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It can be tough for a young website to secure orders, especially with a limited advertising budget. Twelve years ago, I created my own internet store with no advertising budget, and I want to share some free methods to drive sales to your online store that actually work!

Hello, I’m Nikolay, and I’ve been involved in promoting internet stores for 12 years, starting with my own highly successful online store. In this article, I want to help you attract quality traffic to your internet store completely for free, and all I ask is for you to leave a comment about how many monthly orders you currently receive from your store. If it’s zero, let me know; that way, you’ll help me gain more experience. Here are five methods, and I’ll describe them in more detail below.

1. Add products to Google Merchant Center and Yandex Webmaster.
2. Configure SEO tags for your internet store pages.
3. Add descriptions to your product sections.
4. Register on classified ad websites.
5. Set up Yandex Direct with payment for conversions.
6. Register on Yandex and Google Maps, as well as 2gis.
7. Find thematic forums.
8. Post your products on social media.
9. Create video reviews of your products.

• The first free method is Google Merchant Center or Google Shopping. Not many people know that you can list products there for free. This will give you free exposure in Google’s search results. There are plenty of plugins and modules available to export your products from your CMS to Google Merchant Center. For example, in WordPress, I use Product Feed Pro, which is completely free and automatically updates the products on your website every day. Also, add your products to Yandex Webmaster using a feed. With low competition, your products will be shown in the ‘Products’ tab on the Yandex search results page.» Please note that the text provided might need some further refinement to suit the specific style and tone of your website. Additionally, if you have any brand-specific terminology or preferences, I recommend incorporating them into the final version of the translation.

• Second method. Setting up SEO tags for your website pages. When you have a lot of products, it can be challenging to quickly fill in essential page settings such as URL, title, and description. Completing these parameters will help your pages rank higher in search results. Nowadays, there are many plugins and modules available for generating meta tags and page URLs. For example, in an internet store using the OpenCart CMS, I use modules like Seo Tags Generator and Seo URL Generator Pro. These parameters are essential, as pages without them may not meet the required quality and rank lower. When filling in meta tags for product sections, be more thorough as these pages generate more traffic and face higher competition. I manually fill in the meta tags for these pages after researching user queries using the wordstat.yandex.ru service. Study and fill in the section tags, and I recommend choosing less competitive queries for a young website. For example, the query «buy suitcase in Moscow» has a frequency of 93,859 views per month, while the query «buy lightweight durable suitcase» has 2,504 views per month, making it easier for a young website to get views with the latter option.
• Third method. Add texts to product sections. You have already studied the key queries in wordstat.yandex and can create a group of related queries to distribute them effectively throughout the text. Search engines prefer websites with texts, but the texts should be helpful to users, containing genuinely useful information, and should include the selected queries where relevant. Add answers to frequently asked questions, as this can also aid in generating orders. If there is a need to showcase something schematically, be sure to do so. Add descriptions and specifications to products and display the main characteristics in the section with the list of products for users’ convenience in making a selection. Reduce your website’s loading time. I initially use plugins and modules for this; for example, for the WordPress CMS, I use wp rocket, and for the OpenCart CMS, I use jet cash. Both plugins optimize the loading of website pages effectively, but I advise enabling options gradually and testing the website’s performance. Since 2020, loading speed has been a significant factor, especially if your site is mobile-first. I recommend checking the loading speed with the pagespeed service, as it is a service from Google.
• Fourth method. Register on classified ad websites; for example, Avito can bring a lot of targeted traffic completely for free. The more ads you create, the better. If you cannot post ads for free as a business, post them as an individual and include a link to the product or section on your website. Users will click on the link and explore the product. This method not only allows you to get orders but also improves user behavior on your website, which helps in search engine rankings.
• Fifth method. Set up Yandex Direct with payment for conversions. If your website in Yandex Metrica is set up for conversions and you have statistics for several months, you have an excellent way to get targeted traffic. Register on Yandex Direct and set up advertising with payment for conversions, but keep the payment amount low. This way, you will only be charged the minimum amount if a user from the ad makes a conversion on your website; other clicks to the online store will be completely free.
• Sixth. Register on maps; it’s free, and you only need to pass an authenticity check, usually a phone call. Even if you don’t have a physical address, you can use your home address. Users searching for products near this address on maps will see your company with a link to your online store.
• Seventh. Thematic forums are an excellent method in some niches. For example, I have a client who runs an online store selling metal detectors, and there’s a huge forum for treasure hunters where they discuss locations and findings. Casually advertising your store on such forums can be very effective.
• Eighth. Social media posts; even among your friends, information about your online store’s products will spread. Friends and acquaintances are loyal to you and will be willing to buy from you and recommend your products to others. This works like a charm!
• Ninth method. Video reviews. I have a client who didn’t know how to start making profits with his online store; no sales, no budget for advertising. He began making product reviews and became a very popular blogger. Naturally, his online store started generating profits, and he eventually hired me for further promotion. But video reviews are an excellent starting point, and they work great for SEO optimization of product pages, as they outperform competitors with good video reviews.

If you have implemented all these recommendations, your website is ready for paid promotion methods such as contextual advertising and SEO optimization. Feel free to reach out to me for assistance with that. I am a certified Google and Yandex specialist. Author: Nikolay Stelmashenko.