Starting a social media page is a great advertising method and has numerous advantages over other types of web marketing methods. But in order to make the most out of it, you need to take certain actions that will increase both your visibility and popularity on social networks. Sure, there have been some pages that were receiving virtually no traffic and then went viral when a user stumbled on them and shared it with his friends. However the odds of your page going from zero views to millions of them without action on your part are roughly one in a million. Here are some ways to promote your social media page:

Have a link or button on your main website.

If you have a quality business that brings in recurring customers, having a link to your social media page on your main site is a great idea. This will let your customers see your page and add it to their profile (i.e. “liking” your page on Facebook or “following” you on twitter.) In turn, this can generate an increased amount of traffic to your social media page as their friends see you and decide to check it out. They may also add you to their profile for THEIR friends to see and so on. Companies, big or small, are including a social media button or link on their site in increasing numbers. What are YOU waiting for? It only takes less than a minute to paste in a snippet of code.

Hold attractive promotions on your social media page.

This could be in the form of a discount, a free trial, a 2 for 1 special, etc. The possibilities are quite endless. If you own a brick and mortar retail business, such as a clothing store, you could also include a printable coupon for some merchandise. Many big name stores have started this practice, so why shouldn’t you? The amount of profit that you will make from increased sales due to a higher number of people finding out about your social media page will quickly surpass the small loss that you will take as a result of offering discounts.

Include it in your email newsletter.

If you have a mailing list and send out email communications to your users, you could include something about the launch of your social media page in your newsletter. Then, in subsequent newsletters, just include a small footer saying something like “Join ABC Inc. on Facebook!” or “Follow us on Twitter!” You might think that your users will be reluctant to use your social media page because they’re already receiving an email newsletter from you to keep themselves updated. This may be true for a few users. A good strategy to use then is to follow point number 2: offer them a unique promotion for joining you on a social network.

It’s no secret that you need to figure out what keywords apply to your content in order to create an SEO friendly website. The challenge comes in figuring out exactly what to do with your keywords. We’re going to show you a few uses for keywords that will help you create a SEO friendly website.

The first (and one of the most important) place you should be using keywords is in your title. If you’re using a CMS like WordPress, you should try to use as many keywords as you can in the title of the post you’re creating. If you’re building a website using an editor like Dreamweaver, or just hand coding it, then try and use your keywords as part of the title of the page, in between the title tags. It’s important not to make your title awkward by overusing keywords. You have to remember, your visitors see your title too, it’s not just there for search engines.

Descriptive meta tags, and keyword meta tags aren’t as big a part of how search engines rank sites as they used to be, but that doesn’t mean they should be overlooked. Description meta tags should contain as many keywords as you can manage, while remaining coherent. It’s important not to make your description awkward or overly bulky just to squeeze in a few more keywords because search engines often use those descriptions as a snippet about the site when it shows up in search results. As for the meta keyword tags, don’t exceed 20 keywords when using them. Search engines view excessive keyword use in the meta tags negatively, so you could actually wind up doing more harm than good if you overdo it.

A visitor that comes to your site through an image search is no less valuable than a visitor that comes through a regular search, so make sure to handle your images correctly. Be sure to take the time to name your images carefully. Be as descriptive as you can, and don’t be afraid to give the image a somewhat lengthy name. Be sure to use the alt tags to describe the image in detail as well.

All of the uses for keywords covered above are important when building an SEO friendly website, but they’re all supplemental to keyword-rich content. Search engines are putting a greater focus on the actual content on a site, and h ow it relates to the keywords in your niche. So be sure to use keywords effectively in your code, images, and content, and you’ll see your search rank rise before you know it.