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Marketing Your Web Business: Essential Tips

After you build and publish your web site, it's time to get the word out. There are a lot of sites out there, and the Web is only getting bigger. Search engines are a great place to start, but the Web offers many more opportunities, such as online yellow pages, email newsletters, reciprocal linking, web circles, and ad banner exchanges. Remember to use plenty of offline techniques, too! Here are a few tips to help you rise above the crowd.

Make Sure You Have the Right Web Address
The first time potential clients and customers encounter your business on a search site, they'll see your web address (or URL) right off the bat. Make sure you have the right one! Try to pick a web address with the name of your business or some variation of it. If your business name is already taken, try picking one that describes what you sell. A good web address makes your site easy to remember, find, and return to. It should be easy to type without using hyphens or abbreviations, and should be easy to read.

Submit Your Site to Search Engines and Directories
Research continually shows that 85-99 percent of web users start at search engines to find what they're looking for. As a small business, it's worth your while to get to know search engines. Learn more about search engines by reading our article, Search Engine Myths & Facts

Other Methods

Online Yellow Pages and Directories
You can drive traffic to your site by purchasing a listing on online yellow pages and directories. Online yellow pages and directories are indexes of local stores and businesses, just like print yellow pages. They're a great way to get targeted traffic, because people who see your listing have already searched for your category — so they're looking for businesses just like yours.

Web Marketing
Another great way to find customers is reciprocal linking. Create a page with links to other sites. Then encourage those same sites to link back to yours. For example, a bike shop owner might always recommend a certain bike mechanic to customers and vice versa. Using reciprocal linking, they could link to each other's web sites from their own. Furthermore, many search engines use links to rank web sites. In other words, good links can improve your search engine rankings as well as increase your traffic.

Banner Ad Exchanges
Many small businesses on the Web participate in banner exchanges. To participate, you put your banner ad in a pool of other participants' banners and reserve a place on your site for ads to appear. The ad banners then rotate through all participants' sites. (For a monthly fee, you can also opt not to display the banners on your site.)

Auctions
Sell your products on an auction site, such as eBay, Yahoo!, or Amazon.com. You'll be able to increase your sales (studies show that seven out of 10 auction listings close in a sale) as well as reach new audiences. Satisfied buyers can become repeat customers and drive business to your site.

Offline Marketing
Be sure to include your web address on all your advertising, letterhead, business cards, and brochures. Put it anywhere you'd put your phone number. And never underestimate the power of word-of-mouth referrals. Tell your friends, family, and neighbors about your online business. Spread the word!