While your e-commerce website is the cornerstone of your online business, even the best websites can go unnoticed without the proper promotion.  No matter how well your website is designed or how attractive your online store is to prospective customers, in today’s competitive, cluttered online shopping place, it’s imperative to engage in online campaigns to help reach your target audience and drive traffic to your store. 

There are a variety of online tools and services available to help your website rank higher in search as well as online advertising platforms that enable you to target ads to your intended audiences but many of these come with a hefty price tag that simply isn’t a realistic spend for smaller online retailers and e-commerce business owners.  Luckily, there are several ways for you to promote your website without blowing your budget!  And many of them are free, aside from your time investment.

Here are six website promotion tips to help to increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your online store!

1. Leverage Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Promoting your website by using traditional SEO is one of the best ways to gain natural traffic and a higher ranking.

When drafting or reviewing your website content, consider the SEO tools available to help you increase your page ranking.  The Google keyword tool planner is a great, free resource to help you find the best keywords for your niche market. Focusing on long-tailed keywords rather than short keywords and try to focus on keywords that have low competition and high search frequency.  In addition to using these keywords in your website copy, consider creating blog posts on these topics or keywords to help improve your organic page rank.  Be sure to add your selected keywords to the title, headings, content, and Meta descriptions as well as image title tags and alt tags.

2. Harness the Power of Social Media Marketing

Social media has become a game changer for online marketing, giving business owners a direct way of communicating and interacting with existing and prospective customers alike.  This not only allows you to promote your e-commerce website and products to your target audience but also enables you to engage with your brand advocates in a more meaningful way.  By creating these connections and building these relationships, you’re better able to create a loyal customer base and loyal customers will frequently visit your website and purchase your products. 

Social media also serves as an excellent platform to advertise your business, promote products from your online store, and create promotions to gain “likes,” collect customer contact information, and target special offers to your loyal supporters.

Consider leveraging Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and TikTok and design unique campaigns and strategies for each platform. 

3. Get Indexed via Search Engine Listings

A simple way to drive traffic to your e-commerce website is by using the search engines. To do this, submit new content to the search engine directories (Google, Yahoo!, Bing, etc.) so it may be indexed. The major search engines offer this free service and it’s a great way to promote your website, especially if you are adding fresh content on a regular basis.

4. Emphasize Your Branding

Your brand image is how people will recognize your company so focus on making your brand memorable.  Your brand image should be easy to recognize and compelling enough to attract and retain customers’ attention. Once you have designed your logo and established your brand guidelines, create a cohesive brand image for your company by adding branded signatures to your email accounts, text messages, and forums that include your website URL.

5. Focus on Quality Content

Content is king and quality content can make all the difference when it comes to engaging your audience.  Creating quality content is vital to your website ranking and overall success.  Draft and post content that is relevant to your audience and encourage sharing.  Also leverage your blog content by sharing it your social media.  Monitoring engagement can help you determine which topics and what kinds of articles are most interesting to your audience, allowing you to tailor your content accordingly.

6. Use Google Local Business

To gain a local audience, submit your site to Google Local Business. Google will not only provide website promotion ideas but also allow you to register your information for free. Adding pictures to your profile and including promotional offers can help garner attention.  If your budget allows, mobile ads are also a great way to promote your business and increase brand awareness.  Google Local Business page listings show up right above the rest of the normal search result information, giving your business a larger online presence. Google even provides directions to your location, and they allow customers to call right from their mobile device.

While it may take some time to learn how to promote your website and refine your campaigns, utilizing these six tips can help you increase your organic page ranking and drive traffic to your e-commerce website!