Build It And They Will Come?
Having a website is vital to any organisation, whether charity or business, in this day and age. But it is only one part that makes up a much wider mix of your communications strategy. The notion that if you build it and they will come is a misconception that many have, with so many websites to access, people need to know that yours exists and you also need to keep it relevant so that they want to keep visiting.
There are a number of ways in which you can make your website noticeable, below are some universal courses of action that will help you in promoting your website:
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Search engines, such as Google have become increasingly integrated into our daily lives, however just creating a website does not automatically mean that you will be found in searches. We have a dedicated article looking specifically at SEO and how you can add this for your website - read here.
Social Media
Just having a website in today's media saturated culture isn’t enough. To really get your message out there, you need to have a presence on the platforms that are being used everyday by those you are trying to connect with. Social media is also a great way to create backlinks to your website. Think about ways that you can encourage people to your website, for example, if you are running a competition or an awareness campaign, then make sure you point people to your website in order to find out more, or to enter their details on a form placed on the website.
Email Newsletters
Our website platform allows you to easily add forms to your webpages, these are a great way of capturing contact details, which you can then use to email out any news or updates. This will help to remind people to revisit your website so as to find out current, up-to date information.
Word-of-Mouth
All the above aspects are great tactics that you can use in order to gain more visitors but each of those website visitors can help contribute to spreading news about your business with those in their own circles of friends and peers. Word-of-mouth is possibly one of the strongest methods of increasing your website visitors and increasing awareness. The best way to get people to do this online is by creating ‘shareable content’. Whether it be on your website or on your social media pages, creating something unique that encourages people to share it will help to increase your audience levels. Our website platform allows you to add social media share buttons to your website to aid this, but you can also create content directly onto social media, containing a link to your website in order for people to find out more information.
These are just a few tips to help you make the most out of your website, however, our team of website experts are happy to help you further if you have any queries, so please don’t hesitate to contact us, our help and advice is free.