Promotion is putting a new page in front of the people who care about its question, in the week it goes live. Outreach is one honest email to a person who has a reason to care. Neither is a traffic trick. A page somebody reads, shares and links to in its first month gives Google a reason to look at it. A page nobody sees sits in the index, unread, waiting for a crawler to guess.
The launch list
I call it 'the launch list': the same six places every new page goes on the day it is published. It takes half an hour, it is the same every time, and because it is a list you actually do it. A "promotion strategy" is what people have instead of a list, and it mostly means the page went nowhere.
The rule: every page gets the launch list on the day it goes live, and every outreach email gives before it asks. The consequence is that promotion stops being a campaign and becomes a habit, and outreach becomes rare, short and specific. One email a week, to someone with a reason to care, with a reason to open it. No sequences. No follow-up after the second try.
| Where | What goes there | Espresso example |
|---|---|---|
| Two sibling pages on your site | A link in the text, where the question comes up | The descaling page and the gasket page link the new leak page |
| Your email list | One short email: the answer, then the link | "Water under your machine: the three places it comes from" |
| The forum thread that asked the question | Your answer, with the link if it answers | The home-barista thread about a puddle under a machine |
| Your Google Business Profile | A post with the lift-out and the link | Same two sentences as the page |
| One social post | The lift-out, not a teaser | The two-sentence answer, and the link |
| The people mentioned in the page | One email each: "we mentioned you" | The manufacturer whose manual you cited, the roaster you recommended |
There are only three honest reasons to email a stranger about a page, and every email should have one: you mentioned them, you found something on their page that is wrong or missing and you have the fix, or you have something their readers need and they do not have. "I loved your article, would you consider linking to mine" is none of the three, and it gets the reply it deserves.
An email that gives before it asks. Subject: "your machine-care page and vinegar". Body: "Hi Sam. Your machine-care page recommends vinegar for descaling. The manual for the machine you stock advises against it, page 14, because of the seals. We wrote up what to use instead, per machine, here: [link]. Use it if it helps, no need to reply. Ana, yourshop." Four sentences. A specific subject line. Something Sam needs before anything Ana wants. One link, and the ask is implicit. If Sam does not reply, one more email in two weeks, then never again.
Worked example: the outreach email, complete
Step by step
- On the day a page goes live, run the launch list. Two sibling links, the list email, the forum thread, the Business Profile post, one social post. Half an hour. Same every time.
- Write the email and the social post from the lift-out. The two sentences that answer the question, then the link. A teaser makes people click once. An answer makes them trust you.
- Email everyone the page mentions. The manufacturer whose manual you cited, the roaster you recommended. "We mentioned you, here is where." That is the easiest link you will ever get.
- Send at most two outreach emails per page, each with one of the three honest reasons. Specific subject line. Four sentences. One link. The reader's benefit before yours.
- Follow up once, after two weeks, then stop. Silence is an answer. A sequence is spam with a schedule.
- Check Search Console in week four. Impressions arriving is the page being evaluated. Nothing arriving means the page needs the lift-out pass, not more promotion.
- When you update a page later, run the list again. An improved page is a new page to the people who care about it.
When you need this, and when you don't
You need the launch list for every page, and the outreach email for the two or three pages a year that are built to be linked. Both are fixed-size jobs, which is why they get done.
You don't need paid promotion, press releases, follow-up sequences or an outreach tool. Those exist for teams with quotas. A small site with a page worth reading needs six places and one honest email.
Next
- Step 5 is done. Next: step 6, Measure and maintain, starting with Which numbers to track, and which to ignore.
- If you would rather have the pages and the launch handled for you: Done for you.