There are 1000s of dead websites on the Net because they’ve been abandoned due to lack of web traffic. If you don’t attract visitors to your website it will join the pile of dead ones. You’ve probably heard the saying “build it and they will come.” Building a website and placing it on the net will not generate traffic. You need to promote your website using a variety of methods. Since many website owners can’t afford paid advertising they often ask “How can I promote my website for free”? Free ways can be as effective as paid ones. You simply trade your time for money.
Top 10 ways to promote your website for free
Search engine optimization
If your website appears on the first page of any of the search engines it will get a lot of free traffic. To achieve this you first need to optimize your website.
1. Keyword research
Use free keyword research tools such as Wordtracker or the Google Keyword Research tool to find keywords people would use to find your site on the search engines.
2. Weave the keywords throughout your website
Include these keywords in your meta tags, headings, subheadings, page content, links, navigation, image and file descriptions. Only use one or 2 keywords per page in your web copy. Reserve the other keywords for optimizing other pages of your website.
Link Building
Search engines rank websites according to the quality and quantity of the links pointing to your site. So if you want to increase the ranking of a web page work on building lots of links to it.
3. Article marketing
Write 400 word articles that target the keywords on your web page. Include these keywords in the title, content and resource box of your article. Make sure your resource box includes 2 links to your web page. One link should be the full URL of your web page, the other link should be the main keyword phrase linked to the web page you want high rankings for. Submit the article to the top article directories such as Ezinearticles.com. Website owners and ezine publishers often visit these directories to find articles they can publish on their website, blog, ezine or newsletter.
4. Directories
Research local and specialized directories related to your niche that allow a link to be placed on their website. Some will be free, while others will require a reciprocal link or payment. You can find some specialized directories by entering “keyword+directory” in the the Google search box.
5. Related blogs
Search for blogs (http://blogsearch.google.com) related to your niche then submit comments to their posts. Insert your website address at the end of your comment. Don’t just say something like “nice article” as it will probably get deleted by the site owner. Try to answer a question or create a well written response. Other commenters will read it and may get inspired to visit your own site.
6. Forums
Search for forums (http://boardreader.com/) related to your niche and participate in conversations by offering valuable insights to other forum members. Make sure you include a link back to your website at the end of your comment.
Social Media
People love to interact with others on the Net. By interacting with visitors on your website/blog, Twitter or Facebook you build relationships. These people will be more inclined to purchase products and read information you recommend to them. Social media will help promote your website by boosting rankings, generating traffic and building links.
7. Add a blog
Blogs are a great way to interact with your visitors. They can subscribe to your RSS feeds, newsletter, or leave comments. WordPress is one of the most popular platforms for building a blog. It automatically alerts the search engines every time you post new content.
Create a stand-alone blog or add one to your current website. Make a plan to add new content on a regular basis. Types of content may include articles, news, reviews, contests, etc.
8. Social networking
This enables you to interact with people related to your business. Through these interactions you become part of an online community that shares the same interests. Create accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn then invite people to join your community through these social networking properties. Be sure to include your website URL in your profile on each of these sites . It will generate a quality backlinks to your own site. Search engines frequently spider social networking sites to search for links containing new information.
9. Social bookmarking
Visitors will bookmark your website or save it to their Favorites list when you offer good content. It boosts your search engine rankings and helps build critical backlinks. Insert a bookmarking icon on your website (e.g.http://www.addthis.com/ ) to make it easy for visitors to bookmark your content. Here are 3 popular social bookmarking websites:
www.socialmarker.com
http://www.addthis.com/
www.onlywire.com
10. Video marketing
Videos are effective because you can watch, read and listen at the same time thus it appeals to a wide audience. This is in contrast to text which just appeals to one segment of your subscribers. A good video captivates your audience better than written content. Create a simple video then upload it to multiple video sharing sites with TubeMogul.
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101 Highly Effective Strategies to Promote Your Web Site
