If you want more eyes on your business, you don’t have to pay a marketing agency to promote your website for you.
In fact, there are many website promotion techniques you can do on your own. And most of them are free or low-cost options.
By the end of this article, you’ll have 10 ideas that you can immediately put into practice.
Let’s dive in.
1. Optimize for Technical SEO
Technical SEO involves implementing improvements that make it easier for search engines to discover and index (store in a database) your content, both of which need to happen for your content to show in organic (unpaid) search results.
It involves activities like:
- Submitting an XML sitemap to Google to indicate what pages on your site you want to be indexed
- Finding broken links that need to be updated
- Creating a logical site architecture that ensures search engines can find your pages and understand how they’re related
- Improving your page speed (which Google uses in its algorithms)
You can use Google Search Console for some of these actions. Like submitting your sitemap to Google and checking speed-related metrics (via the Core Web Vitals).
To simplify finding and addressing technical SEO issues, use Semrush’s Site Audit tool.
After you run an audit, click on the “Issues” tab to see what you need to fix.
The table is organized by:
- Errors: High-severity issues that could be impacting your SEO visibility and need to be addressed quickly
- Warnings: Medium-severity issues that you should fix after resolving errors
- Notices: Low-severity items that are still worth fixing
If you’re unfamiliar with a certain problem, click “Why and how to fix it” for details.
We recommend running weekly or monthly audits to identify issues before they lead to significant dips in SEO performance.
2. Post on Social Media
Posting on social media platforms is free (as long as you’re not using ads) and can connect you with a wide audience who may be interested in what you have to say.
You can promote your site on social media by:
- Including links to your site on your profile pages
- Sharing links to high-quality content that users may want to explore
- Adding calls to action (CTAs) in your posts that urge your audience to take specific actions (e.g., “Browse sale items,” “Earn 10% off,” etc.
But you don’t always have to promote your site explicitly. Most of the benefits of posting come from increased brand awareness, which can translate to web traffic later on.
So, find the platforms your audience uses with One2Target.
After you enter at least one competitor, go to the “Behavior” tab to find out which social media platforms their audience uses most—this helps you learn about your own social media audience.
Then, get ideas for your posts with Social Content AI.
This AI-powered tool can help you create social media content for Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, TikTok, and other platforms.
Enter your website URL and select your location. Then, describe your business.
The tool will start generating 100+ ideas a day for posts and organize them by trending news and topics.
When you find an idea you like, click “Generate” in the top right corner.
Fill out the parameters for your post and click “Generate.”
You’ll get a post with text and images or videos.
3. Participate in Online Communities
People use forums and similar groups to share insights and ask questions, so providing your expertise in those spaces can be a good way to promote your site—as long as it’s genuinely helpful.
Start by joining groups that are relevant to your site. Like those on Reddit, Slack, and Facebook.
Then, be an active group member by:
- Sharing valuable resources and original insights
- Answering common questions that group members are asking
- Engaging with the community through comments, likes, and shares
For example, when a user in this group asks for advice on the most important business trends, other members comment with their ideas.
You could even recommend your products and services in groups (when it's helpful).
But don’t be overly promotional in community groups.
Instead, focus on bringing value to the other members with the content you share. And if they find your contributions valuable, they may explore what you have to offer in the future.
4. Collaborate with Websites in Your Niche
Reaching out to other sites may lead to backlinks, brand mentions, or partnerships that increase your site’s visibility among new audiences.
Specifically, outreach can lead to opportunities like:
- Guest posting: Writing articles for other sites that cover topics relevant to your business
- Podcast interviews: Offering your expertise and insights as a featured guest on a podcast episode
- Press mentions: Getting your company, products, or services listed in another site’s content
- Referrals: Getting customers from other brands who trust you enough to recommend you to their audience. Setting up a dedicated referral program can help with this.
You can use search operators to find relevant opportunities.
For example, let’s say you’re wondering whether there’s an opportunity to be mentioned in a prominent industry publication.
Type “site:” into the search bar, include the publication’s domain name after the colon, and then enter a competitor’s brand name (within quotations if the name is more than one word).
Like this:
If you see that the publication has mentioned the competitor you chose, there’s a good chance they may be willing to mention you as well. So, contact them and ask for a mention and backlink in a relevant piece of content.
Or, streamline the process with Semrush’s Link Building Tool.
Follow the prompts to set up your project, then use the “Prospects” tab to find sites that may be willing to link to you.
When you find a website you’d like to ask for a link, click the “To In Progress” button next to it.
Then, go to the “In Progress” tab, where that prospect is now located.
From there, you can craft a personalized email asking for a link.
5. Add Your Site to Online Directories
Adding your business to online directories can send referral traffic to your site and may help you appear in local searches.
Your listings should include key information about your business like your phone number, address, and hours of operation to ensure users have what they need. And to help search engines verify information about your business.
Start with creating your Google Business Profile. Because it can help you appear in the Google local pack (a highly visible feature that includes prominent businesses in a certain area) when people search for nearby businesses.
