So you bought a website? Yep, you bought a website or you have built a free one for your own purposes. It may fall into several categories. A blog, an info-site, a community site, An online shop, what ever it is you now have two options. Get free listings or pay somebody to do the work of getting your site up the rankings.
For over 99% of people who have a website, getting traffic is in the world of the untold mystery. "How do I get my website seen?" Well you need to find your audience. So make a list of the sort of the people you want to see your website. Then Google the groups to see what comes up. Lets suppose your selling fishing tackle. You Google all things related like, tackles shops, fishing rods, fishing reels, fishing bait etc etc. This is your homework. Without it your website will remain in the depths of the internet website vaults never to be seen again. Then you look at them all and see what their home page looks like. This gives clues to the meta tags and other boring necessary stuff. Meta tags are important so speak to web designers about them, how they work and what suits your website. SEO or search engine optimisation is something for the experts so learn as much as you can by reading articles.It might benefit you to also go online to find people who can help you for free. If you have access to your website designer you could build links into it and get reciprocal links on your website. Perseverance is a big issue. the more you do the better you get, the more you learn and then you save yourself hours of wasted effort doing things that do not work.
The best tip in the world is to never spend money unless you can afford to lose it as that is what happens most. Pay per click is a dangerous world to the untrained person. Pay per click is only as good as the company you use so again do the home work.Get the information from people who buy it. Much like when you see an advert in the paper. Shop cards are the same, so are the little booklets you get through the door. Ring them all up and ask "How many responses do you get and do they cover the cost of the advert in the first place." You will be amazed that many people do not even track their advertising. They are literally throwing money in the bin. You have been warned. The only people who make money from advertising are the advertisers.
(First published 16/12/2009)
