If you have been following My Hollywood Dream’s Filmmaking 101 series, than you know just how important having a website is for the promotion of your independent feature films, shorts, and webshows. One of the questions I get a lot is “how do you actually get people to go to your website?” That is not an easy question to answer. What works well for someone, might not work well for someone else. Here are two ways to get people to your website…

Word of Mouth
Just like with your film, one of the best ways to get people to your website is through word of mouth. Tell everyone you know about your website, post it on your Facebook and Myspace pages. Spread the word the old fashion way. Tell your friends and have them tell their friends. This will not get you thousands of hits, but it will get you some eyes onto the page. To get more hits, you’ll need..

Search Engine Optimization
If you are new to making websites, than you might not realize how important Search Engine Optimisation is (or even what it is). Lets start with what it is, in a nut shell, it is improving the ranking of your site in search engines (like Google and Yahoo). For example, if someone types the key words “My Hollywood Dream”, my goal is to be at the top of the search results for those keywords. This is no easy task. The best way to improve your place in search rankings is to get a lot of sites to link to your site. You need bloggers to put your link in their posts, other film sites to link to you, and where ever you can get to link to your site really. Post your link on social networking sites, post comments on other people’s sites that allow you to add a link to your site (we allow it, post a comment below!). The better the quality of the sites that link to you, than you’ll start getting better results in search engines.