Then, add your site to other popular directories in your industry (e.g., Yelp, Angi, etc.).
And maintain your listings across directories by:
- Updating your listings with accurate and fresh content (e.g., images, holiday hours, etc.)
- Responding to customer reviews to show users that you care what they have to say
- Checking for consistent information across directories to increase your local SEO potential
To streamline the process of creating and managing your citations, use Semrush’s Listing Management tool. Which can automatically distribute your information to different directories.
Once your listings are live, they’ll be tallied on your main dashboard. And if you ever need to make changes, click the three dots in the upper corner and click “Edit info.”
6. Publish High-Quality Content on Your Blog
Publishing helpful blog content shows your expertise and may help you rank (show in search results) for relevant topics in search engines like Google.
To create blog posts that are likely to gain visibility in search engines:
- Perform keyword research to find the exact terms your target audience is searching for
- Write high-quality content that’s useful and accurate
- Use on-page SEO techniques like including internal links and optimizing your title tags to increase the organic ranking potential of your posts
You can get ideas for blog topics using Google’s Keyword Planner.
Enter a topic to get a list of similar terms along with basic information related to how often people are searching for them and how popularity is changing.
To find particularly timely ideas, use Semrush’s Topic Research tool.
Enter a broad topic to get a list of relevant ideas.
Then, click the toggle next to “Trending subtopics first” to see ideas that have rapidly grown in popularity over the last 60 days (those will have a flame icon and appear in green).
Click on a topic card to see related headlines and questions you can use to inform your own posts.
Then, review the metrics at the top of the card.
Prioritize topics that say “High” under “Topic Efficiency.” Because these topics aren’t too hard to rank for (i.e., they have a low keyword difficulty percentage) but are still quite popular (i.e., they have a reasonably high search volume).
7. Create Shareable Resources
Creating resources that people want to share encourages others to promote your website for you, and it may lead to more website traffic.
For example, let’s say someone shares one of your guides on social media.
Their audience may become more interested in your brand. And visit your site to explore that guide and your other content.
Some examples of shareable resources are:
- Webinars: Online presentations or workshops that cover industry topics
- Reports: Data-driven resources that often show industry trends
- Case studies: Concrete, successful examples of past customer relationships
- Podcast episodes: Audio shows covering industry topics that are available for download or streaming
- Infographics: Visuals that combine text and imagery to illustrate data or convey information
- Free tools: Tools people can use to solve problems (e.g., calculators, AI generators, etc.)
8. Use Email Marketing
Email marketing lets you share valuable content with users who’ve already shown interest in you by agreeing to be contacted via email—and you may get them to come back.
Many brands use this tactic by sending out regular newsletters. Like Exploding Topics does:
To use email marketing, you’ll need to:
- Find an email marketing platform to deliver, manage, and track your email marketing outreach
- Build an email list through tactics like lead magnets and sign-up forms
- Create various email types that entice users to visit your site on different occasions (e.g., promotions, discounts, new content, etc.)
- Reach out to your email list regularly—but don’t overdo it. You don’t want users to unsubscribe to your emails if they don’t find them relevant.
Email marketing is also fairly low-cost and easy to implement. You can get started for free with an email marketing platform like MailChimp.
9. Work with Influencers
Influencer marketing lets you access the audiences of individuals who have highly loyal followings—usually on social media.
Influencers can promote your site by mentioning your brand in their content—possibly even including a link.
For example, Subway partnered with this influencer to promote a new product.
To find influencers in your niche, use Influencer Analytics.
Use the “Influencer Discovery” tab to browse influencers. Then filter the results based on location, language, audience size, and more.
When you find someone you want to work with:
- Contact the influencer to see if they’re open to a relationship
- Propose the specific content that will help you accomplish your goals (e.g., one post per month, five posts in total, etc.)
- Create a contract to define the terms of the agreement (e.g., start and end date, branding requirements, payment details, etc.)
When the influencer posts about you, monitor the impact on your site (e.g., traffic, conversions, sales, etc.). This is easiest if your campaign includes links that you can add tracking parameters to.
That way, you can determine whether you want to work with them again.
10. Use Pay-per-Click Advertising
Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing is a popular method of advertising a website and involves paying a fee each time someone clicks on your ads.
You can run PPC campaigns via:
- Search engines like Google and Bing
- Social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, X, etc.)
- Banners on websites (via platforms like the Google Display Network)
- YouTube Ads
To get started with search ads on Google:
- Create a Google Ads account
- Do PPC keyword research to find the terms you want your ads to rank for
- Write ad copy that entices users to click through to your site
- Do PPC optimization to deliver a strong return on ad spend
Promote and Grow Your Site
Now that you have a list of ideas on how to promote a website (for free in many cases), select a few that you can start using right away.
And know that SEO is one of the best and most affordable ways to promote your business.
Platforms like Semrush can help you implement many SEO best practices.
Create a free account to get started.