Once in a while I meet a client who literally panics when something goes wrong on their very new website, the immediate post-publish phase. They tell me things like “business is slow because there must be a problem with the website”, etc.
Several years ago while freelancing, I had a local client. The situation I was placed in is probably every web designer’s nightmare. I designed a site for her and the site was completed with every feature she wanted and more. A few days later, she had zero clients coming in from the website’s contact page so she asked me what was wrong. I explained to her that she had to promote her website both online and offline.
Several more days later she came to me telling me that she had finally figured out what the problem was. She said, “the site is down. Fix it please. When I search for my email address on Google, it does not appear on the results page. So can you please put the site up so my clients can see my email on Google?” Where do I even begin with that one? Days later, she said “I think there’s a virus on my computer, can you fix the website to kill the virus?” Initially, I assumed the files were hacked. But no. Some people are convinced that web designers are tech gurus that fix and build everything on the internet and computers.
Shoot me now. Just shoot me.
Well, fact of the matter is that as soon as your website is done you still have a long way to go to make it relevant in the search engines. Many people who aren’t really into internet stuff don’t know that such a thing as “internet marketing” and “search engine optimization (SEO)” exists. It’s a lot like building a business offline:
- You register = Register domain
- You setup shop = Web design and development
- You fill it up with stock = Website Content
- …and you spend a lot of money promoting / marketing it = SEO / web promotion
So when your new website has been completed, you need to start telling people about it. It won’t just appear on Google’s front page or heck, the first result on Google. There are millions of websites online, many of them has a similar niche and are targeting your business’ keywords. Many website owners out there hire professional online marketers and spend thousands of dollars promoting their website. Like I always say: “link-build it and they will come”!
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WYSIWYG! I'm a simple person trying to live the simplest life possible - it seems to be the most difficult thing to achieve! I'm an internet enthusiast and I've been a webmaster since early 2007. I like: blogging, developing sites using open source software, social media, computer games, '80s music, comedy & horror, animals, crunching on M&Ms peanut and Smarties!
