Technology has evolved so much throughout the years, and with this growth comes endless competition. Making sure your business is findable online through organic search is more difficult than ever.

Search engine core algorithms have been modified to look for specific keywords, headings, and other ranking factors. From there, it puts the most relevant information near the top of the search results. Your goal is to be at or near the top, but it can be difficult to get there.

As a business owner or professional, you could do well with hiring an SEO (search engine optimization) specialist or other professional to optimize your site for these specific ranking factors and market your business efficiently online. However, these specialists can cost you thousands of dollars an hour.

Instead, here are the best tips to market your business without hiring a specialist.

1) Contribute on Industry-Specific Forums

Many people think that simply spamming links on irrelevant forums will get them virtual foot traffic. This isn't the case. If you want to market your business online, you should find an industry-specific forum and post about your site there. Make sure to join relevant conversations and casually offer your link when it's appropriate.

Don't try to direct people to your site at every bend, and never “link-drop” — add value to the conversation! Finally, make sure to check the community guidelines; Make sure you can place links in your posts and promote your own business before you click “post.”

2) Pay for Promotion

Nobody likes to pay for promotion, and not everyone likes seeing “sponsored” or “promoted” posts on their social media feeds. However, it's been proven that paying for promotions helps people notice your brand. This isn't an SEO strategy, but it does say something for online awareness.

Paying for targeted advertising ensures that your campaign ads will be seen by the people that are most likely to become leads. Since they're interested, they will likely sign up for your email or mailing list.

From there, you can begin a campaign and send them relevant information about what your company has to offer.

3) Optimize Your SEO

When you're planning out your website, you need to know what keywords and headings to use, so search engines will “notice” your site. When writing content for your site, make sure not to “spam” your keyword. The typical acceptable percentage for any one keyword is 3%, so make sure not to go over.

An example of good keyword and heading use is this sandblasting Auckland company. The words “sandblasting” and “Auckland” are used several times in the text, but not so many times that it becomes distracting. The headings are straightforward, so anyone reading (including search engines) has a clear idea of what the content is about.

4) Use Multimedia

We recommend optimizing your written content using SEO, but don't rely solely on writing to get people to come to your site. Post photos, videos, presentations, and other forms of media on (and off) your site to get people to notice. Use relevant descriptions to categorize your media.

This isn't an instant solution; using media to market your business online will take time to work. However, as long as your media is interesting and adding value to your site (or the site you're posting on), you'll build a following over time.

Final Thoughts

There are tons of ways to market your business efficiently online, but these are the main few. Online marketing can be difficult with a huge learning curve. However, with these tips, you'll learn the best ways to promote without paying thousands of dollars for an agency or a professional.