Craigslist it’s not just a site to sell crappy used furniture, look for work, and view personals, it can also be a good place to advertise your website or promote your blog. Even though Craigslist has a lot of spam blockers and restrictions, a well written optimized ad can help give your site a boost of traffic. This is especially important for business sites looking to expand on generating local traffic.

So why should you promote your site on Craigslist? Here are a few reasons why.

1. You can post in your ads links to your website or blog giving you free back links. Even though any link from Craigslist will have the no follow attribute attached to it, it’ll put that link in a high profile location giving you lots of traffic.

2. Craigslist has a lot of page rank with Google. This means any ads added to the site are indexed very quickly, usually within hours of being posted. Ads also tend to show up quickly in search results.

3. You’ll see a nice boost in traffic from the area you ad is posted in. When I used Craigslist in the past my traffic almost doubled for a week. Obviously as your ad gets older it will drop in search results so it’s not a permanent traffic solution. However you have to remember that you’re opening your site up to new people, and if the quality and content of your site appeals to them you’ll get more return traffic in the long run.

4. You can post images with your ad. While this in itself might not be a huge advantage it can help if you’re trying to establish brand recognition. People like shiny things, so a well thought out brand image can leave a lasting impression on people.

All that being said there are some things you have to take into consideration to avoid your ads from being banned. Craigslist gets a lot of spammers, because of this there are some hoops you have to jump through in order for your ad to even show up.

1. Don’t make your ad look spammy or promotional, they hate those and will ban your ad if it looks overly promotional or spam. What they want are ads that offer something, such as your selling something, or offering or looking for a service. Instead of outright promoting your website or blog focus instead on offering a service. For example if you have a website that shows people how to make money online, offer your expertise and mention how you can help them earn money.

One trick that I’ve seen work very well is to submit an ad in either the job or gig section offering to exchange links, guest post or even offer website or blog reviews. Remember you have the option to make your ad free, meaning you won’t have to pay anyone if you offer a guest posting or any other exchange.

2. When promoting your site on Craigslist you can only advertise in one location at a time. While it’s possible to advertise outside of your location it’s not possible to advertise in more then one location at once. Any additional ads you create will be shut down.

3. You have to verify your ad by phone. This is another way Craigslist combats spammers, each account needs a legitimate phone number in order for any ads from that account to be activated. 

4. Ads can be flagged. Some people will be looking to compete against you, others are just plain jerks. Ether way people viewing your ads have the option to flag them if they feel their inappropriate. Write them carefully and be sure to follow Craigslist terms of service. 

5. Make sure your ad matches your content. You’d think this would be common sense, but I’ve seen people advertise one thing yet their site was completely different. If your ad is about wasting people’s time for the sake of a few one time clicks then by all means go for it. But if your goal is to get people on your site, to keep them there for as long as possible, and to get them to come back for more