How to Promote Your Website on Reddit

How to Promote Your Website on Reddit

The Front Page of the Internet sure sounds like an amazing place to get your site in front of people’s eyes, doesn’t it? And, with Reddit, it’s now possible to do this with a healthy dose of social media marketing.

But how exactly do you achieve this?

Well, as luck would have it, I’m here to guide you through the basics of Reddit and how you can use its power to optimize your website traffic.

What is Reddit?

Reddit is an intriguing mixture of social networking, news and entertainment which is all built upon a bulletin board system.

Great! But what does that mean?!

Well, basically, this bulletin board system allows users to post text and links on absolutely any subject under the sun. And it’s not just one big mish mash of random posts fighting for your attention. Everything is kept neat and tidy with specific categories known as “subreddits” to allow users to navigate to what they want.

The simplicity and major fun factor of Reddit has led to it being highly successful and SimilarWeb shows that in July 2015 Reddit received a whopping 562.5 million desktop visits.

So, how do you go about getting a slice of this traffic?

Getting Started with Reddit

Now, the main thing you need to know about Reddit is that it’s a free and open sharing site. And due to this flexibility the users (or redditors) are highly passionate and protective of it. The majority of them are there to have fun and not be bombarded with ruthless and faceless marketing.

This certainly makes it different to other social media marketing opportunities such as Twitter and Facebook, but it’s not impossible. You just need to approach it as a redditor and not some marketing whizz in a suit.

Once you sign up to Reddit you need to start interacting with the community about topics you genuinely care about. By sharing links and posting comments you’ll find that your Reddit ‘karma’ begins to rise and this marks you out as a genuine redditor, not some self-promoting marketer with dollar signs in their eyes.

But to engage with redditors, you have to understand redditors.

Who on Earth is a Redditor?!

The majority of redditors can be defined into a specific demographic of twentysomething males with a passion for new technology and being kept up to date with what’s exciting in the world be it news, food or memes.

And it’s this info which you need to bear in mind when posting to Reddit. If you want to post content about something that came before the age of the millennials then it’s going to struggle to grab redditors’ attention (itself already notoriously short due to growing up on the web).

So, for example, linking to a post you’ve written on ‘The Ten Best Cartoons of the 1990s’ is going to fare a lot better than a post on ‘The Ten Best French Arthouse Films of the 1960s’.

Of course, the wide number of subreddits means that there may even be a ‘Vintage French Arthouse Cinema’ section, but the main point I’m trying to make here is that you need to keep your posts relevant to the audience.

And you can optimize this by finding the right subreddits.

Searching for Subreddits

The simplest way to find subreddits which are relevant to your site’s content is via the search box on the Reddit homepage.

If you run a site which is packed full of killer articles on SEO then just type in “SEO” and Reddit will serve up a number of suggested subreddits to head to.

As you can see, though, the suggestions aren’t fantastic and in some cases (/r/POLITIC) are just damn confusing!

However, if you head into, for example, /r/SEO you not only get the chance to post to people who are likely to engage with you, but you’re provided with Related Subreddits which may be very useful. Exploring your way through these will allow you to amass a large number of subreddits where your content should go down a storm.

Once you’ve discovered the best subreddits for your needs then it’s time to start researching how their redditors tick.

Researching Redditors

The best way to know your potential Reddit audience is by studying which posts receive the most upvotes. This should help you learn what type of content redditors are looking to devour and how they like it delivered.

You’ll need to set aside around 30 minutes per week to digest the most popular posts and also note down what’s worked and, more importantly, what hasn’t worked. If, say, the redditors in /r/webmarketing are dead against black hat SEO then don’t post a link to your ‘Top 10 Black Hat SEO Techniques’! In fact, don’t get involved with black hat SEO period!

Tastes change, though, so that’s why you need to do this every week to ensure you’ve got your finger on the pulse. Redditors don’t like old news, so don’t serve it up to them.

Delivering Amazing Reddit Content

The final step in promoting your site on Reddit comes with actually posting some links, but how do you make sure redditors are going to click on them?

1. Always keep your content relevant. If you’re posting in a PPC subreddit then don’t post a link all about backlinking. Redditors don’t like to see their site being used incorrectly and they’ll sooner downvote than upvote in these situations.
2. Don’t saturate subreddits with content. It’s a case of quality over quantity on Reddit as you only ever want to deliver killer content to redditors. As a rule of thumb I’d say you should only really post 1 – 2 links per week and these need to be content of the highest quality.
3. Be conversational. I discussed earlier on that you need to post like a redditor and not like a marketer, so be genuine and don’t get too corporate with your wording.
4. Always reply to comments. This, again, ties in with being a dedicated redditor and not some fly by night marketer. Engaging with others comments is essential to show that you’re willing to take the time to address the concerns of redditors. And this can only build better relationships and enhance your reputation.
5. Don’t make your first post a promotional post. Nothing rubs redditors up the wrong way more than a deliberate attempt to gain clicks and give nothing back. Instead, comment on a few other posts first, but make sure you’re always positive. Don’t start an argument!

Ready for Reddit

Reddit, then, offers a great chance to tap into some major web traffic to help boost visits to your site. However, great care needs to be taken when interacting with the Reddit community.

Therefore, the most vital aspect to nail on Reddit is becoming a genuine redditor. To do this you need to take off your marketing cap and start having fun. And don’t forget that posting your amazing content is all part of the fun.

If you’ve got any questions about how to promote your website on Reddit then just ask them in the comments section below!