What is Reddit?
Reddit is a social networking cum aggregator site where users submit links to other websites and community members can vote or comment on them. Adding Reddit to your SEO toolbox can help you drive massive traffic if you manage to use it correctly. A single wrong action performed on Reddit can ban your account.
In today’s article, I am going to talk about the basic rules of using Reddit, and some submission tactics that will help you drive traffic from Reddit without getting banned. Take a look:
A. The Basic Checklist
Choose the right subreddit
Subreddits are basically categories. Choosing the right subreddit is crucial. Each subreddit has a particular niche. You have to find the most relevant one where you can share your content with targeted audience. I have seen that smaller subreddits are easier to get into, and they convert a lot better than the bigger ones.
Read the subreddit rules
Once you find the most relevant subreddit, don’t just jump into link submission. It is strongly recommended to read the specific rules of the selected subreddit. Not reading the rules is one of the reasons why accounts get blocked. Some of the common reasons of account blocking on Reddit are- self-promotion, inappropriate content, or forbidding Reddit guidelines. Apart from general rules each subreddit has its own set of rules which you should not ignore.
Manual and automatic penalties
The authority of your domain and account is another important element in Reddit marketing. Reddit has an algorithm that takes into account the domain authority, account age, subreddit statistics and more. There are manual as well as automatic penalties. There are Reddit moderators who apply the manual penalty when automatic spam prevention system fails to catch anything.
Reddit Filter
After submitting your link on Reddit, if you experience that nobody is upvoting your link then the chances are that the Reddit filter system has caught your submission. Either the upvoting has been blocked, or the link has been removed. However, you will be able to see your link if you are logged in. So, log out and then try to find your link or article in the subreddit. If it is not there, then it must have been removed.
B. Reddit Submission Tips
Now that you know the basics of Reddit, it’s time to learn submission tips in order to get massive traffic for your website.
Tip #1: The bigger is not always good
The first thing that people consider while working on Reddit is they find a subreddit with a large number of subscribers/users. Keep in mind, the more the visitors in a subreddit, the higher will be the chances of getting manual penalties. The reason is that the subreddits with larger subscribers are the most targeted ones by spammers and marketers who try to post promotional stuff.
Tip #2: Post from established accounts
As mentioned earlier, the account age is an essential parameter when it comes to Reddit posting. If you have an established account, then use it. Otherwise, create a new account, contribute to the community by sharing interesting stuff, upvote/downvote, post comments on other users’ posts, etc. By doing all of these, you can improve the authority of your account which will eventually help in preventing penalties and improving the rank of your submission.
Tip #3: Don’t overdo!
Make sure you don’t post links to the same domain in the same subreddit. Maintain your account and avoid posting promotion stuff always.
Tip #4: Timings are Crucial!
Before submitting your link or article, find out the right time to publish. Avoid submitting during peak hours as your link might not rank well. Use Reddit Later tool which can help find the right time to post in specific subreddit.
Tip #5: Good content doesn’t guarantee top rankings
Reddit doesn’t function the way Google does. Publishing good content is not a sure shot way of achieving top ranking in a particular subreddit and driving traffic. Reddit has its own algorithm that ranks the posts. If you post a good piece of content from a new account, at the wrong time, you will hardly see any results. You have to think out of the box and analyze the top posts to get quality traffic from Reddit.
Tip #6: Don’t let your first post be a promotional stuff
Since Reddit has strong automatic spam filters, promotional link coming from a new account can easily be trapped. Try to use text posts in the start and show the community that you are a genuine user.
Tip #7: Comments/Replies
Make sure you address and reply to the comments posted by other users on your post. By doing this, you will be eventually increasing the comment count, and this will attract more Redditors to click on the post and join the conversation.
Tip #8: Share posts with friends
Share your posts with a network of friends who use Reddit to get initial traction. If your friends like your post, they will upvote it and post their comments. This will again attract other Reddit users and be a part of the conversation.
Conclusion
Reddit is a fantastic tool which can yield great results for your website. All you need is a thorough understanding of Reddit basic and submission guidelines that I have shared above. Focus on the tips and the quality of your content to make Reddit marketing, a success campaign.
If you have any other tip that can be added to above list, then don’t forget to share it in the comments section below. I would love to incorporate your suggestions in the post.