Promoting a website today means competing for attention across search engines, social platforms, and even AI-driven tools like Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT.
The good news? Many of the most effective promotion strategies are free or low-cost, and you can start using them right away.
This guide covers 11 proven tactics for boosting your visibility. From technical SEO and AI optimization to social media, communities, and email marketing, you’ll learn how to get more people discovering (and revisiting) your site.
1. Optimize for Technical SEO
Technical SEO is the practice of improving your website so search engines can crawl, index, and rank your pages. Strong technical SEO ensures your content can appear in organic (unpaid) results.
Key tasks include:
- Submitting an XML sitemap to Google so the right pages are indexed
- Building a clear site architecture that shows how pages connect
- Finding and fixing broken links
- Improving page speed, which Google uses in its ranking algorithms
Use Google Search Console for some of these actions. Like submitting your sitemap to Google and checking speed-related metrics via Core Web Vitals.
Next, run a full audit with Semrush’s Site Audit tool to uncover other SEO or AI visibility issues.
After the audit finishes, click on the “Issues” tab.
The table is organized into three levels:
- Errors: High-severity. Fix these quickly because they can impact AI and SEO visibility.
- Warnings: Medium-severity. Fix after errors.
- Notices: Low-severity. Still useful to address.
If you don’t understand an issue, click “Why and how to fix it” for details.
Run audits weekly or monthly. This helps you fix problems before they hurt your site’s visibility.
2. Optimize Your Content for AI Models
Optimizing your content for AI models (like ChatGPT) increases the chance they will mention your brand or cite your website in answers.
For example, in Google AI Overviews, AI may pull passages directly from your site:
Unlike search engines, which retrieve full pages, AI models focus on passages that answer questions.
To optimize for passage-level retrieval:
- Publish consistent high-quality content on relevant topics
- Keep each passage focused on one topic or subtopic
- Use subheadings to group related passages in a logical flow
Track your AI visibility with Position Tracking. When setting up a campaign, select either “ChatGPT” or “Google AI Mode.”
Further reading: How to Optimize for AI Search Results in 2025
3. Post on Social Media
Posting on social media platforms is free (unless you run ads) and connects you with a wide audience.
Ways to promote your site include:
- Adding links to your your profiles
- Sharing links to content your audience will find useful
- Using calls to action (CTAs) like “Browse sale items” or “Earn 10% off”
You don’t always need direct promotion. Most values come from brand awareness, which later drives website traffic.
To find the platforms where your audience lives, use Semrush’s Traffic & Market toolkit. Enter your website and at least one competitor. Then, click “Analyze.”
Next, go to the “Organic Social” tab. Here, you’ll see which platforms drive the most traffic to your competitors and learn where your social media audience is active.
Then, create content ideas with Social Content AI.
This tool generates 100-plus daily post ideas across Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, TikTok, and more. When you see an idea you like, click “Generate.”
Fill out your post details and click “Generate.”
4. Participate in Online Communities
Online communities like forums and groups are good places to share expertise and answer questions. Providing helpful insights can promote your site naturally.
Some communities also influence AI. In fact, a 2025 Semrush study found that Reddit had a 40.11% citation frequency across four major LLMs.
Having a strong presence in these spaces can increase both AI visibility and site promotion.
Start by joining groups relevant to your niche (e.g., on Reddit, Slack, and Facebook).
Then, be active by:
- Sharing valuable resources and original insights
- Answering common questions from members
- Engaging with posts through comments, likes, and shares
For example, when a user in this group asks for advice on important business trends, group members reply with their perspectives.
You may recommend your products or services when it fits the discussion. But avoid being over-promotional.
Focus on delivering consistent value. If group members find your contributions useful, they may explore your website and offerings on their own.
5. Collaborate with Websites in Your Niche
Collaborating with other websites can earn backlinks, brand mentions, and partnerships that expand your reach. These efforts also improve AI visibility if the mentions appear on sites that LLMs reference often.
Common outreach opportunities include:
- Guest posting: Writing articles for other websites in your industry
- Podcast interviews: Sharing expertise as a guest speaker
- Press mentions: Getting your brand, products, or services listed in articles
- Referrals: Partnering with other businesses to recommend each other, often through referral programs
To find opportunities, use free Google search operators. For example, type: site:[publication-domain.com] "competitor name"
Like this:
If the publication mentions your competitor, they may mention you as well. Contact them to request a backlink or brand mention in relevant content.
For a faster workflow, use Semrush’s Link Building Tool. Follow the prompts to set up your project, then use the “Prospects” tab to see potential linking sites.
When you find a good target, click “To In Progress.” Then, open the “In Progress” tab to manage outreach.
From there, you can write a personalized email asking for a link, using the provided contact details.
6. Add Your Website to Online Directories
Adding your business to online directories can bring referral traffic and improve local search visibility.
Your listings should always include:
- Phone number
- Address
- Hours of operation
This ensures users have accurate details and helps search engines verify your business information.
