How to Promote your Website for Free
In this post, we are going to talk about how to advertise your website and increase your traffic. Getting your name out there can definitely be a challenge but it’s actually easier than you think. If you just created your website you probably don’t have a big budget and paid advertisement might not be in your plans.
Don’t worry though there are many strategies for you to use that have been tested and proven to work by many online entrepreneurs and website owners. It doesn’t have to cost you a fortune to promote your site. What you need to remember though is that the majority of these ways will not produce results overnight. Like most things in online business time and effort is required if you want to see results. But these techniques do work and they can help you increase your search rankings and your traffic. More traffic means more chances to make sales and that simply means an increase in your online revenue.
Content
Yes, content again. Fortunately or unfortunately your content is the best way to attract visitors to your website and the most important part of your website. You must always aim for great content that will offer valuable information to your readers.
Create quality content that will address your audience needs and offer them solutions. If your content is insightful and packed with value you will be rewarded with lots of targeted visitors. Publish content that will captivate your reader’s attention and try to become the best source of information in your niche. You don’t have to be an expert on your niche but you have to learn as much as you can as fast as you can. People prefer to buy from people they believe know what they are talking about. Even if your website is only about selling products/services you should still publish blog posts regularly and as frequently as you can. People visit sites looking for information and not just to buy things. Your content can become your most effective advertising tool.
Remember to choose topics in your niche that your readers are interested in and write long and informative posts. If your readers leave your website with more questions than when they first arrived they will never come back. Also, quality detailed informative posts are shared a lot more in the social media and they can bring you backlinks from authoritative sites. Simply more content means more chances for your website to be found and the better your content is the higher you will be in the SERPs.
Keyword Research
You will be surprised how many bloggers and website owners out there forget about this.They just publish articles without checking first what phrases people use in the search engines. If you are not doing any keyword research then it’s like you are writing a diary. No one will ever find your website and no one will read your content. You have to make your website attractive to search engines and keywords can help you do just that.
Ranking high in the search results and by that, i mean on the first page takes time and you need the right resources for that. Especially if you are targeting very competitive keywords you can’t expect to see any good results anytime soon.
What you need to do is to use long-tail keywords for your posts. When people search on Google or in some other search engine they usually type in a question. So, long-tail keywords can help you a lot more than a regular one, two or three-word keyword. With these keywords, you can rank high pretty fast and attract a good amount of visitors. Long-tail keywords are usually not targeted from well-established sites because they have a smaller search volume (although that’s not always the case) and that makes them perfect for you. They are more specific and that means you can get your name known out there faster. If you create a series of articles around a specific keyword you can become an authority in that part of your niche and promote your website very effectively for free.
Online Directories
If you have created a website with the intention to promote your offline business there are many platforms that can help you get in touch with millions of consumers. Also, the sites mentioned below can help you put your business on the map and claim your location. Most of the online directories will accept your site link for free but if you want full access to their services you will have to join their premium programs. But even their free services are worth your time.
- Google My Business: One of the most popular sites to list your business even if your business is an online shop.
- Bing Places for Business: Similar with the one above but it’s just for Bing and in case you didn’t know they cover around 30% of searches.
- Manta: A platform especially helpful for local small businesses.
- Merchant Circle: Here you can list your local business and you can also leave reviews. They also offer to design marketing campaigns.
- Angie’s List: A review based site for local businesses. They focus on providing the best services to their users.
- SuperPages: List your local business here to maximize your exposure and attract more customers.
Promote your Content
Like i said in the beginning of this post your content can become your most effective advertising tool. So now that you have created great content lets promote it across multiple aggregation platforms.
- YouTube: If you have created videos for your website uploading them on YouTube can help you increase your traffic even if in your videos you are not promoting your website directly. Millions of people are using YouTube on a daily basis so it’s a great platform to advertise your site for free. Search engines recognize the power of videos and are ranking them high in the result pages.
- Medium: It’s a free open platform where you can promote your content. Although it’s used mainly by bloggers and journalists it’s still a platform with millions of users where you can share your content.
- Slide Share: This platform is part of LinkedIn and here you can share your slides, infographics, and videos. The major advantage using Slide Share is that you have direct access to an audience that is interested in your content. Targeted traffic is what you really want in order to increase your ROI and you can achieve that with Slide Share.
- Flipboard: Here you can create an online magazine based on your content. It’s a great place to share your blog posts and attract new readers to your website.You can also invite others to contribute to your online magazine with their content. It’s free to join and many people are using it to read and learn more about their niche every day.
- Ezine Articles: You can submit your articles here for free and attract more traffic back to your website.
- Hub Pages: Although here you can’t directly upload your articles you can post your website link in your profile description. If you want to publish here you will have to write new articles specific for them but they do offer affiliate and earning programs for you to sign up.
