5. Marketing and promoting your website

It is no good setting up an attractive, well-organised site with useful content if no-one knows about it or visits it.  Even if a site is aimed at a just small group of users, it it important to plan how to market and promote it to all concerned.

Add the site to search engines and directories

It often takes several months for a website to appear on a search engine, so encourage trainees to start promoting their sites as soon as possible.  The search engines listed here can be used as a starting point.

• Don't try and promote a half-complete site with a high proportion of pages reading 'coming soon' or 'under construction' - many search engines will not accept these.
• Make a list of keywords which describe the content of the site and which appear in the body of the text.  If possible, enter the same words as 'meta tag' keywords (hidden in the title section of the page), which are used by some search engines.
• Write a short description of the site which can be used where necessary in a directory application form
• Whenever you find the words 'Add URL' on a relevant search engine or directory, add the details of your site in the most appropriate category.

Promote the site via other literature and correspondence

Encourage trainees to:

• Use their own correspondence to promote their site, by adding the site address (URL) to stationery, posters and leaflets, etc, and to their email signature.
• Join relevant email lists (eg. Refugees Online email forum) and make regular postings with information from the site in the message and the URL at the end.
• Inform us of anything happening on their site which could be promoted on this site.

Click here for the next element of the course: Using email - including email lists
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