50 free advertising sites to promote your website online

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Once you launch your small business and create a website, you’ll need to spread the word to potential customers. While there are several ways to do this—including blogging, email marketing and SEO—online advertising is one of the most effective methods.

Though advertising is often considered expensive, it’s actually quite feasible for companies on a budget. In fact, plenty of platforms let you advertise at zero cost, including online directories, social platforms and more.

To save you the legwork, we’ve compiled a list of 50 great free advertising sites to promote your website. Some require no more than a quick URL submission, while others necessitate a more thoughtful, strategic approach. You can also check out these excellent advertisement examples for inspiration.

Ranging from high-profile platforms to local listings, online directories cover a range of audiences. The method for each of them is quite similar: you submit the URL of your professional website, as well as additional details about your business or organization. These sites, in turn, incorporate this information into their data banks, ensuring that a link to your site appears when users search relevant content categories.

In addition to displaying your business name and website, these free advertising sites can improve your search engine optimization, or SEO. Looking for a great website name? Check out our website name generator to get you started. This helps promote your website by boosting its search engine ranking, increasing the chances that you’ll get found on Google and drawing traffic to your website.

Social media marketing is a powerful strategy for business owners. Essentially, social platforms are free advertising sites; whether you promote yourself on Instagram or start a YouTube channel for your business, you can build your brand and reach potential customers. Remember to use customized and clear UTM links for your campaigns so you can track them properly.

According to Lilach Goldis, Social Media Manager at Wix,

"There's no better way to reach a broader audience than through social media. It not only turns potential customers into buyers, but also allows for instant engagement with them, addressing their questions, and building loyalty. All of these aspects contribute to boosting sales and revenue."

While social bookmarking and curating websites operate on the basis of link submission, the emphasis here is on creating quality content. Like social media platforms, they function as entertaining browsing experiences for users while simultaneously serving as online advertising tools for businesses.

By circulating your content on these sites, you can subtly promote your product and gently guide users toward your website. At the same time, you’ll improve your SEO by placing inbound links to your company across the web.

Classified ads are small advertisements—often free of charge—placed in newspapers, magazines or online boards. By posting on dedicated classified ad platforms, you can generate backlinks to your company site and market your business to potential customers. Adding your company name and URL to these free advertising sites is a quick, simple and affordable way to gain exposure.

Creating business pages or listings on these platforms is an effective way to begin your online advertising strategy (be it native advertising or some other form of ad), as part of your wider marketing strategies.