Unfortunately, many people are under the misconception that simply building a website will get them traffic. As with anything else of any merit, becoming visible on the World Wide Web does require some effort. However, depending on the purpose of your website, you may be able to achieve some excellent results without having to hire a marketing company to assist you. If you are willing to take a few proactive steps you can get a huge leg up by doing a few relatively simple things. Here are a few of the most fundamental steps you can take to begin marketing your website.

• Perform a little market intelligence. Go to a major search engine, such as  www.google.com and type in common search terms that you think that people might use to find a site like yours. Visit the sites that rank high and see what you can glean.
   

• Make sure that you have the appropriate keywords in your title, links (anchor text are best), description, text of your page and headings. (This is the single most effective way to get found). The proper selection and use of keywords is the key to search engine optimization. Ask people that are outside of your industry their opinion. As an expert in your industry you may not have the ability to be objective about what people really are typing into search engines. For example, did you know that most doctors use the word "physician" in their searches and consumers use the word "doctor" more often. So if you were targeting M.D.'s you might want to give the word "physician" credence over the word "doctor".  If you are really interested in finding the perfect keywords, we have tools at our disposal that take the guesswork out of this critical process by crawling search engine databases and relaying statistics about exactly what keywords and phrases people are typing in and how often (mispellings and typos not withstanding)...for real.
   

• Make sure that you feature your website URL and email address on all your advertising and in-house marketing materials, including stationary and business cards. One handyman gets tons of leads by painting the URL of his website on the side of his van and sticking magnetic business cards on the doors for people to take when he's parked.
   

• Start collecting your customers' email addresses, either through an opt-in signup box on your website or call them on the phone! Don't forget to collect the email addresses of prospective customers, as well. Encourage the use of email between you, your employees, your customers and your prospectives. Also, make sure that you setup a signature file (or multiple ones) in your email client software. Click here for more info on email netiquette.
   

• Write an article or newsletter and publish it to your site and then periodically distribute it to your email list. Archive the articles on your website and draw your recipients back to your website through links in your newsletter. However, even if you don't have a site, you can still email valuable articles and newsletters to your list.
   

• Put a resource page on your website. This is a method used to obtain site "stickiness"... a REASON for your clients and visitors to come back voluntarily to your site again, and again.  Put links to forms, other sites and invaluable info that your customers will really find useful. Search Engines like these types of pages. This harkens back to the basis on which the Internet was founded - the free exchange of information.

These are some fairly simple things that you can do for yourself that have the potential to drive a surprising amount of quality, targeted traffic to your site. However, if you are really serious about utilizing your website to its full marketing advantage there are many, many other marketing techniques which can be employed. However, unless you have an over abundance of time to learn and keep up with the quicksilver changes of the Internet Marketing industry, you may find yourself in the market to hire a professional. BizTech provides all phases of Internet Marketing services- from search engine positioning - site optimization - Email marketing campaigns - to keyword research...and much more. We can help you as little or as much as you require. We also offer a turn-key, customized Internet Marketing Plan, which based on your specific industry will reveal to you all the insider info you need and outline how to put your own plan into effect. Call us today to discuss your Internet Marketing Strategy!