So, you have a beautiful website but how do you get viewers? A non-marketed website is just like a gorgeous vintage car in the garage that doesn’t run - only you get to appreciate it. The secrets are variety, a well thought out plan, and consistency. Here are some sure-fire ways to get your website into the world and start getting some well-deserved hits.

Instagram Link Stickers

Instagram finally got rid of the 10,000 minimum followers to use the feature that allows you to create a link to content outside of Instagram. The old swipe up feature was replaced by a link sticker and it’s finally available to anyone using Stories. The key is to ensure that your sticker is large enough and placed correctly to capture attention. Link to your website, a certain e-commerce or contact page, to a blog or anything else. Here are the steps:

• Create an IG Story

• Add a link sticker to your Story

• Place and resize the sticker

• Make your Story public

• Add your Story to a Highlights Album

Facebook Groups

Yes, Facebook is old school but it works well for small businesses. There are still millions of users out there and every Facebook group is its own community. Instead of just creating a business page and asking for followers or likes, join as many groups as you can and get involved. Interact and share a blog. Refer other businesses and they may return the favor.

• Look for Facebook groups that represent the demographic you wish to target

• Read the rules carefully to ensure business posts are allowed

• Apply to each group individually and keep your answers honest - if you live outside their town, tell them

• Only post on days allowed

LinkedIn Carousels

Storytelling is an important element in any marketing campaign and LinkedIn’s Carousel Ads allow you to create stories that invite interactivity. You can create a series of up to 10 cards that can be horizontally swiped (although it’s best to start with 3-5 to maintain interest). The first card will be in full view with a partial view of the second. Play around with the order of your cards and see what intrigues viewers to engage the most. Here are the steps:

• Choose your campaign objective

• Build Carousel Ads based on objectives

• Inspire your audience to take action throughout the funnel

Twitter Communities

While Twitter may not be the first social media platform that comes to mind for marketing, it still is a powerful B2B tool. Consider using Twitter’s short blasts to send out invitations to quizzes, assessments, polls, or even giveaways. Twitter is great for building brand awareness as long as you remember the limitations.

• All content should be viewable on mobile as over 80% of users only use mobile

• The average lifespan is only 15 minutes so time your tweet carefully and repeat it often throughout the day

• Use Twitter’s “Communities” feature to build a place for like-minded people to connect and share information

Quora

Quote is a Q&A platform used by people worldwide to find answers to just about anything. Quora can be a great source of long term traffic. It’s easy to get started. If you are not familiar with the Quota community, just monitor it for a while to get the feel. This is not the place to push your product or service or appear overly promotional. People are looking for good, honest answers to everyday problems. The goal is not to link your website to every post but to be viewed as a trustworthy authority. A few other suggestions:

• Only add links if they are truly needed for clarification

• Only add relevant content that was not already added - it will be annoying if you are repeating someone else’s advice

• Long, well-thought out answers are best (at least 300 words) and images or screenshots are always appreciated

YouTube Live & Restream

Almost 2 billion people with logins use YouTube every single month plus countless others you are not using an active account! If you are video-savvy and have a great product or service that promotes well on video, YouTube is a no-brainer.

Restream is a paid service that allows you to go live directly from your browser and multi stream to several other live streaming platforms of your choosing. They allow you to customize your stream with your logo and branded background graphics, include background music, allow split-screen and screen-share options, respond to viewers in a live chat, and many more features. The best part to increase your website hits? Their website video player allows you to stream directly on your website in addition to your social platforms.

Backlinks and Local Citations

A local citation is any mention of your business information in other websites, business directories, social networks, industry-specific sites, and even blogs. They help search engines verify the existence, legitimacy, and trustworthiness of your business. Popular sites include Yelp, Houzz, Yellow Pages and industry specific ones like lawyers.com. If you have the time, you can look for and submit information manually, but researching the best sites is key. Information submitted in poorly rated sites may actually hurt your rankings. Also, unless every submission is exactly the same, you can also get flagged unfavorably.

There are several services available to help. If choosing one yourself, just be sure that your submission is permanent and won’t be removed once you stop paying a monthly fee. Charlotte’s Web Designs, LLC subcontracts to a firm that specializes in scouring the internet to see if you have any inconsistent listings already, correcting them, then permanently submitting your business information in only the highest ranking quality sites relevant to your individual business.

Start with Good Branding

Branding is what makes your business stand out from the others and remain memorable. It is not just a logo or slogan - branding is the way your clients or customers see you. A good brand invokes trust and highlights positive aspects of your business: reliability, experience, creativity, accountability, customer service, etc. Unless you have a background in marketing and branding in particular, branding is best left up to professionals like Charlotte’s Web Designs, LLC who can work with you to ensure your branding is communicating effectively and memorably.

Website SEO

Even though your website is well laid out and the content reflects your business’ services or products in a positive light, it may not have the information it needs to be found on a search. If you don’t know how to check your SEO, you can request a free audit here.

• There should be at least 300 words on every website page in order not be flagged unfavorably

• Keywords must be strategically placed and headers used effectively

• All website pages, images and even certain sub-sections need onsite SEO

• images and graphics must be optimized to ensure that the site loads quickly

• The sitemap should be submitted to search engines

• Add quality content often so your website is considered relevant - a well-written blog works extremely well.

Summary

Getting hits to your website is not like the Field of Dreams: “If you build it, they will come”. It takes a lot of time, creativity, but most of all, consistency. Start with memorable branding, ensure your website is constructed with the right keywords and SEO, then start trying different social media platforms. Monitor Q&A sites like Quora and Reddit to see if your expertise can help others. Check your website analytics often to see what technique is working and what may need to be adjusted.

Charlotte’s Web Designs, LLC specializes in individual and small business websites. With over 35 years technology and marketing experience, CWD can give you the online presence your business deserves. CWD has a perfect 5-star Google rating for a reason! Please check out my current portfolio here and contact me for a free consultation.

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