Are you getting all that you can get out of your small business website? Is it increasing the number of orders you get on a weekly or monthly basis?
If you can't answer either of those questions with a resounding "yes!" then you aren't using your website in the way that you should be.
Every website built by Atwill Media is made to help your business grow. Thanks to our many outstanding tools and features, we want to help you reach your goals and succeed in the business world. But having a great website is only half the battle!
Here's how, and where, you should be promoting your website.
Your website URL is your unique identifier. It's how people on the internet find you and your products.
So why wouldn't you try and put that sucker everywhere you could?
Wherever you advertise your business, whether it's through traditional mediums such as magazines, newspaper, or billboards, or on the internet, you need to place your URL.
You need to get your URL in front of as many eyes as you can, especially if you run an online-only style business.
Have business cards, or informational brochures that you hand out to clients? Put your URL there as well.
A good rule of thumb to remember is wherever you can put your contact information, be sure to include your website URL there as well.
In addition to adding your URL to as many conventional places as you can, you can also start looking at adding it to unconventional places.
What are unconventional places? Well, they are places where most people wouldn't think to advertise their business.
This could include places like move theaters (as an ad that plays before the previews begin), on the side of a delivery truck, in a subway station, on giveaways like pens and pencils, etc.
When you advertise in places that your audience isn't expecting, you gain an advantage over other businesses. You can easily corner the market by advertising in a place where none of your competitors are advertising.
Finally, always, always, always make sure your Google info on your Google My Business profile is up-to-date.
Besides this being an important place the consumers will check when they are searching for your business, it also helps to raise your search engine rankings.
Google prioritizes businesses that list their URL in their Google My Business profile over businesses that do not.
That means, if you're doing everything that Google wants you to do (which, let's face it, we can't know everything about how Google ranks websites), then you have a better chance of your website showing up higher in search rankings than your competitors.
Promoting your website is a key element to getting more visitors and, ultimately, more revenue for your business.
Contributor Caleb Hennington is a 25-year-old writer, who manages the Atwill Media and FGmarket blogs. He graduated from Arkansas State University in 2014 with a bachelor's degree in journalism.
When not writing, Caleb enjoys camping, running, collecting comic books, and spending time with his fiancee and his dog.