Hi, there! It’s Karl here from Buzz Website Design and I want to take you on a bit of a journey based on some of the things that happen when we build websites for some people.

Now I’d like to cast your mind back, if you can, to a film starring Kevin Costner called Field of Dreams. Now, those of us who remember the film, we’ve been around that long, will know that there’s this phrase used throughout the film and it’s: “If you build it, they will come.”

Now, effectively, Kevin Costner wants to build a baseball field in the middle of nowhere and he’s convinced that people will come because it’s a tourist place. A bit of a strange one, it’s a great film, very lovely. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097351/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

But, it’s this whole thing about “if you build it, they will come.” Unfortunately, far too many people seem to think the same thing about their websites, that just having a website online means that the traffic is going to flow, the phone is going to ring, the leads and the orders are going to come flying in. Unfortunately, that really isn’t the case. If you build it they won’t just come.

You see, what really happens is this. You get a website launched and it’s just the beginning of what you need to do online to make your website a success. You cannot afford to just let it sit there just resting, doing not much. You need to play your part in getting people to your website, getting people to respond to your website, and getting the word out there that your website is even online. Because your website now is just one of millions of other websites all competing and clamoring for the same kind of space, the same kind of attention in your market.

Unless you do stuff to get the word out there that here’s your website and it’s got these great things on it, then no one’s just going to happen upon it. Yes, you can do all the bells and the whistles and all the SEO on the site that you want to do, but you still need to play your part.

So here’s what you can do…

But, the good news is that there’s plenty of stuff that you can actually do.

For a start, you need to make sure that your website has a blog and that you’re writing on that blog on a very regular basis, I would say 5-ish times a month if you can. To me, that’s a good number to settle on.

You also need to promote your website out to the social media. I had a client not long ago who was really reluctant to do this. I’m not quite sure why. But, I simply said, “It’s going to be very difficult to promote your website out to the wider world and into your target market if you don’t have some kind of social media activity.” She seemed to think that, “if you build it, they will come,” and sadly that’s just not the case.

You also need to promote into other places as well.

• Do you have your web address on your email footer for example?
• Are you giving people a reason to go to your website when you send them an email?
• Do you have email marketing that tries to drive people to your website to do something, download something, buy something?
• Are you doing all of this stuff?
  

  If you build it they won’t just come – a good example of driving traffic to your website using a business card

• Do you promote your website on your business cards? Again, do you have something on your business card which encourages people to go to your website for a particular reason?

Now, there’s just loads and loads of different ways you can get people to your website. But, please, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that just because your website is there that people are going to come rushing in and buy. It doesn’t work that way unless you’re somebody like Amazon who put up this massive website with massive publicity and almost instantly because of it got traffic and started getting orders. Amazon still has to promote themselves in case you haven’t already noticed. They do emails. They’ve started doing television ads. They do a lot of social media. Even though they are one of the most successful online businesses out there, they still have to do the groundwork to drive traffic to the site and your website is no exception. And, unfortunately, as small businesses, we don’t have the marketing budget and marketing and PR clout that Amazon does, but there’s still plenty you can do.

So, please, don’t sit on your hands wondering why there’s no traffic coming to your website or thinking, “Well, you know, we paid good money for this website and the phone still hasn’t rung.” No. Get out there, get promoting, do your part. Remember, “if you build it, they won’t just come.”