Building online visibility

Visibility online is built with a bit of patience, a lot of care, good content and most of all… links. It takes a while to draw enough traffic to your website, and most of us would love to cut a corner or two and get there quicker. This week we look at a few more ways, besides blogging, to get the clicks going and the visitors flocking.

Landing pages

If you run an offer, a promotion, a presentation, a new project, or whatever else you want to explain in detail to potential clients, you will need a landing page. Landing pages are usually not in the main menu of a website: they’re invisible pages that you can access only through a direct link.

When you post your idea on social media or send it through an email newsletter, people can read what it’s about and then click on the link to its dedicated landing page to get more details. There are many ready-made landing page templates and services out there, but because of the potential traffic that you’re going to drive to your offer or project, it really makes sense that it should be integrally connected to your website.

Landing pages can include registration forms, buttons to download freebies, and links to payment services like Paypal.

Girl, girl waiting, restaurant, bottles, bored girl

Landing pages can be the most boring things on Earth

Landing pages can also be the most boring things on earth, so make sure that you keep your “tone of voice” in keeping with your branding – don’t go all formal there or people won’t recognize you!  Landing pages should be fun, easy to read, filled with information – and fun facts and testimonials if you wish – and with a clear call to action at the end. You want people to sign up smiling, or even grinning, in anticipation of the wonderfulness they’ll be getting from you.

Another type of landing page can host the Terms&Conditions for your business. Sending a link to every client that books you, so that they can read how you do what you do and understand what to expect from you, is not only adding clicks to your website but also a really good way to clarify expectations and avoid problems down the line.

Yet other landing pages can be used to deliver contracts and all sorts of goodies to your clients. If your content is interesting, you will get a lot of clicks!

Links to other websites also work well to increase traffic. If you happen to be featured in a blog because you just photographed something really unusual – like a Vogon wedding where all the guests survived the poetry – your website will be linked to that blog and attract clicks from every corner of the galaxy, but likewise you should post a link directing TO that blog because Google “reads” that as a good thing and will reward you for it.

Google doesn’t care about Vogon poetry and will re-direct your geekiest visitors for years to come, as long as the link keeps working.

Girl, cosplay, white dress, elvish princess, dance

Links to your external online galleries all contribute to the job

Last but not least, links to your external online galleries all contribute to the job. Behance, Flickr… if you have images out there and double-link them to your website in a blog or a dedicated page, you’ll be multiplying your connecting power to help your website soar.

And if you’re doing all these things, spend a few minutes every couple of months to keep your website fresh and updated with new photos. We’re not getting into SEO details here, but make sure you alt-tag all your images and include keywords on all your pages. A little care goes a long way.

Need more information or any help with your website and visibility issues? Comment here, contact me, send smoke signals to the editors. Most of all, keep away from Vogon poetry.