"How do I get free website promotion?" is a question I am often asked. The thing to remember about free website promotion is that nothing is truly free. If you're not spending money to promote your site, then you'll have to spend time. So, why waste time on some website promotion methods that will only give you negligible returns? If you're ready to work on them, these five free website promotion techniques will reward you with increased traffic to your site. 1. Promote your website through powerful search engine optimization. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it's the best thing since sliced bread when it comes to free website promotion. SEO is the process of attracting search engines to your web pages; the great thing is, it's not hard to learn and apply to your own website(s). By working on search engine optimization, you can improve your webpage's page ranking and drive more traffic to your site. And isn't that the ultimate goal of free website promotion? Start with my basic rules of SEO. When you're ready, move on to some finer points like applying keyword density. Tip: If you're using non-text content such as photos, image maps, or JavaScript on your webpage(s), include text in your image ALT tags so the search engines have something they can read. 2. Promote your website through reciprocal linking. When others link to your site from their sites, you get free website promotion. You also get a better search engine ranking for your webpages. The top three search engines (Google, Yahoo, and MSN) use inbound links as an important part of the formula for determining a webpage's ranking. Keep in mind, though, that this type of free website promotion isn't a "numbers game"; it's truly important to focus on the quality of the links. So you should concentrate your efforts on building quality reciprocal links relevant to your site. The standard process is to look for and identify relevant websites where you'd like to have links to yours, then send an email to each webmaster asking for a link on their site in return for a link on your site. Tip: You can check a website or webpage's ranking before attempting reciprocal linking by using tools like SEO Tools' PageRank Query and Link Popularity tools. Google's toolbar also has a PageRank display feature. These tools can help conveniently check the status and progress of your own site and/or pages. 3. Write articles to gain free website promotion. The benefit of this free website promotion strategy is, again, that others promote your site for you. If you get your popular, long-lasting articles published on well-known websites or magazines, they can sit there for a very long time giving you free website promotion without any further effort on your part. However, there are catches. First, you must be able to write on a subject or topic that others will want to read and/or publish. Second, you must find quality places to publish your article and convince people to make the decision to publish it. When you find them, ask if they can use a specific piece including your article so they can see it right away if they're interested, and then send it via email. Make sure to mention in your email that they're welcome to publish the piece for free. Also, ensure your work ends with a resource box or "blurb" that promotes you and your website. Tip: If you want to be published on a website or magazine for the first time, then spend some time reading their content to see what kind of material they might want and if there are any obvious gaps you can cover in their content. Then tailor your material to the specific needs of the website or magazine. What other free website promotion techniques are actually worth the time to work on? There's more on page 2 of this article... Related topical articles: EU Investigates Samsung's Web Patent Licensing Practices Will Website Promotion Boost Your Bottom Line? Will Website Promotion Boost Your Bottom Line? New York Giants' Winner Cruz Dance into Super Bowl Spotlight Interstar Users' Data May Be Passed This Week