10 Quick Tips on How to Advertise your Business Website for FREE
How to advertise your business website for Free might sound like a bluff or even one of them ill-written spam messages that manage to slip into your Email... and honestly, these tactics do exist and they're easy to find plus you can start getting to work on them straight away.
These tips on how to advertise for free will increase your potential reach, visitors and organic SEO over a period of time, so if you're on a budget and looking for ideas then follow these quick tips, surely enough it'll pay off.
1) Setup & Post on Social Media Networks
LinkedIn: A social network aimed towards professionals, you can create a business page and post regular updates revolving around your project/business or your own status. LinkedIn also provides paid advertising campaigns should you wish to try them out.
Facebook/Instagram: Usually the first place to find your audience, you can set up business profiles/pages and post updates, get reviews/messages. With Facebook, you can run a number of different paid adverts to help boost reach, likes or sales.
Bonus - Facebook Groups: You can now use your Facebook page like a regular profile, so join as many local groups that will allow you to join and publish your content as your page. This method works especially well for brick and mortar and local service-based businesses.
Twitter: Twitter allows you to create a page for you to provide quick & short updates to followers.
Pinterest: This little gem has been around for years and the way it works, in a nutshell, is that you can create boards of specific topics and Pin content within those boards - website links, videos and images, these boards are then picked up by users on the network or via search engines.
Reddit: A discussion board like no other, Reddit has been the hot topic for a number of things over the years and provides great subreddits that will allow you to post and interact within. Just remember to follow the rules of posting properly otherwise you could face Downvotes.
2) Get listed on Google My Business & Maps
Getting listed on Google Business and Google Maps are essential for any business looking to advertise their business website for free, they're key for local and national searches and provide important information directly in the search results page.
Keep the page updated and reply to any reviews as soon as you get one - these efforts will help improve the visibility of your google business listing.
3) Blogs, Podcasts and Video Content
Over the past few years, experts in their respective fields have been creating resourceful content such as Blog Articles, Podcasts, Live videos and webinars - Although they require a lot of planning and effort, you'll find that if done correctly, you could become a staple point for information and visitors will become followers or even potential clients.
Don't be afraid to reach out to your network and get involved with guest publishes/podcasts, as they will widen your reach substantially.
4) Utilise Email Marketing
You can signup to popular email marketing services such as Mailchimp, SendinBlue, Hubspot and many more to handle your email marketing campaigns. These solutions are usually paid services however, you can find free trials or limited feature accounts to help get you going.
The power of email marketing is still a proven method to keep subscribers and clients in the loop with company, product or service-related news/offers.
Just remember starting an email marketing campaign also takes a lot of time and planning.
5) Signup to Online Directories
If you have a telephone number, address and website URL then online business directories are definitely worth signing up to, try to always go for the freemium accounts if possible and template generic business details so you can copy and paste into each directory you come across.
This will not only help with local exposure but also help your SEO efforts, as it's a proven way to increase traffic to your website with minimal effort.
6) Provide free resources, tutorials or downloads
If you're in a niche/business/project that can offer valuable resources, blogs, tutorials or even downloads such as Infographics, product demos and even audio/video/photos if you're in the creative industry. If they're valuable then you'll find those resources shared often and more visitors coming back to your website.
7) Join online Communities and Business Networks
An excellent place for any business to advertise and connect with other local businesses are networking groups, online forums (discussion boards or even social network groups). Not only can you share your product/service but you'll also find other experts who like to share experiences/tips as well as tons of resources that may come useful.
8) Utilise influencers in your niche
Over the past few years and continuing to play a large role today, online influencers have become a part of eCommerce marketing strategies for many brands, so it's no surprise why this should be on the list.
Not every influencer will charge, some are happy to endorse if they support what you're doing or with 'testers' or 'trials' of your product/service... so if you've found an influencer that supports what you do they may accept a deal that doesn't involve money.
Just make sure to do the right background checks first, ensuring sure they have a real fan/follower base.
9) Feature in newsletters/local news websites
Featuring in a local news website or a niche within your market via a newsletter can also help in a similar manner but without you having to talk, instead, a written article/newsletter would be used similarly to that of a PR (press release).
This is often published amongst a larger following across social networks, having a news website publish an article about your business/project would hold credible weight whilst also becoming another good talking point.
10) Start looking into SEO on-page (on your website) and off.
Local search engine optimisation, national SEO - on-page and off-page SEO, all of these are individual services within their own rights and with the right research, they can be done for free to some extent, optimising your website for speed, usability, search engines, keyword building, increasing domain authority are a few things to consider out of a very long and complex checklist.
There are multiple guides & resources on what SEO is, and ultimately it falls down to where your website will rank when someone types "SEO company near me" or "SEO company in Birmingham, West Midlands" based on multiple metrics and signals.
Some of the 'free' tasks you can do involve looking at the Google Keyword Planner to find keywords that are searched based on location/term/volume. You can then form the titles/descriptions using these keywords selected, as well as any headings/image alts that describe the purpose of that page/image/keyword.
All of the tips on how to advertise your website on this page will also help aid your SEO efforts such as publishing content on your blog, offering resources and building local directory links... all of which have been mentioned above.
Bonus advice:
- Utilise analytical/tracking solutions such as Google Analytics to monitor where visitors are coming from, rankings, time on page and other important metrics that are vital for any marketing campaign.
- Pay attention to online communities and their rules, some might only allow postings on particular days or have other requirements for posts, the last thing you want is to be warned/banned after your first post (Reddit & Facebook Groups especially).
- Look into Giveaways to help drive traffic, followers and generally people interested in your product or service. Always try to keep the giveaway prize in line with what you offer/specialise in as it's done for a marketing purpose as eventually, I'm you'd like to generate a positive ROI (return on investment) over time.
- Write for humans and not search engines, add your own twist & try to engage your audience.
We hope this article has helped you find more ways to advertise your local business website or project, if you've found this article helpful make sure to give it a share.