It seems everyone has a web site now – since there is no actual organisation in charge of the Internet it’s difficult to gauge exactly but estimates say that as of mid-2007 there are about 30 billion web pages (not sites, mind) on the Internet.

So, if you’re a web site owner trying to get across your products and/or services, how are you marketing your site?

Many web site owners we know seem to to be of the opinion that in simply having a web site new customers will automatically find them and their revenue will jump up. How? How is a web user (your potential customer) going to find your web pages and differentiate them from 30 billion other pages?

Most shops (brick & mortar) today sit in a shopping centre/mall, of maybe 2 or 3 floors, perhaps with 20 or 30 shops, most of which are selling different wares. It’s rare, unless the numbers make sense, that two shops selling similar wares will be placed next to each other. The shopping mall attracts shoppers and some of these will fall into a shop without there having to be much marketing to get punters in.

Now think of your web site as a shop. Think of it sitting in a shopping mall of a few thousand floors, amongst a few million other shops, many of which are selling exactly what you are. Oh, and because your site may be new it sits at the very top of the mall, nowhere near where most of the shoppers are circulating (as your shop gets more popular, it moves closer to the ground floor). Not a brilliant analogy but you see the problem.

The Internet is a fierce marketing battleground and the only way to win on it is to be in it. So spend some time with your web design company or a Internet marketing consultancy and work out a strategy to get your target market to see your web site, because if they don’t know you exist how will they ever become your customers?