How to Effectively Promote Your Website
5 Tips to Improve Website Traffic and Google Search Engine Ranking
Mar 1, 2009
Literary publicist Penny Sansevieri has provided effective website promotion services through her book publicity firm Author Marketing Experts, Inc. In a January 28, 2009 telephone interview, she offered tips for increasing website traffic, gauging a Google page rank, and improving a website’s Google search engine ranking.
1. Download a Google Toolbar
Available for a free download on Google, Google Toolbars are Internet browser toolbars available for Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. Among its useful features, Google Toolbars offer a “Page Rank” tool that shows how important Google deems each web page you visit – with 10 being the highest and 0 being the lowest. According to Sansevieri, a good website should have a page rank of 4 to 6.
Because page rank indicates popularity and good traffic, using a Google Toolbar can be a useful way to gauge not only the popularity of your web site but also any high-traffic site you want to create incoming links to your site, thus raising your website’s profile and the likelihood of increasing website traffic.
2. Build Relationships with High Traffic Websites Relevant to Your Website
To get good incoming links to your website, Sansevieri suggests contacting owners of high page ranking and high traffic websites that cover topics related to your website's area of expertise and offering to provide services in exchange for links to your website. Such services can include writing articles or reviews for the website, doing some guest blogging, or answering questions about your topic of expertise.
When approaching these high traffic websites, Sansevieri stresses, always lead with the benefits of what you can offer them.
“You have to lead by giving them as much helpful content as you can,” she states, “The more helpful content you give online, frankly, the more the consumer thinks you know.”
3. Improve Website Traffic by Improving Your Website’s Content
To improve your Google search engine ranking – which places your web pages on the first pages of online searches and increases the chances of web surfers finding your website – Sansevieri suggests constantly updating your website content. The easiest way to do this is by updating your website’s blog at least twice a week.
“Google looks at sites that are not stagnant,” states Sansevieri. “And a site that hasn’t been updated in three or six months will fall in ranking even if you have a lot of incoming links to it.”
4. Join Social Networking Sites
Getting incoming links from social networking sites like Facebook or Squidoo will also raise your website’s profile, according to Sansevieri. If you promote yourself on these sites, however, remember that the first word to social networking is “social.” Try to be on your social networking page on a daily basis.
5. Find Shortcuts
Realizing that promoting your website on the Internet can be time consuming, Sansevieri suggests finding shortcuts to cut down on your workload. The blog on your website, for instance, could be linked to your Facebook page – so that every time you update your blog, you also update your Facebook page. The same strategy can also be used on your Twitter and microblog accounts.
“These things work hand in hand,” states Sansevieri, “There’s lots of shortcuts you can take.”
Read interviews with Penny Sansevieri at Authors Build Careers by Promoting Books Online, Internet Marketing Book Promotion, and Mistakes Authors Make in Web Internet Marketing.
