OK, so you’ve got a new web site. How are you going to get people to come to the site?

Search engine optimization (SEO) used to be the main method of web site promotion. But Web 2.0 has arrived, and now you’ve got a number of tools to use from the driver’s seat of your web site.

Here are some ideas for consideration:

1. Have a blog? Claim your blog on Technorati and get feedback on the popularity of your blog.

“Getting Started with Technorati”

2. Generate compelling blog content that relates to your web site business. Find an educational mission and write about it.

3. Use Facebook. Create a business fan page and post engaging, relevant content on your page. We post information that corresponds to our educational mission (helping people promote their web sites) on our fan page.

Keep your audience in mind–don’t post spam; post information that can really be of use, and interact sincerely with people who are in your networking group.

Social media resources

4. Post your blog entries on social media such as Facebook and Twitter.

Related articles

• Six Reasons SEOs Love Blogs (searchengineguide.com)
• Three Blogging Tips (best-tutorial.net)
• Build Your Brand Through Social Media (lazerpromotions.com)

What to do:

Consider a “Link to Us” page on your site
Include your logos and HTML text people can use on their sites.

Syndicate your articles to other Web sites and e-mail newsletters. By putting your articles up for grabs in this way, other sites will link to them. Every article should include your site name near the top. Work a link to your site into the article a couple times, but don’t overdo it.

What not to do:

Don’t waste time getting links in guest pages
This early link-building technique no longer carries any weight with search engines.

Likewise Free-For-All pages
These automated directories bring virtually zero traffic to your site, but are a great way to generate a lot of spam and don’t help with search engines.

Especially avoid link farms
These highly automated link-exchange systems designed to generate many links quickly won’t help and might get you penalized by search engines.

Remember, it’s not all about search engines; it’s about getting the word out about your site. Syndication gives you relevant links – and search engines like relevant.

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