How to Advertise a Web Page

Copyright (c) 2008 Adam Nowak

'Advertising a web page' is a very common problem. Unfortunately, the solution is neither simple nor unambiguous. Why?

Because there are many web pages that are addressed to different users, and they are owned by individuals or companies with different, usually quite a limited, advertising budget. Clearly, the simplest solution could be an advertising spot bought in the best air time in one of the national Polish television channels, but it is not a method worth considering here. Let us focus on online promotion, since a website is located on the Internet; the remaining types of marketing activities concerning a web page will be discussed as complementary.

Web page development

Promotion should be taken into consideration already at the development stage of a web page. Proper construction of a website, especially its html code, is a very important factor determining the effectiveness of subsequent promotion. That is why one should not forget about the so-called 'meta name' tags, namely 'description', 'keywords' and, probably the most important, 'title' (the website name). These tags will enable web page indexation by Web 'crawlers' (search engines indexing programs).

Indexing registration in search engines and catalogues

The first element of website promotion is its indexation. Indexation is a process of adding a web page address to search engines and website catalogues which are the most important from the point of view of the owner. While chosing the catalogues, one should not forget about thematic and branch directories. They are built in compliance with the demands and expectations of particular branches, targeted at a limited group of experts looking for highly specialized information meant for a specific group of receivers. Putting a link to the newly constructed web page in such catalogues would bring the best results in the future.

Positioning

Among the marketing activities that aim at increasing the number of website visits, search engine positioning should not be neglected. Positioning means manipulating the page's rank in the search results. This form of promotion is worth considering since adding a web page into the search engine and a catalogue does not guarantee its high rank within the keyword search results. Positioning is the domain of a small group of search system experts, who specialize in search programs; they are able to guarantee that the website has a high, if not the highest, position within the search engine results. An additional advantage of such marketing activities, as opposed to other forms of promotion, is that they have to be paid for when a certain result, e.g. number one on the search results list, is achieved.

Online advertising

The classic forms of web page promotion include campaigns with banners or other graphic elements. The currently used graphic advertisements are banners, buttons, billboards and top layers. They are more and more fanciful, often interactive involve acting from Internet users ranging from simple animations in gif format to advanced multimedia objects employing Flash technology. Nowadays, such tools are used to bait a web surfer to a given web page. On the one hand, there are free campaigns based on exchanging guests visiting a given web page with a group of friends. On the other hand, there are expensive campaigns that guarantee extending the reach of marketing activities; they are thoroughly organized and their target group is carefully selected, which guarantees high effectiveness and, consequently, higher sales results. Of course, the choice of the form of advertising depends on our financial capacity or the number of friends on whose web pages we can place our banner.

Mailing

A website can also be promoted via electronic mail. Information sent in this way does not necessarily have to refer to a web page; however, information about the contents of a given web page, e.g. the company's offer, is advisable. Obviously, links to the web page should be inserted in the email so that the person reading this short information in his or her mailbox could easily go to its full version on the website. What should be taken into consideration as far as email advertising is concerned? Protection against spam, which means checking how the mailing list addresses were collected and whether all of their participants agreed to receive such emails. This information might seem trivial, but it has enormous influence on the perception of such emails and their sender. In extreme cases, the e-mail address of the sender could be put on the spammers' list, which is not desirable.

Additional actions

Every owner of a web page should control both its content and the distribution of information about its existence. This medium should be taken into account while producing traditional forms of advertising materials; thus, whenever it is possible, the web page address should be included on leaflets, company letters, business cards and rubber stamps. Every item of such information might attract new clients.

The marketing activities as a whole should be monitored by means of statistics. Information on the effectiveness of promotion, the number of visits on our web page and their origin is extremely useful since it facilitates the planning of further marketing actions. That is why one should not forget about the statistics of visits, which should be placed on every website.