Your website just went live. Let’s assume you’ve done your homework before publishing, ticking all the boxes on design and copying and taking that leap forward. What now? The next step is for you to find ways to promote your website. Now whether you’re new to setting up a site, or have previous experience with taking your brand online, these tips will help you navigate the complex world of promoting web site.
At a time when people are affected by the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, exploring ways to save on marketing and promotions resources is essential for anyone with a business or a brand. As someone looking to build a presence on the web for your business or brand, you may already have invested considerably in a starter site. If you are still looking for choices there are more cost-effective options out there that can help you get your site off the ground. Anyway, let’s assume that you’ve spent at least thousands of dollars on your new website. You will need to maximize that investment by promoting your site the best way you can.
You’ll be surprised that there are ways to save on costs while assuring optimal results. It’s just a matter of being resourceful and listening to the top web experts who can teach you the best answers when you type in the search phrase “how to promote website free of cost”--to market your brand and get you started. Before you proceed with this article, it’s best to scour the web for a refresher on SEO and understand how to work with Google to optimize your site.
You are likely to find a lot of advice online about how to advertise your website for free. We’ve compiled these tried and true techniques that are sure to work for any small business or personal brand:
Promoting Web site Through Great Content
First of all, nothing beats a great story. Humans love stories. We are wired to tell stories and listen to them. If there’s a proven way to promote your website free of cost, it has to be excellent storytelling! Ensure your site is a place that can be considered an important resource for your field, subject, or product. While this sounds like a no-brainer, it actually takes some time and effort to create engaging and meaningful content.
Having a great story is the first step to becoming shareable.
The best way to draw people to your site is to create content that is relevant to them. Think about what people would want to learn or hear about. Think about your desired audience and the topics that speak to their interests and everyday lives. Promoting your website is actually about getting involved and finding exciting stories that your audience will want to talk about or share.
Best Free Services for Promoting Web site
Take advantage of what’s free! Yeah, you heard it. Everyone wants the holy grail answer to the question, “How do I get away with promoting my website for free?” While you can’t get away entirely from paid services, you can resourcefully put together a decent strategy that best addresses the dilemma of how to promote a website free of cost.
The answer is: learn how to use keywords to make the most out of this free strategy. Web algorithms can work for or against you. Make sure that your keyword strategy is compatible with the web’s algorithms for ranking and for promoting a website.
Use tools like Google’s Keyword Planner to help set up your campaign. This strategy has to do with ad clicks containing certain keywords, so understand that this is not a search input method.
If you feel like taking this to the next step, consider creating a sitemap to help Googlebot with the crawl direction for your site. Sitemaps are essential in assisting search bots sift through mazes of content and direct to the pages you consider most important. It means you are taking a proactive role in ensuring that your SEO is optimized according to your priorities.
Tools like this are a first and relatively easy step to guide you on how to promote your website without spending money.
Promote website through guest blogging. Another highly effective trick that will help you in promoting your website is guest blogging. While this one won’t cost you a dime, either, you will have to put in the effort of writing for other people. What should you write about? The sky’s the limit! Try volunteering or writing for high-traffic sites and find a way to creatively redirect the clicks to your site. It’s called backlinking--a strategic way to web promote. Since you’ve already launched a site, we assume you’re already an expert on the subject or product you’re promoting.
A little hustle goes a long way. Spending a few hours to a day writing a guest blog post will help promote your website in a way that goes beyond clicks: it speaks of expertise and authenticity. Being a subject matter expert, having your original content in many parts of the web establishes your profile and in many ways is a huge billboard to help boost your online presence. This is one of the ultimate answers to the oft-searched phrase “How to advertise your website for free”, and can get you one step further into a highly-ranked website.
Promote Website by Getting Up Close and Personal with Original Content
Are you an expert in gardening? Offer some free tips on a popular site! Encourage people to click on your site to learn more about you and find more engaging stories on gardening.
Selling clothes? Perhaps you could guest blog on a popular design site on the next big thing in fashion. You’ll be surprised at the massive interest in your subject matter, once you learn to let loose and just be yourself. Subject matter expertise is simply about sharing your experience, and that could mean a story on how you started in the industry or the impact you made on your clients.
While guest blogging can be intimidating, remember that you already have the skills your audience is looking for—you just need to get the content to them! It’s all about content, content, content. Promote your genuine and amazing content on the web.
Promoting Web site via Backlinking
Don’t forget to backlink. As mentioned above, backlinking is how you redirect traffic to your website. Make sure you do it in a way that is not blatantly self-promoting. The best backlinking strategy is to make sure that these clicks feel intuitive and that they fall on the right phrases or words.
If you’re a backlinking noob, you might want to check out sites that take you through basic backlinking strategy. Not all backlinks are created equal, so you do have to consider things like the quality and the popularity of the site you’re linking from. Just like in human networks, not all referrals are of equal weight or validity. An endorsement from a more credible person will win you more social points, while a less credible or less popular person might win you less. Google employs a similar algorithm. It treats referring sites with different weight, and a backlink from a site with a high authority rating will get you more authority votes. One of the best ways to web promote is to backlink from as many of these credible and highly ranked sites as possible.
Harness your networks. We are lucky that we live in a world where your social circle is at your fingertips, literally. Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram are massive vehicles for pushing traffic to your site and you should take advantage of them in a big way.
Like the above resources, they’re free too! Social media, done right, is one of the cheapest tools you can use to make sure you bring in customers to your site.
Let’s start with the behemoth that is Facebook. Let’s say you’ve already got thousands of friends on there.
Promoting web site beyond personal networks
Promoting your site to your personal networks is great, but accessing the billions of other Facebook users takes a bit more effort and skill.
Promote Website through Facebook Pages
Begin with creating a Facebook Page for your website. This page should be set up with the primary objective of promoting your website to as many people on the platform as possible. Your page should have strategic text that draws people to your particular product or expertise. When appropriate, link the relevant content to your site to bring in traffic.
By taking extra care to include relevant keywords and anchor topics, you bring in the right audience to your page and thus, by extension, promote your website.
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s move on to Facebook groups. Facebook groups are an ideal way to find bigger groups of people with common interests. Search for the interests that are relevant to your website’s core service or content. Start with the groups that you observe to have a lot of active members and have high engagement and banter within the community. Request to join those groups and make sure you abide by their rules.
Promoting web site not equivalent to spamming
Depending on the group rules, it should be fine to start sharing information about your site as long as it is directly relevant to the discussion and you’re not spamming. Remember, you’re trying to use the best avenues for promoting your site; not trying to get kicked out and labeled as a spammer.
“Is promoting my website for free on Twitter a good idea?”
Twitter is also another social network that offers numerous opportunities to share your brand and get your site promoted. The short or micro format means that it requires different strategies for posting. It’s important to edit. Keep your posts straight to the point and catchy. Avoid posts that are too descriptive. (Although with the 280 character limit, that’s almost a forced constraint. Still, avoid too many adjectives.) Keep them on their toes, and let them click on your website for more! It’s ideal to have your own Twitter feed on your site, too. Make sure everything is seamless and connected.
All at your fingertips: Promoting web site via Twitter is a key strategy to reach a new audience
Recruit Influencers’ Help in Promoting Web site
Hustle even more. There’s also another technique that can get you more up close and personal with your target clients: reach out to the bloggers or influencers that you know. For those of you who are fans of a more personal approach to business, consider this a top priority on your to-do list. Start checking off the bloggers that are in your direct personal circle and find out whether you can bring in some clicks your way through content that has some connection with their blogging topics or platform. You can make a request to guest-blog on their site or send some of your products their way.
