Mark Simpson | 30 Jul 2009

The Internet has definitely exploded and thousands of new sites are popping up daily. It has become increasingly difficult to stand out or even be found on the web today. Just because you have a well-built site and a great idea does not mean that your site will be discovered. There are a number of things that you need to do today in order to get noticed. The following are some great ways to start getting noticed.

1. Provide Great Content

You don’t want to have good content; you want to have great content. Your site lives and dies by the content that you offer. Take a good look at what some similar sites are posting content-wise and then take a look at where you stand in comparison. It can be a challenge to provide great content if your site is self-financed and you obviously cannot compete with NBC or Google but you can get creative and find a unique niche. The major sites need to appeal to the masses, but as a smaller site, you have the ability to create a niche and appeal to a specific market. You can’t compete with the big guys, but the reality is that the big guys can’t compete with the little guys either. Take into consideration your direct, available resources and the unique access that you may have, then grab the content associated with that and post it.

2. Optimise Your Site

If you have not heard of Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO, then you have some studying to do. SEO can make or break your site. The major search engines such as Yahoo and Google are currently indexing each and every site. Indexing involves having your site reviewed for content and categorised by the search engine. The search engine will look for specific keywords on your site, catalogue the site and keep it in the search engine memory. When a person goes to look for a certain site or topic they will type specific keywords into the search engine and immediately the search engine will look for any and all sites that have been indexed and found to have those keywords. The sites that fit the individual's search the most, based on the keywords that individual provides, will come up first in the search results, thus making those sites more popular. It is important to take the time to find the right keywords and plug them into your site's infrastructure.

3. Get Involved with Social Networking

By now you have heard of Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube. All of these sites are what are called social networking sites. Some of them may be based on music, some on photos, some on college friends and some on film and video. Today, social networking sites are popping up everywhere and each one has some unique interest that it is built around. People will join that site in order to meet and interact with other people who share the same interests. Social networking sites have become a great way to promote yourself, your products and your site. People have become overnight celebrities on social networking sites and a number of businesses have developed through these sites as well. It is usually free to join and very simple to get started. Joining a social networking site will surely increase your presence and is a great way to directly target the demographic you are searching for.

4. Add a Blog to Your Site

Blogging has become unbelievably popular; nearly every site has a blog. You might wonder why and how this can be useful. Blogs, a truncation of "web logs," are a great way to keep in touch with the users of your site. They are extremely easy to use and update, thus allowing you to quickly notify people of new services or new products that may be offered through your site. Some blogs have become stand-alone successes, making millions just from the blog alone. You can add all types of additions to blogs, they are highly customisable. You can even sell advertising spots on a blog. One of the biggest advantages of a blog is the ability to create interaction between you and the people visiting the blog. Visitors can leave comments on certain blog posts and you can easily respond and follow up to these various posts made by the visitors. Having direct interaction between you and your site's visitors makes blogging much more personal, the lack of personal interaction on the web has always been considered a drawback until now. Its preferable to have a get done the blog hosting on a owned domain. You can get yourself a wordpress host. Wordpress is best CMS for blog sites currently.

5. Join Rings and Link Your Content

Linking your content to other sites is a great way to build exposure. You can always trade content and it is best to trade content with people who catalogue it. Make sure that you add a domain name to the content you are trading or giving to these other sites, also make sure to ask if they catalogue. Oftentimes this content can stay on other sites for years if it is catalogued. This will help with your search engine optimisation. The more times the name of your domain or associated keywords appears, the more activity your site will appear to have, which will help you rise up in search results. Appearing to have lots of activity and having linking all throughout your site will make your site appear popular to indexing search engines. It is important to have your links throughout your site and not just on the front page. You can improve the linkage through social networking sites as well.

These are some of the steps you can take to make your site more popular. Of course, nothing beats word of mouth or one-on-one marketing. Do not throw out the “old fashioned” methods of marketing and promotion; simply add to what you are doing. Keep in mind that the other sites will be taking these steps so if you want to stay competitive these days all of these steps are almost required.

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