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Your first visitors, without spamming anyone

Expect your first visitors to be people who already know you. That's not a problem to solve. It's the place to start.

Last checked October 15, 2026 · about 6 minutes to read · drafted and checked with AI help, here's how

It's normal for a brand-new website to get very few visitors from search. Google is still working out what the site is about, and nothing links to it yet. The guides on Google and Bing cover getting into the index. This one covers the people you can reach directly, and the rules that keep that from turning into spam.

There are no tricks in here. Most of it is telling people who already know you that the site exists, and making it easy for happy customers to say so in public.

Start with people who already know you

Your existing customers, suppliers, neighbors and friends are your first audience. Put the web address everywhere they already see your business:

  • your email signature
  • invoices, receipts and quotes
  • business cards, flyers and your vehicle
  • the sign on the door, and the menu or price list
  • your social media profiles, in the "website" field
  • your voicemail greeting, if it's short enough to say clearly

Make sure the site gives them a reason to visit: your current hours, your prices or how pricing works, a way to book. A site that's useful to an existing customer gets visited again.

Listings where customers actually look

  • Google Business Profile, if you serve customers in person. A new local business can show up in Maps well before its website ranks on its own. See the Business Profile guide.
  • Bing Places and Apple Business, covered in the Bing guide. Both are free.
  • Groups you genuinely belong to: your trade association, the chamber of commerce, a business district, a supplier's "find an installer" list. These are real people looking for exactly what you do, and the link is earned.
  • Industry directories your customers really use. For a wedding vendor that might be a wedding site; for a contractor, a contractor directory. One good listing beats fifty you've never heard of.

Keep your name, address, phone and hours identical everywhere. Every listing that disagrees with your website is a chance for a customer to show up when you're closed.

Links from other websites help Google find and trust a new site. The kind matters. Google's spam policies call buying or selling links to boost search ranking "link spam". That includes paying for "SEO link packages", swapping links on a large scale, and paying a blog to post an article that links to you without saying it's paid.

Paid placements aren't forbidden. If you sponsor a Little League team or pay for an ad on a local site, that's normal advertising. Google just asks that links bought that way carry a rel="sponsored" (or rel="nofollow") label, which the site you paid adds to the link. If someone is selling you links on the promise that they'll pass ranking credit, that's the kind Google says not to buy.

Good early links tend to come from real-world relationships: a supplier who lists you as a dealer, a local paper that covers your opening, a partner business that refers customers to you, the venue where you host a class.

Asking for reviews the right way

Reviews are one of the strongest signals a new customer looks at. They're also where the rules are strictest.

Google

You may ask customers for honest reviews on Google. Under Google's policy, you may not offer anything in return (no discounts, freebies or payment), discourage negative reviews, or ask only the customers you think are happy. The simplest honest approach: ask everyone, the same way, after the job is done.

Yelp

Yelp takes a different line. Its business support page tells owners not to ask anyone for a review at all: not customers, not mailing-list subscribers, not friends or family. Yelp's software may hide reviews that look like they were asked for. If Yelp matters in your industry, let reviews there come on their own.

The FTC rule

Since October 21, 2024, the FTC's rule on consumer reviews and testimonials has applied to businesses of every size. Among other things, it bans:

  • fake reviews and testimonials, including ones written by AI and passed off as real customers
  • paying for or rewarding reviews on the condition that they say something positive (or negative)
  • reviews by owners, managers or employees that don't disclose their connection to the business
  • using baseless legal threats, physical threats or intimidation to stop or remove bad reviews, or hiding bad reviews while implying the ones shown are all or most of them
  • buying or selling fake followers, views or likes

The FTC can seek civil penalties from businesses that knowingly break the rule. The safest policy is the plain one: only show reviews that real customers wrote, and never pay for them.

Emailing past customers about a new website, a seasonal offer or a new service is fine, as long as you follow the CAN-SPAM Act. The FTC's compliance guide lists the main rules. Commercial email must:

  • have honest "From", "To" and reply information
  • use a subject line that isn't misleading
  • be identified as an advertisement, if it is one
  • include a valid physical postal address for your business
  • tell people clearly how to opt out of future email
  • honor opt-outs within 10 business days

If you hire a company to send email for you, you're still responsible for following the law.

The FTC notes there's no exception for business-to-business email. Penalties are set per email: up to $53,088 for each violating message. The FTC normally adjusts that figure for inflation each January, and it left it unchanged for 2026.

Beyond the law, the practical rule is to email only people who've done business with you or asked to hear from you. Buying a list of addresses gets your domain marked as spam quickly, and that hurts the everyday email you send too. Use a proper newsletter service, and set it up with your domain's SPF and DKIM (see the email guide).

Social media, briefly

Post where your customers already are, not everywhere. One account you keep up is better than five with a single post each. Share things that are useful or show your real work: a finished job, a seasonal tip, a schedule change. Link back to the page on your site that has the details, not just the home page.

Finding out what's working

  • Ask. "How did you hear about us?" on every new call costs nothing and tells you more than any dashboard.
  • Search Console's Performance report shows which searches led people to your site, once Google has some data.
  • Your Business Profile's performance page shows calls, direction requests and website clicks from your listing.
  • Simple analytics show which pages people visit and where they came from. Whatever tool you choose, mention it on your privacy page.

One more place to be seen

If you just launched, you can list the site on DebutBoard. It's free, new listings are reviewed before they go up, and we count the clicks we send you. It won't replace any of the above, but it's one more place a new site can be seen in its first weeks.

Sources

Just launched a site? List it on the debut board. It's free, there's no account, and new listings are reviewed before they go up.