In modern era of total
digitalization and googlization of everything, it is important to find ways of
being competitive online. Of course, professional promotion and marketing costs
a lot of money, which some companies have scarce amounts of, especially the
ones that were unexpectedly hit by the digital world (newspaper/ magazine
industry). Couple students, who are trying to create a digital start-up or
ambitious entrepreneurial individuals trying to make a name for themselves
online, often don’t have deep pockets
either. Thankfully, for those disadvantaged with low budgets, there are lots of
free ways to promote their website/blog online. The article on Outbrain.com “7 Best Techniques
to Promote Your Website for Free”
introduces some of the best advices on the topic, which I am going to briefly
summarize in this blogpost.[1]
To understand what this free tool does you have to first understand what
a keyword is. A keyword is any word or
short phrase that describes a website topic or page- The more a keyword is used
by searchers and websites the more attraction power it has.[2] The keywords are added to the
titles, headings or content of your website/webpage. The way the tool works is that
after typing the keyword you want to use in website’s title or description, the
tool will give you a list of words similar to yours, the frequency at which it
is searched and how much competition or value it has in the opinion of the
advertisers. With the help of that tool you can find keywords that have low
competition and high search frequency, which are the most optimal conditions
for your page being discovered.
2.
Social Media
(Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pininterest, Instagram)
The best way to interact and
create a community with the user base of your website. Also, a really good way
to get instant feedback and spread free-of-charge ads of promotional products
(in case your website is retail based) or discount in services (for
service-based websites) to the audience that is interested in your
product. Such internet phenomenon as
Bunz Trading Zone (http://bunz.com), where people can
locally trade anything for anything with no cash involvement, have organically
grown just through local Facebook groups. It grew from couple people trading
random items with each other - to 72 locally-based Facebook groups, 40,000
members and 600 transactions a day in 3 years.[3]
3.
Submit the URL of
your website to Search Engine directory.
You can add your website
manually to Google’s or Bing’s directory so it appears in the search query. You
can also do that with any new content on your website. For Google http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl. For Bing http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster.
4.
Branding with URL
signatures
In any email, text or social
media communications include your Website’s URL in your signature. This will
increase the recognition of your website, as well as increase the amount of
links pointing to your URL page. A creative, rememberable and relevant website
name is extremely important for people to actually click on it. So make sure
you spend some time thinking what your URL looks like and get an opinion of
third parties about it.
5.
Links
Create partnerships with other
websites or blogs that are related to the products or services that you offer
on your website. The more links that point to your website, the higher will be
the ranking of your website in the search query. For example, if there is a
very influential blogger or social media personality, whose audience would be
interested in your product, you can reach out to that individual and ask them
to mention your website in their next blogpost. Of course, a lot of times they
would ask for something in return, but sometimes, when the blogger is just
passionate about your product, they would be happy to mention your website for
free. However, you have to make sure that your website is linked to
high-quality websites and that there are no irrelevant links pointing to it or
going out from it. Also be careful of not being too hasty about making links, if there are too many links
pointing to your website all of a sudden, your website might be banned from the
search engine.
6.
Quality Content
Having a constant flow of
fresh and relevant content on your website is the best promotion you can do for
yourself. If you write a quality article or blogpost on your website, people
will pick up on it and you will get more and more links pointing to your
article, which brings customers to your website. Quality content is the kind of
thing you can also share on Social Media to increase your visibility. For
example, posting any industry related articles on LinkedIn will make sure to
get some traffic to your website.
7. Google Local Business (https://business.google.com)
In the case where you have a
physical location together with a website, placing your business on Google
Local Business Platform (which basically means you are putting it on Google
Maps), will make it really accessible for your potential customers. Nowadays,
so many smartphone users just go on google maps and type in “whatever near me”
and google displays all the relevant results in that area right on the map. If your
business is in the area and the customer clicks on it, they can access your
website, look up directions or call you right inside the Google Maps app. All
those functions you get for free from Google.
So there you go - 7 free perks
that everyone should consider implementing into their website before going for
paid promotion platforms like Google AdWords. Those tips aren’t only important
to know for those, who do not have enough liquid cash for paid advertising, but
also for companies who just want to cut some major costs. All the listed tips
don’t require any specialized knowledge, therefore almost anyone can implement
them, without bothering to understand complicates SEO algorithms.
By Yauheni Baldziusau
[1] Outbrain Inc. (2016). [Intermediate
- 108] 7 Best Techniques to Promote Your Website for Free. [online]
Available at: http://help.outbrain.com/customer/en/portal/articles/1575129--intermediate---108-7-best-techniques-to-promote-your-website-for-free
[Accessed 6 Oct. 2016].
[2] Googlekeywordtool.com. (2016). Google Keyword
Tool. [online] Available at: http://www.googlekeywordtool.com [Accessed 6
Oct. 2016].
[3] The Globe and Mail. (2016). At Bunz Trading
Zone, you can swap old items for a sense of community. [online] Available
at:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/at-bunz-trading-zone-you-can-swap-old-items-for-a-sense-of-community/article28819549/
[Accessed 6 Oct. 2016].
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