How to promote your website: 12 effective techniques for 2026

To get your website known in 2026, you need to combine three things: being found (Google, Google Maps and now AI search engines), being recommended (reviews, links, partners, word of mouth) and staying in touch (newsletter). Here are the 12 techniques that genuinely work, from the most profitable to the most occasional, along with free tools for each.

1. Your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business)

For a local business — practice, shop, restaurant, charity — this is the most profitable technique: your profile appears on Google Maps and in the local results block, ahead of websites themselves.

Create or claim your profile at google.com/business and get your address verified.
Fill in everything: a precise main category, opening hours, services, recent photos, and a link to your website.
Ask for reviews from every satisfied client, using the direct link Google provides. The number and recency of reviews affect your visibility and reassure visitors.
Occasionally post a news update or an offer on your profile.

2. SEO: answering your customers' questions

A useful article keeps bringing in visitors for years. The method is simple: note down the questions your customers ask you, and answer each one in a clear article. An osteopath might write “What to do after a sprained ankle?”, a caterer “How many canapés should I plan per person?”.

One topic = one page, with a title that uses the words people actually type (Google Trends and Google's autocomplete help you find them).
Pay close attention to the title and meta description: that's what makes people want to click.
Link your pages to one another (internal links) and to your contact page.
Register your site with Google Search Console to track the queries bringing you visitors.
Update your best articles every year rather than churning out new ones constantly.

Consistency matters more than volume: one good article a month, kept up over time, makes the difference.

3. Being cited by AI search engines

A growing share of searches go through ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude or Google's AI answers. These tools cite sites that give clear, verifiable answers. To be among them:

Start each important page with a two- or three-sentence answer paragraph, factual and with figures (what you do, for whom, at what price, where).
Add a frequently asked questions section to your service pages.
Make sure your content is in readable HTML, without relying on a JavaScript module.
Keep the same information (name, address, services) consistent everywhere: website, Google profile, directories.

To measure the effect, add “An AI assistant (ChatGPT, Perplexity…)” to the “How did you hear about us?” question on your contact form.

Social media platforms decide who sees your posts. An email list, on the other hand, belongs to you. Offer sign-up on every page, then regularly send something useful: a tip, a new feature, an event.

If your site runs on Ghost, the newsletter is built in: you write an article and send it to your subscribers from the same screen, with no separate tool needed. Otherwise, Brevo (formerly Sendinblue), MailerLite or Kit will do the job.

Choose one or two platforms where your customers actually are, rather than trying to be everywhere:

LinkedIn for business services, consultants and professional services;
Instagram for anything visual: catering, interior design, wellness, events;
Facebook and its groups for local and community audiences;
TikTok and short-form content to reach a younger audience;
X (formerly Twitter), Bluesky or Threads for news and information-related professions.

Post full content directly on the platform (algorithms favour content that keeps people there), and keep your best material — guides, case studies — on your website, which you then link back to. To schedule your posts: Buffer, Later or Hootsuite; to automate: Make, n8n or Zapier.

6. Customer reviews, everywhere people look for you

Before getting in touch, a prospect checks what others say about you. Systematically ask for a Google review at the end of a project, display a selection of reviews on your website (as text, not just in a widget), and reply to every review, whether positive or negative.

7. Partnerships and inbound links

A link from a reputable site in your industry brings you qualified visitors and strengthens your SEO. Concrete ideas:

a “Partners” page on your website, and the same on your partners' sites (see our partners page);
reputable directories for your trade, your city and your networks (chamber of commerce, federation, professional association);
a guest article or interview in a trade publication;
a case study co-written with a client or supplier.

Avoid mass link exchanges and low-quality directories: they're no longer useful, and can even be harmful.

8. Communities and forums

Giving genuinely useful answers on Reddit, Quora, Facebook groups or specialist forums gets your name known among people who have exactly the problem you solve. Help first, mention your website only when it truly adds value, never as spam.

9. Video

A short video showing your work, answering a common question or introducing your team reassures people more than a long piece of text. Publish it on YouTube (the world's second-largest search engine) and embed it on the relevant page of your site. A phone, a lapel mic and Loom or OBS are enough to get started.

10. Paid advertising, to speed things up

Google Ads (formerly AdWords) captures people already searching for your service; Meta and LinkedIn target by profile. Start small, with a few precise keywords, and measure results: add UTM parameters to your links (utmbuilder.net) and track contact requests, not just clicks.

11. Offline: events, print, QR codes

Trade shows, conferences, markets, networking events: every encounter is a chance to share your website address. On your business cards, flyers and posters, add a QR code pointing to a specific page (with a UTM parameter so you know what's working).

12. A multilingual website

If your customers speak several languages, a bilingual website doubles your search footprint: each page exists in French and in English, with its own keywords. Have machine translations proofread, and link the two versions together (hreflang tags) so Google shows the right language.

Where to start?

This week: a complete Google Business Profile and three review requests.
This month: Search Console set up, an “FAQ” page and a first article answering a genuine customer question.
This quarter: newsletter launched, one or two platforms kept active regularly, two partnerships.

Word of mouth remains your best channel: each of these techniques simply gives it more traction.

Need a website that gets noticed?

At Abstract27, we build and manage websites on Ghost, with newsletter, essential SEO and service pages designed for Google and AI, from £25 a month. Already have a website? We can migrate it to Ghost without losing your SEO.

Book a free 30-minute call →We'll look together at how to get your website known