Marketing Your Website Without a Budget

Increasing business through a website sounds like it should be simple. We all use the internet, and for most of us it is the primary way that we discover new businesses and find out information about them. Having a website isn’t enough, however, the website needs to be marketed and promoted in the same way that the business itself does. Without this promotion, it will be very hard to drive traffic to your website and, therefore, to take advantage of all the opportunities that it offers.

One of the fatal mistakes that small businesses make in today's business environment is in neglecting their marketing. The most common excuse that these businesses give is that they simply don’t have any room in their balance sheets for online marketing. However, while this might sound like a significant stumbling block, it shouldn’t be. Instead, it should spur website owners into finding more creative solutions to their problems.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most, if not the most, important consideration when marketing a website. Put simply, a websites SEO score will determine how high it places in search results lists. Studies have shown that any websites that don’t appear on the first page of search results are unlikely to receive much, if any, traffic from search engines. Given that search engines are the primary way that we all discover new websites, this is clearly a problem. Visitors to a website who come through Google are considered to be of greater value than other forms of traffic.

You can increase your SEO score by hiring an outside agency, or you can take advantage of the various free tools that now exist to help in optimizing SEO scores.

Google Keyword Tool

Research is important for understanding exactly where you need to focus your efforts to make sure that any marketing policies you implement are as effective as possible. The Google Keyword tool will help you to discover exactly what your customers are searching for with regards to your business. Once you have a list of keywords that are relevant to your site, you can then devise some content around them, safe in the knowledge that it will appeal to your user base. Check out the titles of articles posted to worldreportnow.com and consider how keywords in these titles relate to the website’s categories.

Generate Word of Mouth

Generating word of mouth advertising for your website isn’t quite as difficult as you might think. It is all about producing great content and making sure that you are offering a website that other people will want to visit. When we talk about this type of marketing in the context of an internet site, we are talking about something a little bit different to traditional word of mouth. Online, this occurs on social media and through online message boards. Generating this kind of appeal isn’t something that you can force; it has to come naturally as a result of visitors to your site being genuinely impressed and inspired to spread the word.

Marketing a website effectively is as much about being smart and creative as it is about having the budget to spend on it. If you lack the funds to invest in marketing, then get creative and find ways of promoting your website that doesn’t cost you a penny.