Once you build a website, your job is only half done. Now, you must market it to your prospects so they visit—often. Here are some of the most common ways to market your website:

Offer freebies

The web was actually created to enable the free exchange of information. Only in the past 15 years, has it given rise to commerce. To honor that spirit of free information, make sure your site gives people the information they need, for free. Offer free white papers, articles, free downloads, research findings or blogs. Once you do this, the viral nature of the web will take over and visitors will refer your site to others.

Drive traffic to your site with traditional media

Every one of these traditional marketing vehicles should feature your web address: Business cards, letterhead, envelopes, invoices, fax cover sheets, trade show materials, company vehicles, signs, voicemails, press releases, media kits, advertisements and direct mail pieces.

Submit to the top search engines

Google dominates today’s search engine market, but don’t overlook others such as MSN and Yahoo. At my site, www.emergemarketing.com, these three engines account for 93% of all visitors. If you’re unfamiliar with search engine submission, consult an expert like Ed Kohler.

Build links to your site

To increase your site’s visibility, first increase the number of links it has to other sites. Find appropriate sites to link with to first checking out your competitors’ sites. Who do they link to? Then, visit Google and type in keywords that you feel are relevant to your site. Which sites come up? Chances are good that these same sites would be good link sites for yours. The more links you create with high traffic sites, the higher your search rankings will be.

Add your address to a signature file

Your signature file is the several lines of text that appear automatically at the end of each email message you send. Adding a link to your website (along with your phone number and email address) in your signature is equivalent to attaching a business card to each email you send. If I’m your prospect and you’ve just emailed me, I can now click on the link to your site and take the next step to learn more about your company.

Encourage sign-ups

At your site you can encourage visitors to sign up to receive regular communications from your company. Whether these are email newsletters, promotional emails or product updates is up to you. Use your site as a guest register to capture email addresses for future marketing use.

Author Bio

Jay Lipe, aka the “Plan Man”, is the CEO of Emerge Marketing; a firm that helps growing companies improve their marketing. He is the author of the book The Marketing Toolkit for Growing Businesses (Chammerson Press) which is available at major bookstores and online at www.amazon.com. He is also a sought after speaker and seminar leader, and can be reached at (612) 824-4833 or lipe@emergemarketing.com .