How to promote a new website: a first-month plan with no ad budget

A new site has no visitors because nobody knows it exists, and Google does not know it yet. The good news is that the first month can be spent without paying for ads: four weeks, one thing at a time. No plan guarantees visits or a position, and anyone promising it is selling something else. This one is for putting the site in front of the right people and learning, from the numbers, what works.

The four weeks

Week What to do Where to read how
1. The foundations Make the site known to Google (Search Console and a sitemap), put a real title and description on each page, and install visit measurement. getting the site indexed in Search Console · titles and descriptions · Google Analytics
2. Be where they already look Create the Google business profile, if you have an address or service area; put the site address in your social profiles and WhatsApp profile; add it to your e-mail signature. appearing in near me searches · the WhatsApp Business profile · sharing on social media
3. Give a reason to visit Write two or three pages or articles that answer real questions your customers ask, and share them where those customers are. the words customers type · a blog that brings visitors
4. Ask and learn Ask the first customers for reviews; see in Search Console which searches already bring someone; fix what is missing. reviews and reputation

Step by step

1 Week 1. Start by checking whether Google already knows the site (being found on Google: the basics). Submit the sitemap, and make sure no do-not-index option was left on from when you built the site.
2 Week 2. Choose two or three places, and only those: where your customers are. One well-filled, up-to-date profile is worth more than five abandoned ones. Put the site address on all of them, and in your e-mail signature. A QR code on paper or at the counter takes people from the real world to the site (a QR code that opens a WhatsApp chat with you).
3 Week 3. Write for one question at a time, in the way your customers talk. A page that answers a concrete question well brings more than ten generic ones. Share it in the places from week 2, and send it to whoever asked.
4 Week 4. Ask three or four satisfied customers for a review on the business profile. Then open Search Console and the visit measurement: where visitors come from, which pages they open. Do more of what worked and drop the rest.
Do not buy visits or links. Packages of “a thousand visitors” or “links to your site” bring traffic with no interest or, worse, links Google considers manipulation. See what really helps in why your site does not show on Google.
A month is short for search results. Google takes time to get to know and trust a new site. The first visitors will mostly be people you sent the address to. That is not a bad sign; it is how it starts.
Measure just one thing at first: how many people contact you per month (form, call, WhatsApp). That is the number that matters to the business, more than visits.

Just put the site live and want us to confirm everything is ready before you promote it? Write to us.

Open a support ticket

SEE ALSO

Being found on Google: Business Profile, Search Console and the basics

Getting your site indexed in Google Search Console, step by step

How to appear in near me searches when you have a local business

Reviews and reputation: how to ask for them and how to answer the bad ones

RECOMMENDED PRODUCT

Web hosting with cPanel

Domain and SSL included, daily backups and the panel you already know. from $6.59/mo (3-year plan, with coupon)

See plans
  • 0 Users Found This Useful
Was this answer helpful?

Related Articles

The best SEO plugins for WordPress and how to choose one An SEO plugin gathers, in a single panel inside WordPress, the technical settings that help search engines understand yo...
Being found on Google: Business Profile, Search Console and the basics Having a website is not the same as being found. They are different things, and the second does not happen by itself - y...
E-mail marketing: doing it properly without burning your domain E-mail is still the channel that returns most per unit of money spent - and also the one where it is easiest to ruin eve...
SMS marketing: Sender ID, the rules here, and how to write one that works SMS has an advantage no other channel has here: it reaches everybody, without depending on internet access, an installed...
What Yoast SEO is, and what it actually does Yoast SEO is a WordPress plugin that gathers, into a single panel, the technical settings that help search engines under...
The first Yoast SEO settings to get right Yoast runs perfectly well badly configured, and that is what fools people: it looks done. These are the settings worth d...