How To Make Your Website Popular

Although the word "popular" may loom large at first, but a certain amount of knowledge will enlighten you with the fact that making a popular website is not entirely impossible and almost everyone has to start from scratch. Creating an impressive line of followers will most likely take a certain amount of hard work and dedication, but almost every internet user is impressionable, to a certain extent, when it comes to quality work and useful information.

This tutorial will guide you through the basic concepts to give you a kick start. If you wish to learn more about any of the contents in this tutorial I'd suggest you do more research of your own(on wikipedia), but this will be enough to get you off your feet and start getting somewhere.

• SEO
• Social Media
• Promotions

SEO(Search Engine Optimization)

SEO consists of everything your website contains, (Domain name, Page titles, META tags, text, images, loading time and the type of content your website displays). With the popularity of search engines today, if you don't implement SEO into your website then you are instantly sticking a limit on the reach of your website. Millions of people search on Google every day for products or services they desire, advertising is becoming less and less effective as people don't just look at an advert and instantly get the desire to buy. People know what they want and when they want it, they will find it themselves, meaning that if you're not displayed on Google when they search, then they're going straight to your competition.

The niche of your website is everything. There are thousands of competing websites on the internet. If you're going to make a website, you need to make sure that you're in a position to beat your competitor. Search keywords that relate to your website/website-idea and check what results you get, who would you be competing with? Now put your search terms in quotations (i.e. "cheap laptops") and look how many search results there are. This will tell you how many websites you're competing with for that specific keyword. The aim is to find a keyword that has a little competition as possible.

To get an analysis of the competition and the searches per month of certain keywords, go to the Google Keyword Tool and type in a few keywords to check. Make sure you change the options to set your location to wherever you're from (United States, United Kingdom, China, India etc) and make sure only the "Exact Term" box is ticked on the left of the page instead of the "Broad" box to get the true results.

Now that you know what keywords are best to base your website around, it's time to start implementing those keywords into your content. The places you need to consider are:

• The Domain - Although this doesn't have a major effect with search engines, it still has some; meaning that it could help you rank higher, faster.
• Page Titles - Think about the content that will be on each page and what the best keywords are for that content. The title is the most effective placement for keywords.
• META Keywords - These are becoming less and less effective in search engines, but they are still quite powerful at allowing Google to determine the identity of a website. This means that Google can easily see which keywords you want the website to be listed under and will improve your chances of listing higher. Make sure you use a selection of keywords that relate to the name of the website and the keywords that you chose using the Keyword Tool.
• META Description - This is what search engines use to describe your listing on search results. This is also a very powerful factor in SEO, as it is has a big impact on what keywords you're listed under. This is also the first thing that people will see on your website, before they even click the link meaning that it needs to look appealing. Make sure your description is short, readable and contains your main keyword(s)
• Headers - The use of headers in your content is vital, it's like titling your work in school. It allows search engines to identify the important content on your website. These headers are used with HTML tags. Having content headers that include the websites keyword lets search engines know that this keyword is important, again giving you a better chance of listing higher. 
• Page Content - In order for your website to rank high, the content on the website needs to comply with a number of factors. It needs to be unique. Stealing content will dramatically lower your rankings. It needs to be updated. Having a website that doesn't change at all will let search engines know that it is in fact dead. It needs to be relevant. Make sure that you use the keywords in your content and that it's actually readable by humans.

Social Media

Again with SEO, the popularity of social mediums like Twitter, Facebook, and most importantly Google+ and YouTube is necessary.

Twitter and Facebook are probably the least effective, however they can have a massive impact on the popularity of your website if done correctly. Make sure that your pages are not only recognizable for your brand, but also contain the keywords you have researched within their content. Once you've done this you can start off by inviting your friends. The most important thing to consider when using social media is that people do not buy through Facebook. It's simply a place to raise awareness of things, so make sure that people can easily get involved with your posts and that your posts are relevant, interesting and regularly updated.

Google+ is a new social medium that Google is taking way too seriously. It's now one of the most effective social mediums in terms of SEO, it's important that you make a Google+ page that is linked to your website by using the Google+ publisher tags on your website. Again make sure that your Google+ page is SEO'd and it is regularly updated with new, relevant content.

YouTube is possibly the most beneficial form of social media in terms of driving traffic to your website. This is because you are able to directly talk to your audience and show them what you have to offer. However, YouTube videos require a bit of work to make sure they get popular.

Promotions

People love getting a bargain or better yet, free stuff. To help get your website off the ground I suggest you make a competition or a free giveaway to new registrants. Something that will get the word out about your website.
The best things to do are things like:

• Referral competitions (Most referrals wins a prize)
• Random giveaway to 3 lucky members on the website
• GPT (Get paid to) i.e. Like my Facebook, Twitter and Google+ page and win a prize