PROMOTING YOUR BUSINESS WEB SITE - APRIL 3, 2000

With literally millions of webpages out there in cyberspace, you need to make potential customers aware of your site, explain why they should visit, and detail how to get there. Promoting your site-- and ultimately building traffic-- requires its own set of strategies and tactics. Here are some tips to help you get started.

Register your site with many search engines

Utilize the many search engines that are available and register, register, register. Almost every search engine allows you to submit new sites. You can either go to each one individually or use one of the many all-in-one submission sites, like Submit-it, Promotion World, or the A1 Index of Free Web Page Promotion Sites.

Not only will these sites send your submission to the major search engines such as Yahoo! and Lycos, but you can also select smaller, more specialized places to appropriately list your URL, including small business, manufacturing, trade, and education sites.

There are also services that will submit your sites to the most popular search engines for you, for a fee, such as Postmaster. Several Usenet groups also accept press releases about new sites.

It may take a while for your site to show up (Yahoo! says there's currently a three-week lag time due to the high volume of submissions, so be patient). The major online services-- AOL, CompuServe, and Prodigy-- also accept new site submissions. Remember to include them in your promotional efforts as well.

You can also submit your new listing to the online review sites or "cool sites of the day," such as CNet, Web Digest for Marketers, and Netscape's What's New. Don't forget to go to eMarketer's eList page and put in a nomination. Many review sites provide a "star" or similar rating system. If your site receives high praise, you can include this information in future promotional efforts. There are also dozens of online e-zines, many of which also offer new listings or reviews. A quick search will list them for you. Read an issue or two and see if it's appropriate to send them your URL for inclusion.

Think about how customers will find you.

Most of these submissions require a 25-word or less description of your site and business, and many ask you to choose one or more specific categories or keywords as well. Think about your submission carefully. What words or topics would your prospects and customers be most likely to search under?

Also, don't forget to take care of the common sense promotion. Include your URL and email address on all your business materials, from brochures to letterhead and business cards. Also make it a part of any print or broadcast advertising you do.

You might also want to develop a short press release announcing your site (be sure to include your URL, email address, and telephone number). This release can be mailed to online editors of appropriate business or industry trade publications as well as to new listings editors at many Web-related magazines.