7 Ways to Promote Your Website Locally

Now that you've built your new website you cansit back and let it do all the work, right? Well no. Unlike in "Field ofDreams" if you build it, they won't necessarily come, at least not until youask them to! That's where web site promotion comes in. Web site promotionprovides that vital link between that great site you've built (or had built)and everyone that you want to come see it!

Often new site owners either don't know that theyneed to promote their new site or they follow the trend of only promoting theirsite on the search engines like Google and MSN. While it is always important toget your site listed with all the major search engines (and most of the smallerones), you might be overlooking a vital part of promoting your site, promotingyour web site locally.

A small business will often it'swebsite to provide a "Showroom" for their products, information about theirbusiness, and directions to help potential customers find theirbusiness. Their main goal often is to attract customers locally or fromnearby towns and cities, so some additional strategy is useful in promotingtheir site.

Local websitepromotion checklist

1. Local Newspaper: Many local papers have a section to introduce your business tothe area. Write a small article about your business and submit it to thenewspaper.

2.Press Releases: This is a formal release about your business. There are manyplaces on the Internet that will publish press releases for free. This can be agood way to be sure your business can be found on the Internet. Often localpapers will also run these releases.

3.Niche Marketing: For local businesses, be sure your keywords (both in yourcontent and in the Meta Tags) include local cities and towns. When some onetypes in "Used cars" in the search box it will return thousands of results.When they narrow it down to "Used cars 'YourTown'", you want your web site tobe high in the listings.

4.Email Signature: Most email programsallow you to add a signature to the bottom, include your web site address. Thisallows you to tell a little about your business and maybe announce a specialyour company is having. Keep these short and to the point.

5.Business Cards: Be sure your web site URL is on all paper correspondence and on yourbusiness cards.

6.Phone book: When you put your listing in the phone book for a little extra youcan add your website URL, which may also be added to the yellow page phonedirectory. Google keeps a yellow page directory based on phone number listings,in time your business and URL will be listed there.

7.Be Creative: The more often someone sees your web site URL the more likelythey will remember it when they need your product. Find ways to display yourweb site URL in your store and any other place the public may see it.

Dwayne Goerges is the owner of ADAC Programming.

Specializing in data driven websites for inventory display and clientmanagement.