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5 Ways You Can Promote Your Website For Free
Look, as the old saying goes, ‘You’ve got to spend money to make money’. And… it’s true. Especially in digital marketing, which has become a field where businesses have to pay to play. From hiring a full-service marketing agency to spending money on Google advertising, these things have become common practices.
However, if you’re just starting out, it’s understandable you don’t have the budget to spend thousands of dollars each month. That’s why we’ve created a list of the most effective ways to generate new traffic to your website for free. The list includes:
- Google Business Profile
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
- Social Media Activity
- Building An Email Marketing Strategy
- Registering in Local Online Directories
The intention of all of the 5 strategies is to bring quality traffic to your website. That means they will engage with your business in one way or another after visiting your website. That may mean generating more sales, signing up for your email list, or entering a competition.
You must be aware that some of these recommendations require a heavier time commitment and expertise than others. Of course, you avoid the costs associated with hiring a digital marketing agency to do it all for you. However, digital marketing services can consume a lot of your time and is what you must consider when taking it on yourself.
1. Google Business Profile
The first thing you should do is make sure you have a Google Business profile live. With over 8.5 billion searches a day, you can see how it’s beneficial to promote your business there. If you didn’t already have one, that is the first thing an SEO consultant would do if you hired one.
Setting up a Google Business profile enables you to be discovered by people in your area searching for your services. Thus, generating free traffic to your website with a strong intent to engage with your business. Although, as any SEO agency will tell you, it takes time for your listing to appear high in search results.
In order to get your business and website listed on Google, you should search for “Google Business Profile”. Alternatively, you can click through this link to get to the signup page.
Thereafter it is fairly a straightforward process to get your business listing details up on Google.
The process involves answering some basic contact questions about your business and a verification process thereafter. Depending on your business location and details, verification can take between a day to a few weeks. Once complete, you will get an update from Google saying that your business is now LIVE and listed.
If you run into trouble and don’t have an SEO specialist to turn to, you can contact Google support directly.
2. SEO
We’ve been mentioning Google SEO a lot already and there is a good reason for it. SEO services can prove to be invaluable to a business of any size.
In short, local SEO involves ranking your website high on a search engine for specific keywords. Unlike Google Ads, where you’re paying for every click, ranking organically on the first page means you don’t.
That is why SEO marketing is great for a small business on a small budget if it’s willing to put time and effort into it. The first thing you can do is wrap your head around on page SEO. This revolves around the content of your website inclusive of written content, imagery, video, and any applicable tools embedded.
An SEO expert will tell you to focus on keywords that are most relevant to the services or products you offer. Thereafter, create content that is as close as possibly related to those specific keywords. You must ensure that the keywords are also mentioned sporadically and organically within the content. The goal is to increase your organic search ranking simply because of the value you are providing to those searching.
Realistically, even the best SEO company will tell you it takes up to 6 months for a high-quality page to rank. Thus, you must be patient and come to terms with the fact that SEO ranking does not happen overnight.
3. Social Media Activity
You’ve heard time and time again about how social media marketing services can help expand your audience. It can cost thousands of dollars to hire a social media agency to promote your business and generate fresh content.
However, the good news is that you can start doing it yourself with an organic content strategy. That means posting regular and unique content to grow an audience based on your offering. The key here is to provide value in order to get organic engagement and traffic to your website.
Any social media marketing agency will tell you that consistency is key. You must also create original content in order to truly attract attention, especially when relying on organic growth. By organic growth, we are referring to growing a following without spending any money on paid advertising. As an experienced social media company, one of the best tips is to take notice of what’s trending. There’s great power in harnessing the attention of a current trend and creating content with your own spin on it.
Apps like TikTok have made it possible for anyone to go viral with a little bit of creativity and originality. Posting content across platforms and being consistent is the key to promoting your website and business through social media marketing.
4. Build An Email Marketing Strategy
We can’t stress enough the positive impact that email marketing has on your business. It is a great way to nurture brand loyalty and boost sales with special offers.
If you don’t already have an email database, now’s a good time to start thinking about one! An email marketing agency will typically recommend you send out no more than weekly and no less than monthly emails. If you don’t have the time, hiring someone for direct email marketing is a cost-effective way to promote your website.
The good news is that you can do it all yourself for free and with relative ease. For example, Shopify email marketing is easy to implement and readily available within the platform itself. It is a great way to engage with people who have subscribed to your email list or have purchased before. That way your email marketing campaign can link directly to products on your website and generate sales. The best part about it is that it’s already included in your hosting package and is free to use.
Your email campaign should be straight to the point and easy to digest. After all, people’s attention span is minuscule in regards to advertising so the email design and content must be impactful.
5. Local Directories
Once you’ve invested in good web design or built a website by yourself, you should search for free online directories. Not only does it help your organic SEO campaign, but it is also an opportunity for promotion via other websites.
There are many online directories here in New Zealand that you can register for. Here are just a few:
- Neighborly (https://www.neighbourly.co.nz/)
- Finda (https://www.finda.co.nz/)
- NZ Search (http://www.nzsearch.co.nz/)
- Zenbu (https://www.zenbu.co.nz/)
- Fyple (https://www.fyple.co.nz/)
- Hotfrog (https://www.hotfrog.co.nz/)
- Zipleaf (https://www.zipleaf.co.nz/)
Most directories will require brief information about your business to get things going, with registration usually taking 5-10 minutes.
When you hire a local SEO company, this is generally one of the first things they do. That is because the more external links your website attracts, it sends signals of authority to search engines. Meaning, if another website refers to you about a certain topic, you must be a source of information in general. Therefore, boosting your SEO internet marketing rankings and driving traffic to your website for free.
