Free Web Site Marketing and Promotion Tips

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Free Web Site Promotion Hints & Tips

Submit your site URL to the top 10 major search engines and directories.

Site submission can either be done manually (can be time consuming) or automatically using a site submission service (please contact us for more details).

We can recommend site submission software but some of the largest search engines will only accept manual submissions - the largest of these is Yahoo, who will not even review a software submitted url!

Time spent submitting your site to search engines is very well spent as almost everyone on the Internet uses them - they can generate a lot of FREE traffic to your site!

Before submitting your site it is very important to ensure it is properly search engine enable to help gain a better search engine position - Papavero can help you gain a higher ranking in many search engines (please contact us for more details).

A list of major search engines.

Please remember - before submitting your site it is very important to ensure it is properly search engine enabled to ensure a better position and higher ranking - please contact us for more details.

Some of the search engines listed here "share" their databases with other search engines - you will find that by submitting to these search engines your site will also appear on many others.

Do not over-submit your site - you should only submit more frequently if you have greatly changed the content of your site.

The Goto search engine is different to most of the other search engine directories in that it allows you to bid on various search terms to gain a better placement in their search engine.

You specify the keywords you think people will use and can bid on them - the main benefit is that you only pay when someone finds your site and follows the link to your site. This can cost as little as $0.01 per visitor to your site although the more you pay the higher your ranking (check what other people are currently bidding on your chosen search terms before bidding).

For common products or services you may find a low bid will still find you way down the list as many other people may have bidded higher amounts. Before bidding a higher amount - question what is each visitor worth to you! They will even suggest search terms and you can see how popular various keyword searches are.

Goto also includes search results from Inktomi (they provide the back-end search engine and search data for many other search engines as well) so even without paying your site may well be listed - the difference is that you can "pay" for a Top 10 position and paid-for listings always appear before the free search results!

Many other search engines are starting to structure their sites this way. You can try out a search on the Goto search engine here.

Consider sending out a press release to announce your new site.

This can be particularly effective if your site is newsworthy or are offering something "new" or perhaps have special offers or services for web site visitors.

Newspapers regularly mention or feature new or topical websites in their techical or business sections - they cannot mention yours if they don't know about it. Often local/regional newspapers and specific trade magazines or journals will be more likely to mention your site!

Setup a links page and exchange links with others sites.

If it is a company/commercial site - make sure you include link to your other company sites - speak to other related companies, associations and trade journals/magazines to trade links with them. If it is a personal site - include links to your friends and families web pages - get them to do the same for you! Often the most successful way to exchange links is to setup the link to their page first then send them an email detailing the link you have given them and asking for one in return.

It it often only worth providing links with sites that have a similar audience - for example a link from a site about gardening to your site about computer programming would not bring in many people who would actually be interested in the content of your site. Do not have too many links - sites containing hundreds of links diffuse the value of each link. If you do have many links perhaps have multiple pages to categorise them more efficiently! Change the order in which the links appear - links appearing first will generally attract more visitors so by changing the order they all get a fair chance! Maybe have a "site of the day" or "site of the week" and make sure you change it at the correct interval. Periodically check all the links to ensure they are stil valid - it is very annoying to find "broken links".

"Paid For" Banner Adverts
If you have wish to spend money on advertising you should consider banner adverts. These can be either:
Random - where they could be displayed on "any" site or at "any position" within a large site.
Targetted - where they are displayed in relevant positions or to specific users meeting criteria that you specify (these are generally more expensive but can give a better number of visitors to you site). Please contact us for more details.

Free Banner Adverts
As an alternative to "paid for" banner adverts there are some schemes that offer free adverts for your site in return for you placing free adverts for other sites. The downside to this is that the adverts are "random" and you often have no control over the type of adverts that are displayed to your visitors. These are often for other companies - perhaps even competitors! These schemes are normally paid for by the companies offering the free banner adverts including a number of "paid for" adverts in the random adverts.

Papavero can design an animated advertising banner on your behalf for placement with one of the major advertising agencies. Our clients can place a Papavero designed banner within a relevant area of Papavero's web site.