Website promotion
Technical audit, SEO, keywords, domain authority, search engine advertising and social media: promoting a website is built on several levers. This guide goes through them one by one, from the starting point to performance monitoring.
~7 min read
SEO AND ADVERTISING
Parklab STORIES: our blog.
The promotion of a website is a complex process, one that relies on many different factors and steps.
From the technical audit to SEO, from social media to search engine advertising, by way of gamification and performance monitoring: there are a huge number of elements to consider!
No time to read? Ilaria explains it all in under two minutes ;) ↓
Knowing where you start is the first step to promoting your website
For the promotion of a website that already exists, including an e-commerce store it is important to know where you are starting from.
That is why it is always best to begin with an audit of the site situation.
A website audit is an examination of the page performance. The website check can determine whether or not it is optimised to reach traffic goals and, if it is not, it can provide useful information on how to improve performance.
Website audits usually assess not only its content, but also its technical performance. How search engine friendly is it? How easy is it for users to navigate and find content?
On top of that, it helps identify any untapped SEO opportunities and fix any errors.
In fact, the first thing to do is focus on the basic errors: broken links, hidden content, excessive loading times, unstructured backlinks… all these errors are essential to fix in order to promote a website!
Then, an audit also makes it possible to reassess the effectiveness of the website in terms of lead generation and conversion. For example, by providing useful guidance on where and how to add relevant CTAs (Call to action), to spot weaknesses in landing pages and much more!
This is possible thanks to the information that can be extracted from tools such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
Not only that: it is also possible to analyse the UX – user experience, that is, the experience of the user. Thanks to certain software, it is possible to identify what draws the most attention on the site and what draws the least. This way, the visitor experience can be improved.
The importance of SEO in promoting a website
As we have seen, the audit for promoting a website must also focus on SEO for website ranking.
For example, by identifying fixable errors in backlinks and flagging issues with loading speed and indexing.
But that is not all!
In fact, to grow the popularity of the site, it is also important to work with keywords (KW).
Keywords (literally: key words) are the search terms users type into search engines, Google first and foremost. They are important to use when promoting a website. In fact, if used correctly they can win the top spot at the top of Google results, both in paid (PPC) and organic (SEO) results.
In particular, it is essential to:
The more a keyword is searched on search engines, the more likely it is that there will already be plenty of sites and marketing agencies competing for the top spot.
A question of authority…
Domain Authority, also known as Authority Score, is a fundamental parameter for promoting a website and is used to predict the likelihood that a site will rank on the first pages of results (SERP). Higher Authority scores correspond to a greater likelihood of ranking. Online you can find plenty of sites to calculate it, such as Moz or SemRush.
There are many ways to increase authority and therefore optimise the promotion of a site.
Publishing guest posts, for example. It is important to publish high-quality articles on third-party websites that are in the same niche as the site to be promoted and popular among the target audience.
For example, on the sites of brands that address the same target but are not direct competitors.
This strategy should make it possible to create a follow link between the article and the site, in order to increase the authority of the latter by leveraging that of the publishing site.
Also pay attention to how the links are placed in the text! In fact, if they are highlighted and associated with word combinations that are plausibly attractive and clickable, they will achieve better results. The anchor text should also indicate what the user will find once they click, because this information is used by Google too.
Hiding a link in the footer, writing a generic “click here” as anchor text, or writing it without a special colour or font is not a winning choice.
The links to the website to be promoted must be high quality and relevant: having 1000 links from sites with no authority or that are not relevant is not only useless, it is counterproductive!
You can also create content on your own site, hoping to earn links organically.
According to research by BuzzSumo, the content most likely to generate links is:
Of course, the BuzzSumo research is indicative. Moreover, it does not offer many cues on what really needs to be found: truly exceptional tactics that are rarely used by companies!
“The best way to get other sites to create relevant, high-quality links (…) is to create unique, relevant content that can naturally gain popularity in the Internet.”
Google Webmaster Guidelines (Link Schemes)
… and of advertising!
Link building, SEO and audits are not the only ways to promote a website.
In fact, it is also important to take care to set up a winning strategy on Google Ads.
Advertising on Google, known by the acronym SEM (“Search Engine Marketing“), should not be neglected. In fact, when well managed (and combined with other promotion techniques, such as SEO) it makes it possible to achieve excellent results in promoting a website in a short time.
In fact, it not only makes it possible to win the top paid position in the SERP, but also to increase conversions, boost brand awareness, maximise ROI and much more, with much faster timeframes than those required by Search Engine Optimization!
The Google Ads platform (formerly AdWord) offers many different features, perfect for optimising ad performance and for identifying the target in detail.
The target decides the social network!
By now, if a brand is not on social media it does not exist. This is also why social networks are important for promoting a website, including an e-commerce store.
The choice of channel should not be random, nor should the type of content to post, the cadence at which to do so and the tone of voice to use.
It all depends on the target.
These can help bring traffic to the site and increase awareness and interactions.
Moreover, it is good practice to alternate organic posts and content with paid campaigns!
An extra tip
Adding forms, tests and short questionnaires to the website to be promoted makes it possible to harness the power of gamification, making the site interactive and increasing how long visitors stay!
Longer times are associated with higher quality of the site, its content and the user experience.
To check how much time an average visitor spends on a website, as well as how many requests they make to the server (thus visiting more than a single page, bounce rate as it is known) it is very useful to use Google Analytics.
The promotion of a website must always start from an analysis of the starting situation and of the target.
Knowing where you start is essential for solving any issues, such as broken links and other SEO errors.
Knowing your reference audience in detail, on the other hand, helps to identify useful keywords and to produce interesting content, including on social media.
Finally, a good backlink strategy helps increase the authority of the site, while good planning of ads in Google will make it possible to bring home better results in less time.
Frequently asked questions
Where does the promotion of a website start?
From the site audit, that is, from an examination of the page performance. The audit checks whether the site is optimised for traffic goals, assesses content and technical performance and brings out the basic errors: broken links, hidden content, excessive loading times, unstructured backlinks.
How are keywords chosen for the promotion of a site?
By identifying the keywords already in use and checking which content is contributing to the promotion of the site, then looking for relevant keywords that are still free. Niche KW and long tail keywords remain the most workable, because very popular terms tend to be competitive and expensive to advertise.
What does it take to increase the authority of a site?
Quality, relevant links. For example, high-quality guest posts on third-party sites in the same niche, popular among the target audience. The link to the site is a follow link and the anchor text indicates what the user will find after the click.
What role do Google Ads and social media play in promoting a website?
Google Ads makes it possible to win the top paid position in the SERP, increase conversions, boost brand awareness and maximise ROI. Social media brings traffic to the site, awareness and interactions: channel, content, cadence and tone of voice depend on the target.
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