Tell people about it
Use your existing clients and friends spread the word that you have
a web site. Tell them about it when you speak to them, remind then every
so often. Add a line to your invoices, brochures, literature, business
cards, letterhead, and anywhere else it would be appropriate. Add your
web address to any and all advertising, and add a signature to your
e-mail's including your URL.
Newsletters
One way of promoting web sites to existing clients, and to bring them
back to your site, is to publish your own e-zine or newsletter. MAKE
SURE IT IS OPT-IN. Ask people if they want to join your list and send
them a regular e-mail outlining new products, special offers, articles
of interest and industry news, include links back to articles on your
website in your e-mail. This is a good avenue for e-commerce, or sites
that constantly update their content. But probably not for sites that
don't update often.
Last but not least...
Keep in mind, when designing and updating, that your keywords are the
"KEY" to finding your site. Determine your top 10 search words
carefully. Be sure that you use what "other" people would
type - not what you would type.
Yes, you can have more than 10, all engines vary in their requirements.
Just be sure to list them in "Priority" order from
Highest to Lowest.
When a picky robot/spider views your html, if you have to many keywords
or phrases they will just "chop" at their predetermined character
limit. General guidelines are: 10 key words or 5 phrases (i.e.: "website
design hosting web site search engine" = 7 keywords, Multiple keyword
phrases - website design, website design hosting, design hosting, website
hosting, etc) anywhere from 70 characters to 255 characters total (including
commas and spaces).
Remember to use keywords relevantly in paragraph form. Include keywords
and phrases in alt tags, and create your page title using your first
3-5 keywords. (I.e.: Web InSite, professional web hosting, design, positioning
and maintenance.) You should try to have at least 100 characters of
text per page.
Well, that's it for now. I will be updating and adding to this as often
as possible. Please feel free to use this information to better your
site and your understand of Meta-data. Also, search on the keywords
"meta-tags" often, the rules change daily. This is one of
the most volatile areas of the Internet, and to me, one of the most
fun. It seems that I can never keep up. Until next update ~ K