So what was the point then? You spent time, money and probably a bit more time trying to get a good looking web site together. First of all, well done. Just getting a web site together is no mean-feat. Secondly, before you move on, take a break. Seriously. Take a moment to look at other sites (hint:competitors) and ask yourself which one you prefer. If you prefer your competitors; two things : firstly, write down why and secondly, be prepared to change your own site despite all your efforts so far. Think of it like a remake of a movie, if the end result is worse than the original, why would anyone want to watch yours?

The next step is the big one. S.E.O. (I go  into detail on what this means here)

You want your site to start bringing in traffic (or else what was the point?). You want that traffic to contain some potential new clients or customers and you want those potential clients or customers to contact you and hopefully we can move them from ‘potential’ to ‘actual’. But how?

Let’s start slowly.

Firstly, think of all the ways people can find out about your web site. You might think “Oh, that’s easy, Google right?” – well, yes but also a big fat no.

Is your new web site on your business cards? If so, unless you just wanted to burn money for no reason, you’re hoping those cards will encourage people to contact you. If that’s the case, then they’ll be typing your web address directly into their browser – no Google here.

What about LinkedIn, Twitter etc. I presume you’ve updated your social media profile to include your web site? If someone clicks on your profile, hopefully some of them will be intrigued enough to click on your web site link. Nope, didn’t see Google here either.

What’s that you say, you’ve written something that’s published on an industry web site – hopefully there’s a link from their site to your site. Excellent, and still no sign of Google.

Starting to get the picture? There’s lots of ways, outside of Google to bring traffic to your site.

Think outside the (search) box.