- Alltop: Share your posts here to maximize your online exposure. One of the most popular aggregation platforms with millions of users.
- Scoop.it: One of the most famous content curation platforms. It’s not just free to join but it’s also a great place to connect with experts and professionals. If you spend some time familiarizing yourself with the platform and building a following you can increase your traffic significantly.
- Quora: This is a community where people can ask questions and get answers. You can choose the topics you are interested in and provide valuable answers. You can’t publish your content here directly although you can blog inside the platform too. The best way to increase your traffic through Quora is to answer people’s questions as better as you can. You are allowed to add links in your answers that lead back to your website but if you just promote your site or your affiliate links you will get penalized.
Social Media
You can share your new and existing content and make your website and your name is known across the globe. There is simply no better way to promote your content for free than the social media. People on average spend 25% of their online time on them. Not every social media platform can be used for every niche so take your time exploring them and use the ones that are best suited to your needs. Concentrate on the platforms where you have the best chances to engage with your audience.
- Facebook: Create your Facebook business page and promote your website to millions of people. Many people make the mistake of promoting their business through their personal profiles. Don’t do that. Create your business page if you want to see good results.
- Twitter: Post your new content, share your posts and let known about your business.
- Google+: Although it’s not a very popular social network and you may find it a bit difficult to work with it, in the beginning, you should create your profile here. Simply because it’s a Google product and Google likes Google. Sharing your content here can have a positive effect on your SEO.
- Pinterest: This is an ideal social network if your website is a visual niche like cooking, jewelry, fashion, home design etc. Share your photos and your graphics, write a small description about them and add your links.
- LinkedIn: This social network is all about business. Share your content with people that are already interested in your niche and increase your traffic and your sales. You can also meet with experts and professionals in many business sectors.
- Instagram: A very popular platform to upload your photos and images and attract more people to your website.
- StumbleUpon: Here you can upload your posts and pages to help people discover your website. It can help you increase your traffic significantly.
- Snapchat: Promote your name and your brand and engage with the community.
- Reddit: Although you can increase your traffic with Reddit you have to be careful when you promote your website/blog. There are strict rules about self-promotion but if you use the platform the right way you can get great results.
- Digg: Spend some time building your profile and exploring the platform. It’s preferred by bloggers and you can easily share your content and your links.
- We Heart it: This network is also about sharing images and ideal for websites with great visuals.
- Tumblr: A platform mainly for bloggers. It’s a friendly to use network where you can share your content and meet new people.
- Dailymotion: A video-based social network where you can upload your promotional or explanatory videos. Create interesting videos and you have a very good chance to make them go viral.
Press Releases
Write and submit a press news release in order to reach millions of people at once. They can help you increase your online visibility and web presence. Some PR distribution platforms offer some of their services for free but most of them will charge you for them. By submitting your press releases you will also benefit from the backlinks you will generate for your site for free.
Conclusion
There are certainly many ways to promote your website but the ones mentioned here are definitely a great way to start and they will keep you busy for some time. Spend some time learning how to use each one of them correctly and the results can be great. Don’t chase “shiny objects” and don’t trust people who tell you they can promote your website and increase your traffic overnight. If you want to achieve great results and increase your online revenue you have to target your promotions specifically for the type of audience you want to attract.
If you are just looking how to create your website or how to effectively monetize your existing website/blog you can can read my review about Wealthy Affiliate. One of the best online marketing training programs that can really help you start your own online business.
What are your favorite promotional strategies? Leave me a comment below and share your ideas with us.
Thanks for this detailed review of all the ways to promote your website. This is really useful information for me, as I’m in the process f building my new businesses. You mentioned tactics that hadn’t shown up on my radar, especially utilizing Quora and Ezine, and I really appreciate it!
Hello Penny,
Quora is a very good network to promote your brand name. Although increasing your traffic significantly through them is a long term project it’s a great way to build your brand name. Especially if your website is about marketing, online business or blogging it’s the right place to be.
Very enjoyable post. Tons of very good information for the begineer to the very seasoned professional
Hi,
this is a very comprehension summary which I find it useful- some of the things which I myself tend to forget like keyword search. There are so many social medias platform we can promote on, how many do you think we should have? I only am promoting in twitter and google plus now and even then i tend to focus only on google plus..
Use as many social media platforms as long as you think you can handle them effectively. Joining a social network but not interacting with the users in there because you don’t have time to do it will get you nowhere. Spend some time familiarizing and learning what works with each platform and you will do great. You don’t have to join a lot of them just the ones you feel comfortable sharing your content. It also depends on your niche. Some social media will only produce results for certain niches. Instagram, Pinterest and Dailymotion for example are ideal if your website has great photos, images and videos.
thanks for the insights !
