Most entrepreneurs understand the importance of investing in a good website with appealing copy. Only a few understand the value of promoting their website and increasing traffic. For me, this is like spending all evening mixing a cake and not putting it in the oven.

Here are some basic steps to promote your business online and if done right, explode globally.

Advertise. One of the oldest tried and true ways to bring traffic to your website. You can advertise both online and offline using free or paid advertising. Some forms of offline advertising include flyers, postcards, classifieds, networking, novelties, and donations to name a few. You can advertise online by posting paid and free ads on other websites, blogs, newsletters etc.

Article Marketing. Writing articles for your target market is another good way to get your message across. Its helps if you are knowledgeable about the topics that you write and can offer valuable content to your target market. The next step would then be to distribute your articles to online publishers and article directories. This gives you free advertising and creates backward links for your website that add up over time.

Blog. Adding a blog to your website and updating it with content that is thought provoking and informative can greatly increase your popularity on the web. Write in such a way to encourage comments from your audience. If you really appeal to your target market then you can build your be opt-in list to receive updates and gradually build your community.

Email Campaigns. Don’t wait until you have a sizable list to start an email campaign. Even if you have only three opt-ins send out informative content and product or service updates. This will help build brand identification and customer loyalty. You may even gain additional subscribers if you encourage your current opt-ins to forward your content.

SEO. (Search Engine Optimization)  Be sure to read about SEO as much as you can especially if you know nothing about it. Most consumers do an online search when they need a product or service. Your goal should be to get placed as high as possible in search engines for certain keywords. To do this you need to research the relevant keywords for your offering and ensure that your copy is riddled with the relevant keywords. Be sure to also add them in your meta tags.

I have discussed only some ways to build your website traffic, there are a number other ways to do so including press releases, ad words, forum posting, traffic exchanges and more. There is really no limit to what you can do, just use your imagination and add a twist to these tried and true methods.

Whatever you do, be sure to stay consistent and commit to the cause. Pretty soon you’ll see the fruits of your labor.