Best way to get my site out there?

[Box Prophet]

Exactly what the title says! I just got rejected by NavLink because they said my site doesn't have enough stuff on it. 
Are there any alternatives you guys like? What's the best way to go about spreading my site around?
I bought a plot in MelonTown, so I've got it on that site, and I have button codes for my site available and my webgarden made and copyable. What else can I do? 

[tertiaryapocalypse]

i'd recommend joining webrings, if that's something you'd be interested in! i don't know how well it works for getting your site out there, really, since i'm not tracking that too much, but it's a way to engage with other website owners at the very least  personally, i'm part of four different webrings :3 it's also a great way to find other sites with similar themes/interests!

[xixxii]

depends on who you want to visit it and why!

if you want techie indieweb people to visit your site, you should look into implementing indieweb protocols like webmentions, participate in their blog carnivals, etc. if you want it to be a hit with the pixel-doll crowd, you should make some pixel dolls and socialize with people in the dolling community like on pixel lounge, etc.

if you want lots and lots of people of any kind to visit your site, then you should focus on SEO optimization, make sure the site is legible to crawlers + bots, and look into mainstream high-traffic groups + communities where a lot of people will actually see it. im sure there's heaps of "starting your own small business" type of guides that you can use for promoting your site even if you're not selling anything! maintaining multiple social media presences for your site (and an RSS feed!) as well as optimizing for mobile and making the site usable on as many devices and browsers as possible are good for reach.

if you want feedback on a specific part of your site or something you've posted on it, there's the help category on these forums as well as some threads dedicated to feedback.
if you want people to befriend and chat with, personal sites are a pretty bad platform for that, but generally being a friendly presence in guestbooks and forums will lead to more conversations and interactions with people i think. emailing people with their email addresses on their site is probably a pretty good way to chat with those folks. putting lots of ways to contact you as well as things you want to talk about on your site in an obvious place is helpful for prompting people to contact you, also.

if you want irl friends to look at your website the best way i've found to do that is to say "hey wanna see my website" and then immediately physically show it to them, otherwise they'll just be like "cool yeah totally" and forget about it haha.

if you want people in your physical area to look at your site, you could make posters or stickers with a scannable qr code and put them up everywhere there's space to put a poster or a sticker. if it doesn't work on a phone that's kind of a non-starter, though.

[imnotjahan]

I've a bit of search engine presence, but the majority of my site's traffic comes all from, like the above said, webrings. I don't recommend very general webrings really, since you'll just be another drop of water in a river few will drink from. But find your niche, and those with a similar view to you will find your site and surely appreciate it more than those wanderers from google. Also just after having your site up for a while, it tends to spread--people like small n unique sites, so yours ends up spreading via word-of-link.

[JackFrost]

I bought a plot in MelonTown, so I've got it on that site, and I have button codes for my site available and my webgarden made and copyable. What else can I do? 

What's this melontown thing? Sounds interesting

[xixxii]

What's this melontown thing? Sounds interesting

you can give melon 18 euros in his gift shop to buy a square in melontown. pretty high housing prices compared to the flower desert, but it is a nicer neighborhood since it has a post office and a museum!

[Zombiethederg]

i'd recommend joining webrings, if that's something you'd be interested in!

I second this! Ive had alotta fun joining webrings and it is a great way to get more visitors.

However, you should also try to keep in mind that for your websites space, you shouldnt be *super* worried about attracting eyes. I know I certainly fell into a slough of motivation because I was sad people weren't coming to my website. I would be lying if I said I didn't feel a bit of joy when someone goes through the effort to leave me a guestbook entry or message in my CBox, but you shouldn't try to focus on things like that, as it can really debilitate you in what your trying to make. You should focus on making a website *you* like, and that *you* enjoy being around, and others will eventually enjoy it in tandem with you!

Unless your like. Trying to run a business or something. Which in that case, I don't think this is the best place to ask this aksljdbflkajsbdkflj

[brisray]

@Box Prophet - did you mean to use a SIRD-like background and top gif, or were they just coincidences?

The SEO industry is huge, but they are all hoping to influence just one company - Google! How far down this rabbit hole do you want to go?

Webrings really are an easy, fun way to get started. You'll come across sites you probably won't be able to find anywhere else.

Web directories are good, foreverliketh.is lists both webrings and directory type sites.

Be helpful! Taking part in discussions or answer other people's queries. I have a wide range of interests and write about all sorts of things. If I've written something I think is relevant - otherwise I could come across as spammy - then I'll add a link to my own pages.

I like statistics! I don't do much with them, so mostly collect them because I can.

Google Search Console - My sites have been registerd with it for years. Once you've proved to Google your site is yours, they'll start producing a lot of lists and statistics. these will include things like what people search for that got your site seen, how many times and where in the search results your site was, how many clicks you got from it and so on. You'll see graphs like this - my own statistcs from GSC for the last 5 years.

I use ancient programs like Analog, AWStats and Webalizer, to automatically go through my own server logs. but if you really want to dig deep into your sites stats, you could use Google Analytics. I stopped looking at that after they moved to GA4 which I think just drowns you in information

Can you see what I am doing? There are links in the above text that go to my own pages, I think they may or may not be relevant.

Here's another. You remember what I said in the beginning about (Single Image Random Dot Stereograms) SIRDs? I happen to know how to code them (Depth Perception and an old QBasic program I wrote). While looking cross-eyed at the top gif, I realized the entire background image pushes everything in front of it out of the page.

[Box Prophet]

@Box Prophet - did you mean to use a SIRD-like background and top gif, or were they just coincidences?

@brisray I didn't! I had no idea what that was before your comment, haha!
I just picked them because I thought they fit the vibe I was going for.  I'm super interesting in learning more about them now though!

However, you should also try to keep in mind that for your websites space, you shouldnt be *super* worried about attracting eyes.
...
Unless your like. Trying to run a business or something. Which in that case, I don't think this is the best place to ask this aksljdbflkajsbdkflj

@Zombiethederg I'm not! I'm not terribly worried about it either, I was just wondering if there were some easy ways to get my site out there. 

To you and everyone who's recommended webrings, I'm currently trying to get into some! I really appreciate all of the suggestions from everyone!