Off Page Website Promotion
- Article
What is off page website promotion?
It's really self explanatory, but just in
case this is the first time you've heard of it, I'll give you a
brief definition...
Off page website promotion simply means to
market (or promote) your website using media other than your website
itself.
"On page promotion" deals primarily with SEO (search engine
optimization) and consists of having the content "on" the page
promote your website. You put your keywords in the right places...
adjust meta tags... do all the SEO type stuff... and basically
promote your website by using what's "on the page" of the site
itself.
I've met a lot of people who optimize their
websites, and think "well, I've done all I can with my website, now
the search engines will index it... tons of people will visit it...
and the money will start rolling in"... Then after a couple months,
reality kicks in... They're only seeing minimal traffic to their site,
and few (if any) sales, and they start to get discouraged.
What went wrong??? My SEO guy told me if I
optimized my site, I would see results...
...Nothing went wrong, except you optimized your
site "on the page" and then stopped!
If you want to see some real (and tangible)
results, you need to do more than just "on page" website promotion.
Now it's time for some off page website
promotion.
"off page website promotion" deals with
advertising and marketing your website through outside media.
Article marketing... social media marketing... e-zine advertising...
and even real world print media, like magazines and newspaper ads
(just to name a few) all of these are excellent sources for promoting your
website.
Article marketing is where you write an
interesting article about your business products or services, and
submit it to an online article directory. This serves two
purposes...
1) It can help establish you as an "in the know"
expert on your particular subject. When people read your article
(assuming it's well written and informative) they'll see that you're
someone who knows what you're talking about, and your credibility as
an expert instantly goes up.
2) When you submit an article to one of these
directories, you will put a link back to your website in the
resource box (usually at the end of the article) When someone reads
your article, and finds it interesting, they will click on your link
and visit your website for more information. Thus, increasing your
websites traffic.
I'm a big fan of article marketing because it
serves two purposes with one shot. That way your single effort gets
you double promotion.
Social media is where you join a social
group on someone else's website and bring your message directly to
the people. (join a forum or chat group... leave comments on a
blog... join Facebook and become socially active... etc.)
When you contribute to social media sites,
you'll be communicating directly with real people who may take an
interest in what you have to say. (again, you establish your
credibility with people, and you may even establish a bond with some
of the people you communicate with. If you establish a bond with
your social media friends, chances are they'll only think of you
when they go looking for your type of products or services... just
remember to put a link to your website in your profile, or within
your posts)
Offline print media is another great way
to let people know about your website, and get them to visit it.
Now don't get me wrong... the internet is where
it's at, when it comes to advertising. But there are still a lot of
people who read print media (newspapers, magazines, etc.)
Find a magazine related to your business and
place an ad in that magazine. You'll be reaching a targeted audience
for your ads because the people reading the magazine are already
interested in your type of products or services (or they probably
wouldn't be reading that magazine)
Newspaper ads generally cost less than magazine
ads, and you'll reach a lot more people, but the caveat
here is you may (or may not) be reaching people who are
pre-interested in your type of business.
There's a balance between how much you want to
spend and how targeted your audience is for your products and
services.
So while the rest of the world turns to internet
advertising, don't forget all the potential customers who are still
reading print media.
One more interesting tactic comes from a friend
of mine who owns a t-shirt company. She took a chance and invested a
couple thousand dollars on renting a highly visible billboard
(advertising her business and her website) It was a risk because she
could have easily been wasting her money on something that could
have been better spent somewhere else.
The results were nothing short of incredible...
Her website traffic went from a few hundred visitors a week, to more
than 300 visitors a day... In less than two months! Her sales
increased exponentially, and the investment paid for itself in just
a couple of months. Now she has a half dozen billboards spread out
all over the city, and she's never looked back.
These are just a few of the "off page" methods
for promoting your website. There's plenty more where these came
from, but this article is starting to get a bit lengthy. So I'll end
it here, and let you get started thinking about what you've just
read.
If you'd like to learn more, just fill out our
contact form, and we can go over some of your other options for off
page website promotion.
One more thing to remember... Getting people to
visit your website is one thing, but getting them to take action
(and buy whatever you're selling) is another. If your website is
boring, or useless to your visitors, then 1000 visitors a day still
won't put any money in your pocket.
Just as important as visitor traffic (probably
even more important) is visitor conversion. So before you start
sending tons of traffic to your website, you should make sure your
web pages are optimized for your readers. My article on
visitor conversion optimizing will give you some basic concepts
for creating powerful web copy to help you increase the
profitability of your website.
