“Build it and they will come.” For your website, that would be nice. In truth, getting visitors to your new website is going to take a lot more work than that.
Once your new website is live, you will need to do some online marketing. You want your new website to be found online. Getting found takes work on your part to get the right exposure.
Fortunately, you just need to invest a little time and not a lot of money!
By providing the right keywords in your content and playing nice with Google, you will start to see more visits from potential customers.
Review the keywords on your new website
For people to find your website for the right reasons, your text content needs to be rich with keywords.
If you sell insurance, you need to include “insurance” and all the types of insurance you sell in your website text.
You will want to include the areas you service such as “Petoskey Insurance” or “Auto Insurance Petoskey.” This helps with Local SEO.
With the right keywords, Google will know what your business is about. For example:
- Google “spiders” will crawl your site content to determine what your website is about.
- When someone does a search using your same keywords, Google will start to show your website and/or web pages.
- The right keywords help you get found in search results when you’re a good fit for that search query.
Focus on including really good keywords on every web page and in paragraphs of your blog posts. This will help you get found by the right people.
After your website launch
Your new website will require lots of attention on your part to bring in traffic.
Make sure you have someone who is responsible for creating new content and updating your current website content. You can set time aside to do it yourself, or you can hire a company (like your web designer) to manage.
- Publish new content often, whether it’s once a week or every other week. At the minimum, write a new article once a month.
- Share links to your website and blog posts on all of your social media channels.
- Make sure your social profiles have a link to your new website.
- Add your website address to your email signature so your link is in every email you send.
Make sure your content is always fresh and interesting – to humans and search engines!
Google Analytics and Google Business Profile
Google Analytics helps you gauge how effective your pages are and if your articles are resonating with visitors. Google Business Profile helps you get found in local search results and on Google Maps.
Since Google is the number one search engine, we recommend doing three things right away.
- Google Analytics: Get your own Google Analytics code and add it to your website. Once your GA code is added, Google will start to crawl and index your website. This might help your website show up on Google sooner (and it’s free to add). With Google Analytics, you can track the amount of traffic heading to your site, where the traffic is coming from, how long people stay on your site, and more.
- Google Business Profile: Claim or create your business listing with Google Business Profile. You will be able to update your business profile with your logo, business hours and contact information. This will add your business to the map listings and to the right sidebar when someone searches for your business name. You can also add posts with photos and a link back to your website.
- Google Search Console: Submit your site to Search Console then use the tools and reports to help measure your site’s Search traffic and performance. Fix any issues that show in your console. This is another valuable tool to help your site rank better in Google Search results.
Get listed on directories
Another way to get found online is by adding your website link to online business directories. Google likes to see inbound links from reputable websites.
If you are a member of your local chamber of commerce, make sure your website link is part of your profile. There are other free directories where you can create a free listing such as Yelp and TripAdvisor.
Do a search online to find directories that are specific to your industry. The sites that come up higher in a Google search are the sites where you want to be listed.
Share, share, share!
Start sharing your new website in newsletters, on social media sites, with friends and family, and with current clients.
Search engines like Google pay attention to traffic that comes from your social media channels. The more you share, the better your rank in the search engine.
Advertising Online
Whatever your objectives, there might be a digital advertising option that fits your budget. Google, Facebook, and Instagram all have pretty affordable advertising options.
Online advertising can help you reach the right audience at the right time, and faster.
Build it, promote it, and then they will come!