But not every directory is useful. Focus on high-value platforms like Google Business Profile (GPB). A complete profile can place your business in the local pack— the map feature that highlights businesses in a given area.
Next, add your site to other trusted directories in your industry (e.g., Yelp, Angi, etc.).
To keep your listings effective:
- Update content regularly (e.g., images, holiday hours)
- Respond to customer reviews
- Check for consistent information across all platforms to increase your local SEO potential
To save time, use Semrush’s Listing Management tool. It automatically distributes your business data across top directories.
Once listings are live, they appear in your dashboard. To make changes, click the three vertical dots and click “Edit info.”
Accurate listings support local SEO and increase your chances of appearing in AI Overviews and conversational AI answers.
7. Publish High-Quality Content on Your Blog
Publishing blog content builds authority and may help your site rank for relevant topics. It also increases the chance of being cited in AI-generated answers.
To create blog posts that are likely to gain visibility:
- Perform keyword research to find the exact terms your target audience is searching for
- Write accurate, useful, and high-quality content
- Structure content for NLP and AI chunk-level retrieval (short, focused passages)
- Apply on-page SEO techniques like including internal links and optimizing your title tags to increase the organic ranking potential of your posts
You can find topic ideas for free using Google’s Keyword Planner. Enter a topic to see related terms, search volume, and trend data.
For AI-focused insights, use Semrush’s SEO AI Toolkit. In the “Questions” report you’ll see which themes and queries appear most often in AI platforms.
Use these insights to:
- Identify high-interest topics your audience cares about
- Align content with the search intent behind queries
- Spot content gaps your competitors haven’t covered
8. Create Shareable Resources
Creating sharable resources encourages others to promote your website. When someone shares your content on social media, their audience may visit your site to explore more. This leads to additional website traffic and visibility.
Examples of shareable resources include:
- Webinars: Online workshops or presentations on industry topics
- Reports: Data-driven resources that highlight trends
- Case studies: Examples of successful customer relationships
- Podcast episodes: Downloadable or streamable discussions on industry topics
- Infographics: Visuals combining text and graphics to explain data
- Free tools: Practical tools like calculators or AI generators
Reports, case studies, and original data are especially powerful. LLMs frequently cite them, which increases your chances of being referenced in AI answers. Publishing unique insights expands your reach beyond traditional search engines.
9. Use Email Marketing
Email marketing lets you reach users who already showed interest by signing up for updates. It helps bring them back to your website.
Many brands do this with regular newsletters. For example, Exploding Topics sends curated email updates:
To use email marketing effectively:
- Choose an email marketing platform to send and track campaigns
- Build a subscriber list with lead magnets and signup forms
- Create different email types (e.g., promotions, discounts, new content)
- Send emails regularly but avoid overwhelming subscribers, which can cause them to unsubscribe
Email marketing data can also improve AI optimization. Subject lines or CTAs with high engagement can be repurposed into AI-friendly headings and passages. This makes your content more likely to be retrieved by large language models.
Email marketing is also low-cost and beginner-friendly. You can start for free with platforms like MailChimp.
10. Work with Influencers
Influencer marketing gives you access to the audiences of people with loyal followings, usually on social media.
Influencers can promote your site by mentioning your brand—and often by linking to it.
For example, Subway partnered with this influencer to promote a new product.
To find influencers in your niche, use Influencer Analytics.
In the “Influencer Discovery” tab, browse potential partners and filter results based on location, language, audience size, and more.
When you find someone a good fit:
- Contact the influencer to confirm interest
- Propose content that supports your goals (e.g., one post per month, five posts in total, etc.)
- Create a contract that defines the agreement (e.g., start and end date, branding requirements, payment terms, etc.)
After the influencer posts, track results such as traffic, conversions, or sales. Use tracking parameters in campaign links to measure impact.
This data shows whether the partnership was successful and if you should continue working with that influencer.
11. Use Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a paid method to promote your website. You pay each time someone clicks on your ad.
You can run PPC campaigns on:
- Search engines like Google and Bing
- Social media platforms like Facebook and X
- Display networks with website banners (e.g., Google Display Network)
- YouTube Ads
To start with Google search ads:
- Create a Google Ads account
- Do PPC keyword research to choose target terms
- Write ad copy that motivates users to click
- Do PPC optimization to deliver a strong return on ad spend (RoaS)
Promote and Grow Your Site with SEO + AI
Promoting a website isn’t about choosing between SEO, social media, or AI. It’s about combining them.
When you optimize your site technically, publish content designed for AI retrieval, engage with communities, and amplify through email or paid ads, you build a promotion strategy that works across every channel.
And as AI Overviews and large language models (LLMs) become major discovery tools, adapting now ensures your website stays visible in the future.
Focus on:
- Optimizing content for passage-level retrieval
- Tracking AI visibility
- Publishing unique insights that models are more likely to cite
With Semrush, you can manage all these strategies in one place. From SEO audits and AI visibility tracking to content creation and outreach tools.
Create a free account to get started today.