How to Attract Donors and Customers and Clients to Your Web Site -- Part One of Two
by Marc Lee
Now that you have a web site, your work of marketing and promoting your site is just beginning! With hundreds of thousands of pages being added to the Internet every day, you need to find ways to bring people to your site. Here are some tips for attracting web visitors -- whether they are potential donors, or customers, or clients, these essentials apply to not-for-profit and for-profit sites alike.
The work of promoting your website falls under the categories of Planning, Listing, Communicating, and Linking. This month I'll cover Planning and Listing, next month Communicating and Linking.
PLANNING
1. Don't rush to announce your site. Take time to plan what you need to do in order to make that first impression count. Don't launch a site that is full of signs that say "Under Construction." Until your site complete, put up a single page telling people the date your site will be available.
2. Before your website goes public, give a private site tour of the site to volunteers and board members. Get their feedback and incorporate their comments and suggestions into the site. Put photographs of board members, volunteers, and clients on the site. Give people ownership and they will be more responsive when you ask them to help get the word out.
LISTING
3. Did you remember to put "keywords" and "metatags" on your site to assist in placement with search engines? Choosing and prioritizing attractive descriptions and keywords will make your website easier to find. Time spent with your web advisor on this subject will be an important investment.
4. Don't use services that submit your site to hundreds of search engines at once. Take the time to submit your site manually to the major directories and search engines: Yahoo, Alta Vista, WebCrawler, Infoseek, Lycos, HotBot. If youíve never done this before, itís important to get help from someone who knows the do's and don'ts.
5. Many communites have local web directories and/or Chamber of Commerce sites that you should be listed with.
6. Register your organization and website with online databases that various organizations provide. A selection can be found at: http://www.serviceleader.org/vv/vonline2.html
7. Announce the site on appropriate Internet news groups and list servers, and on electronic bulletin boards that relate to your organization.
Next month,
read about strategies for Communicating and Linking that will draw visitors
to your site!
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