Wow. That’s definitely a huge list. There are some outlets that I have not tried or even heard of. I only use Facebook, Twitter, G+, and Instagram. Never thought about press release. I will try that later. Thank you!
Hello Arief,
Press releases is certainly a great way to promote you website and build backlinks. You have to remember though that if you want to enjoy all the benefits press releases have to offer you will probably have to pay. The free services these agencies will help you up to a point.
This article is very enlightening. It is informative and detailed in content. I like the options you provide for marketing. Your recommendations for improving a website so it can be market-sound is good for every newbie.
Thanks for the great tips here. I’m all for more exposure, and this article has helped me find more ideas to use. My favorite will have to be YouTube. Being the second most largest search engine makes this website REALLY easy to siphon traffic off of. I am also going to try out Reddit as well, obviously because they have a lot of targeted traffic there, you just have to know how to find them. Great stuff, and good luck!
Thank you for your comment Brandon. Reddit is a great platform and you get great results if you respect their rules about self-promotion.
Hey,
I totally agree we you, I think promoting your website for free is the easiest thing to do. Besides people be on some form of social media anyway looking at what other people doing lol. They can just post a post on their social media account and let them look at their stuff. They may like it and share it. There are a lot of people doing paid advertising. Do you think using PPC is better than using free methods?
Hello Kendrick,
Thank you for your comment. Well using free methods to promote your website are effective and useful but up to a point. Paid advertising if it’s done correctly can be really helpful and increase your ROI significantly. There are going to be some major changes in many social media networks in 2017 and the following years when it comes to paid advertising. Businesses and marketers will need to ‘pay to play’ to target the right audience in order to have an impact. So, paid adverting’s importance will increase significantly in the next years.
Hi Nikos,
You presented some real gems to help the reader understand how to promote his/her website out in order to build a successful business.
Being a member of Wealthy Affiliate, the #1 thing that is preached and something that you truly emphasized was the need to have outstanding and relevant content posted often to a website.
I did take the time to click on the several links which re-directed to other articles that you devoted on the subject of content. Again I agree with your statement; long form content articles of at least 1,000 words is favored by the search engines thus will achieve higher rankings.
If the content offers high value to the reader they will return back for more as long as these people sense that a website can help them.
Keyword research is also crucial as you stated regarding rankings on the search engines.
Along with that using social media to promote articles again would be crucial in driving targeted traffic to a website.
This was an incredibly useful article for someone just starting out with an online business and the manner in which the website would get out to the online public.
Thank you for taking the time to write this article, Nikos!
Jeff
Hello Jeff,
If you found my post useful and the tips mentioned here can help you with your online business that makes me really happy.
Thank you for your comment.
Wow there are so many tools provided on your site that I was completely unaware of! Thank you so much for sharing! I do utilize keyword research which is something I started about a month ago. But there are so many other things I could be doing to get free traffic! I utilize Google Plus and Facebook but not sure if I am abiding by all the do’s and don’ts of Facebook. I saved your article to my notes. Thank you for sharing.
Great Article. I actually did not know there are all those methods you can use to promote your site. In addition you have provided great pieces of advice in here. Yep, there are many scammers and spam content that utilize people chase for shiny matters that requires minimal efforts.
As you said, great results need effort. Definitely I will go through the mentioned sites above and I will explore the capabilities to promote my posts.
Thanks a lot, by the way, I have added your post to my favorites so that I can easily get to the online directories and the mentioned platforms later.
Thanks a lot.
Hello Sam,
I am sure the websites mentioned here will help you promote your content and attract more visitors. I am really happy i helped.
Thank you for your comment.
Hi Nikos!
Totally agree! There’s a ton of free ways to promote your website today, you just need to try which one works best for you.
I personally vouch for quality content, keyword research and social media interaction with your readers.
Thanks for the tips! A lot of useful information here! 😉
Thanks Nikos.
This is simply packed with information.
I have several plans on the back boiler that are now coming forward with marketing based on your information.
You have pulled together a mini training course in free marketing including sites I was not even aware existed.
I am on LinkedIn but was unaware of Slide Share.
I have book marked this for serious note taking because there are so many links, I need to explore them all.
I am afraid I have nothing I can add to your detailed list. You have covered everything I know.
This is a great blog about promoting a website! As I am still in the beginning stage of getting my website going, this blog will be helpful! You hear over and over that content is the key. Once again this was reiterated in the blog. There are so many ways to promote a website for free that I had not heard about. I have a Facebook page set up to help promote the website that way. The Do’s and Don’ts on Facebook is another helpful piece of information I will keep in mind!
Hello Andrew,
I am glad i could help. Facebook is one of the most powerful social media platforms where you can promote you website you free. It’s also a great place to experiment with paid advertisement too. You can create ad campaigns for as little as $10-15. That’s a nice way to find out what your audience likes and what sells.
Thank you for your comment.