Is your new website finished and online but you're not sure what to do next?
A lot of people expect their website to do all the hard work for them, but in reality it's going to take a long time to start climbing the Google rankings. You need to be getting your own clicks to your website too.
Here are some tips.
Social media
Set up and use:
Instagram
Facebook
If relevant, you can also use:
Linkedin
Pinterest
YouTube
All of these platforms will give you a way to talk to potential customers as well as helping your Google ranking. Even if customers don't find you directly through social media they may well check up on your social media when they've found you somewhere else.
Listing sites
A listing site is a website like Yell, Trust a Trader or Bark that will list your details and web address under a section for your industry. Customers may go straight to these websites to find a trusted company like you.
It's also great for SEO as it gives you what's called a 'backlink' (when another website links to your website).
You could try:
Trust A Trader
Yell
The Best of St Neots (if you're local)
Bark
Houzz (for builders & tradespeople)
Check A Trade
Hitched (for the wedding industry)
Find your own listing sites that are suitable for your industry!
Google Business
Google Business are the panels on the right hand side that show up in Google when searching for a business name. Get one set up! Start here.
Leaflets, business cards, flyers
It seems a bit old fashioned but it's worked for us!
Particularly useful for tradespeople such as builders, window cleaners etc, leaflet drops to people's houses or offices can still be effective, if done in the right way.
Let us know if you'd like us to design something for you!
Paid adverts in magazines
If you're in St Neots there are plenty of local magazines such as Think Local, B Inspired and Spark. And if you're Great Staughton way, there's Life Magazine. Each of these magazines probably offers paid advertising, which has worked for us in the past.
Let us know if you'd like us to design you an advert.
Google Adverts
If your organic SEO (Google listing) just isn't moving fast enough for you, you could try paid adverts. This is a service that gets you at the top of the Google results for your chosen phrases, and works on a pay per click basis (you pay Google X amount every time someone clicks on your website).
There are companies that will manage this for you, such as local St Neots Prime Position Marketing.
Direct Contacts
Think about who your potential customers are. Put together a physical leaflet or an email and send it to the person in charge. For example, if you're a cleaner, try getting in touch with local offices or schools to see if they're up for a change of cleaner.
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Reality check: Hardly any business will get 100% of their customers from Google. We get about 40% through Google, and the rest of our website traffic is gained via social media, listing sites and word of mouth, plus some of the options listed above.
So, is it time to make a start on getting your website out there?