10 Unusual Content Promotion Strategies to Boost Traffic

Are you looking for effective content promotion strategies?

If so, you are in the right place.

This post is packed with creative and unique ways to spread the word about your content.

Convert Content to Twitter Threads

Social media algorithms do not like links.

It’s no secret that they want users to stay on their platforms.

And Twitter is no exception.

Since the rebranding to “X”, Musk has been working on renovating the marketing strategy and rewarding users.

In fact, it now pays up to 97% of the revenue earned from the content they create.

So, instead of just sharing your post link, why don’t you try converting your blogs into Twitter threads?

You are basically offering value, instead of begging for a visit to your website.

And you can always link to your content in the comments or in the end like I did here:

Craaaazy detailed SEO checklist!!

Make sure you bookmark this 📌 https://t.co/dEE09kKwrw

— Morris Grand (@themorrisgrand) June 22, 2023

Get Included in Niche Newsletters

How about having your content promoted by other people in your niche?

There are plenty of prominent newsletters that can help you to get exposed to thousands of potential new readers.

For example, my content has been included several times in the daily recap by Search Engine Roundtable.

In this case, my “content marketing hacks” post:

And it has generated a good amount of targeted visitors interested in this topic.

As you can see from this GA4 report:

My content has been picked up organically, but you can always try to reach out to the editors and ask for inclusion in their newsletter.

If you think it is a good fit, give them a heads-up that you have something interesting to share.

Create Original Media

A lot of content today is text-based, which can make it hard for it to stand out.

So, why not create original media such as infographics, illustrations, and videos?

Not only do these forms of content have a better chance of going viral but they also engage readers far longer than text does.

In fact, did you know that websites that have a longer “time on site” generally rank higher on Google?

This SEO statistic comes from Backlinko research that found sites on the first page of Google search results typically have an average time on site of 2.5 minutes.

In a few words, you want users to consume your content as much as possible.

For example, my visual explanation of the orphan page concept has been shared several times and earned a lot of natural mentions around the web:

Add Social Share Buttons

If your audience finds something valuable on your site, you want to give them the opportunity to share it, right?

That’s why adding social share buttons to your pages is a must.

You can easily do it with plugins like Social Warfare (my affiliate link), which I personally use on this blog.

It looks neat, and lets you customize the buttons, or add additional networks (like Whatsapp, and a lot more):

Of course, it also counts the total shares.

For example, my on-page SEO post generated more than 3k shares:

Target Low-Competition Keywords With Traffic Potential

Many bloggers usually go after high-traffic and highly competitive keywords.

But, instead of competing with big names in your niche, why not focus on low-competition keywords?

For instance, I’ve been targeting this term: “Bucket brigades in copywriting” and created this guide that ranks in the top 3 on Google for several keyword variations, such as “bucket brigades list“, or “bucket brigade words“.

And since I earned this featured snippet:

The post has been mentioned naturally in places like the Ahrefs blog.

Now, you must be wondering, how can I find these untapped gems for content creation?

There are several tools you can use, like Semrush, or Keyword Surfer, which gives you a list of keyword suggestions after typing a query in Google:

Personally, I like to go over my competitors to check their blog posts, for new topic ideas.

To speed up things, I simply visit their sitemap, which can usually be found by adding “sitemap.xml” to the domain name, like:

This way, you can quickly scan for the blog URLs, analyzing the keyword used in the slug.

Optimize for Google Discover

With more than 800 million users, Google Discover can give your content a visibility boost!

To do that, start by adding featured images to your blog posts.

These should be eye-catching and relevant to what you are writing about.

As suggested in Google Search Central, it should be at least 1200 px wide format:

Then, focus on evergreen, or trendy topics.

You can use Google Trends to find ideas for your next piece of content.

Also, make sure to optimize your format for mobile screens, as Discover is just used by users on smartphones or tablets.

Now, do you want to know a secret?

Discover cannot be directly activated in Search Console.

Content must appear in Discover results and meet policies to be indexed by Google for data collection.

After this, you can use Search Console reports to measure performance.

Tip: based on my experience, you can highly increase the chances of getting included in Discover if you work on your site E-E-A-T and topical authority.

Leverage Internal Linking

Most bloggers underestimate the power of internal linking.

It helps to pass link juice from one page to another and can improve rankings for important pages, like your money posts.

Additionally, it sends targeted users to specific articles from related content.

So, if you need a little boost to your new article, why don’t you link to it from a page on your website that is already ranking well with good organic traffic?

It’s easy. And it does not cost you anything.

Plus, as Gary Illyes from Google mentioned in his Reddit AMA, you can abuse anchor texts as much as you want!

In other words, there’s no penalty from Google for over-optimizing internal links.

So, for example, if you are writing about content promotion strategies, you can create a link from your previous post about “content marketing hacks” with the anchor text “content promotion”.

Use Online Communities

Content communities are an amazing place to get more eyeballs on your work.

For instance, I use to be a regular contributor on Quora and as a result, my answers have been seen by over 100k people.

This has led to several new readers for this blog, who are highly interested in the site topics.

So, how does it work?

Simply enter a keyword in the search bar, like “content promotion“:

And you will find a list of questions people are making that you can answer with your knowledge.

You can also join Facebook groups or subreddits related to your niche and promote your content there.

Just remember, communities are a place to interact with other members, not to just post links to your blog.

No one likes that guy!

Repurpose Your Content

Content repurposing is one of the most effective content promotion techniques.

It allows you to reach new audiences with existing material while saving time and budget.

For example, if you have a blog post about “keyword research”, you can turn it into a podcast episode.

Or, if you have an account on Medium, you can republish the same post there.

You can also break a single blog piece into chunks and use it as social media updates or create an infographic that explains the concept in an easier way.

So, why not take advantage of this and reach more people with your content?

After all, if something works for you already, it’s a super easy way to generate more leads and conversions.

Parasite SEO

Parasite SEO is a technique very similar to guest posting but with one difference: you guest post on the same website that is already ranking for your targeted keyword.

For example, if you want to rank for “content marketing hacks”, you may want to write a post about it on an existing high-authority blog with similar topics.

Now, if you check the SERP for those terms:

You will notice my post on AllBusiness:

This technique works because you take advantage of the website’s domain authority instead of building it from scratch.

And, if you play your cards right, you can get a huge visibility boost.

Just make sure to provide awesome content that matches the existing standards of the site you are writing for and gives readers an exceptional experience.

Before You Go

Content promotion is more than just posting a link on social media.

You need to find the right channels to get your message out and I hope this article has given you some new interesting ideas.

But wait! There’s one more thing you should think about.

If you want to get the most out of all the efforts you put into your content strategy, make sure to use a tracking tool.

And the new Google Analytics is perfect for that.

Now, let me ask you this.

Which of these strategies will you use to promote your content?

Please share your thoughts in the comments.

I’d love to hear from you!

Related Reading:

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• Website Architecture: 9 Simple Strategies to Improve Your Site Structure
• Google RankBrain: A Complete Guide
• Image SEO: How to Optimize Images For Search Engines
• Confirmed Google Ranking Factors: What REALLY Counts for SEO