Putting the finishing touches on your new website might fool you into believing that you can now sit back and admire your web development efforts. Unfortunately, your next challenge has already begun. Getting the website up and running is merely the first step to creating your Web identity. Thousands of pages are created and added to millions of websites across the Net, and so if you want to be noticed you'll need to kick start a promotion campaign. Marketing your website is essential, unless you're prepared to merge with all the white noise that makes up the online world.

Tip #1: Submit your website
It is important to inform the search engines and directories that you have arrived. Submissions to search engines are basically requests for them to send their spiders to crawl and index your web pages. In addition to the search engines, it is a good idea to research the various directories that are specific to your website's theme. Submit your website to these directories as well.

Tip #2: Get involved in the community
Find out where your peers gather. Register in forums, join discussions and read their blogs. Participate in debates and leave comments on posts without pushing your website excessively. It is vital that you create a reputation as an informed member of the industry. After all, interaction is the cornerstone of the Web 2.0.

Tip #3: Use paid advertising
Pay-per-click (PPC advertising) is an effective and economical way of targeting an audience online. Especially if you're retailing online, consider using a PPC service to market your website through banner ads, sponsored results and other contextual advertising. Pay-per-click is the fastest way of promoting your website on the Net.

Tip #4: Create a link building strategy
Inbound links are important for a whole host of reasons. Needless to say, they bring in the traffic, the visitors who will make your website a success. If you've involved yourself in a community, then consider trading links with the websites you've established contact with. This also helps boost search rankings, which is part of search engine optimization.

Tip #5: Use search marketing
The best long term web promotion and marketing strategy is to use a paid search marketing company. In-house search engine optimization and PPC management can be wasteful and at times, can even negatively impact your website. Choose an experienced SEO company to effectively promote your website and your online identity.