic for your website
Als you can make money online in real time.
In your article, you did not write about http://ganted.comThe site gives the opportunity to acquire high quality links and traffic for your website. Als you can make money online in real time.
Very Nice and Crisp information. I must say that even though this is not an exhaustive list but its definitely a good start.
Check this out also: http://www.wrangle.in/topic/augodxdbnmlm/5-free-ways-to-promote-your-website
Definitely things to keep in mind! There isn’t a single way to be able to market, it is a bunch of little things that we need to do. Content, link building, and more should all be done-something you’ve mentioned!
Thank you for this article, it is very informational and I learned a great deal of information especially when you talked about content development and blogs how they can help a website..
Thank you
Thank you for sharing the core advice in promoting any website!
Thanks! Very informative. Me & my wife just started an online business and the info you provide is helpful.
@starwarsdeals My hope was that seeing everything in one place would make it seem less intimidating. I’m glad if it worked! I may keep adding to this post as time goes on.
If you’d like more how-to info and details on all of these topics, the “Content Chemistry” book is coming out soon. If you drop off an email address here, we’ll write to you when it’s finally printed!
https://www.orbitmedia.com/contentchemistry
You are very informative & I appreciate the content of your Blog. Thanks! @crestodina
Is the social media graph a report from GA?
Going to keep this as a “recipe card” in my marketing playbook. Well said Andy.
@louf Yes, those are all GA reports, although you may know, social traffic is a bit tricky to measure in Google Analytics.
Did you know that if you tweet with a link and someone clicks it from a Twitter app, it’s considered direct traffic. If they click from Twitter.com, it’s referral traffic. Strange, right?
@crestodina shut up! really?
@louf Yes, it’s true. Unless you add campaign tracking code to all your tweets, social traffic is very difficult to segment. I’m thinking about writing an article called “101 Ways Your Analytics Are Wrong” 🙂
Thanks Andy. You live what you preach. Your content is always relevant and expertly crafted. The email newsletters and blog posts might be the only agency source I look forward to regularly. Always valuable info. Thanks!
@dwboersma We work really hard to keep things as practical and simple as possible. Honestly, this was a post where I started to worry that it would be too much. But so far the feedback has been good.
If there are any topics you’d like for us to cover, just let me know!
Nice primer and in plain (non-geek) English. Very helpful for new businesses and always a good way to reinforce your tactics & approaches.
@joeldon Thank you, Joel! I think it’s helpful to avoid jargon and use plain English.
You’re so generous in sharing these posts. Is there something I can do for you?
@crestodina Thanks Andy. I admire your work and bizdev strategies, plus your ideas and suggestions will be especially helpful in my new role as a CM.
good stuff, andy!
@Hans Lushina Thanks, Hans. Remember when we did that “retro keyword design” trick for Bioelements? You’re still ranking on page one for “sensitive skin care” 🙂
Bookmarked!! 🙂
@belllindsay Thanks, Lindsay! This is kind of a reference post. I’ll probably keep updating this as time goes on and I find/write more resources. If there are relevant posts on SpinSucks that would improve this, let me know!