Top 7 Free Website Marketing Ideas

It's always nice getting something for free - and publicity for your website is certainly on that list! Promoting a website can be expensive, but with a few DIY ideas under your hat you can help build your website traffic for free. So here's by top 7 free website marketing ideas.

Link Building - this is really a must for anyone wanting more traffic! By building links with other sites you can exchange traffic with them. Even if you aren't exchanging links on content pages, just links pages, that can help the popularity of your site and increase your search engine traffic. Getting listed in popular "Top Sites" lists may not help your page rank teriffically, but if it's a popular list it might have plenty of traffic and send some of it to you. This is particularly true when the topic involved is a hobby, when people are tending to browse deeper than just a quick flick through sites.

Fresh Content - by constantly updating and maintaining your content you are giving search engines a reason to come back to your site and a reason to send you visitors. If this new content forms new pages then you can quickly build up a large cataglogue of useful pages. Try adding one new page each week of content that you have written yourself. Don't worry too much about keywords - just write what comes easiest. Make sure the pages are easy to find - linked to from the search engines, and let time take it's course. If you aren't a content site, e.g. a shop, then make sure that your catalogue is updated on a regular basis. Search engines will pick up on special offers coming and going. Likewise, using a forum on your site can help as this is constantly producing new content on a site.

Forums & Blogs - by actively participating in other people's forums and leaving comments on blogs that track back to your own blog or website their readers can see what you have had to say and if it is interesting maybe they will also visit your blog or website. I've had people asking for advice on forums to which I've posted replies leading to commissions.

Video Clips - using amusing video clips and posting them on social networking websites where others might show them to their friends can be a useful idea. Done subtly is best - give the viewer something to enjoy and they will tell other people. Maybe demonstrate a product in use in an unusual way and drop in the name of your website as providing the product. I've seen this well done, with just the comments on the top of the page saying where the products could be bought from if any viewers wanted to try it for themselves.

Google Maps - the Google maps service shows on the map the location of businesses for variouse searches. If Google decides a search is relevant to a business and a location, then the map is shown at the top of the search results, along with a list of the displayed businesses. It's free to get listed - go to maps.google.com, search for your business and location and assuming you aren't listed, use the link at the bottom of the page to list your business.

Articles - promoting your website through frely distributed articles is an effective way of helping traffic. If you write an interesting and informative article, publishers should pick up on the article and reprint it. If it makes interesting reading then the readers will want to read more and visit your website. Also, so of the articles will be reproduced on websites, with pne way links into your website.

Run a newsletter - if you can collect email addresses of people that are visiting your site then you can later email them when you want to generate a bit of interest. Maybe you have special offers to promote, or have too much stock that needs clearing quickly. Well, if these people have enjoyed your site and offered you their email addresses then it's likely that they will be open to your offers - make use of this!