“How do I get free Web site promotion?” is a question I’m often asked. The thing to remember about free Web site promotion is that nothing is ever truly free. If you don’t spend money promoting your Web site, you’re going to have to spend time. So why waste time on Web site promotion methods that will only bring you minuscule returns, if any? If you’re prepared to work on them, these five free Web site promotion techniques will deliver, rewarding you with increased site traffic.
1. Work on SEO.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and it’s the best thing since sliced bread in terms of free Web site promotion. Search Engine Optimization is the process of making Web site pages attractive to search engines, and the great thing is that it’s not hard to learn and apply the basics to your own Web site(s).
Through working on SEO, you can improve the page rankings of your Web pages and drive more traffic to your site. And isn’t that the ultimate goal of free Web site promotion? Get started with my 5 Basic Rules of Search Engine Optimization. When you’re ready, move on to some of the finer points such as Applying Keyword Density.
Tip: If you are using non-text content on your Web page(s), such as photos, image maps or JavaScript, include text for your image in the ALT tag so the search engines have something they can read.
2. Get others to link to you.
When other people put a link to your site on their site, you get free web site promotion. You also get a shot at a better search engine ranking for your page. All of the big three search engines (Google, Yahoo, and MSN) use inbound links as an important part of the formula that determines a page’s rank.
Be aware though that it’s not just a numbers game; it’s the quality of the links that really matters. So you want to focus your reciprocal linking efforts on relevant quality links. The standard procedure is to search for and identify relevant sites that you would like to have link to yours and then send their webmasters email requesting a link on their site, offering a link on your site in return.
Tip: You can check a Web site or Web page’s ranking before you try to reciprocally link with it by using SEO tools such as Page Rank Lookup and the Link Popularity Tool. Google’s Toolbar also has a Page Rank Display feature. These tools are also handy for checking the status and progress of your own Web site and/or pages.
3. Write articles.
The beauty of this free Web site promotion strategy is that once again someone else is promoting your Web site for you. And if you get your articles published on popular, long-lived Web sites or in well-known magazines, they can be sitting there promoting your Web site for a long, long time with no further effort on your part.
However, there are catches. First, you have to be able to write well on a topic or topics that other people will want to read and/or publish. Second, you have to find the quality places for your articles to be published and persuade the people making the decisions to publish them. When you find them, send an email asking if they can use a particular piece, including your article so they can look at it right away if they’re interested. Be sure your email mentions that they are welcome to publish the piece for free. Also be sure that your piece ends with a “resource box” or “blurb” that promotes you and your Web site.
Tip: Find the Web sites or magazines you want to be published on first, and then spend some time reading the content to see what type of material they might want and if there are any obvious holes in their content that you could cover. Then tailor your material to that particular site or magazine’s needs.
What other free Web site promotion techniques are actually worth taking the time to work on? Continue onto page 2 of this article...
