The Main Features of Website Promotion on Reddit

Reddit is one of the largest platforms in the world, with traffic reaching 3.428 billion views per month according to SimilarWeb. It ranks 11th globally and 5th in the United States. Boasting over 97 million daily active unique users and a valuation exceeding $8.7 billion, Reddit is the 5th most popular social network in the world and proudly refers to itself as «the front page of the Internet»🤯

This sounds quite convincing. So why do many experts still consider Reddit to be a link dump?

Despite its stellar reputation for SEO metrics, Reddit is also a hub for a vast amount of viral content that quickly gains traction. However, this content doesn’t always serve our purposes 🤷‍♂️

Additionally, one of Reddit’s main characteristics is its complex functionality. But once you familiarize yourself with its somewhat unintuitive interface, grasp the basics of sharing on the platform, and learn all its nuances, Reddit can become a powerful tool for your promotion efforts.

In this article, I want to explain what Reddit is and how to use this platform effectively to promote your website.

Plus, at the end of the article, you’ll discover an interesting fact about promotion on Reddit. I hope you stick around until the end 😎

What is Reddit? A Look at Reddit’s SEO Metrics

As I mentioned earlier, Reddit’s monthly traffic is 3.428 billion. But what about the geographic distribution of its audience? Let’s take a closer look using SimilarWeb:

When evaluating Reddit as a source for linking to your target site, don’t focus solely on the top 5 countries on the list — consider the other 130+ as well. With Reddit’s traffic at 3.428 billion, even if your target audience makes up just 1% of that, it still amounts to a massive 34 million!

Now, let’s take a look at Reddit using Ahrefs (my favorite tool for donor evaluation):

An excellent link profile: DR 95, 862K referring domains, 143M keywords, and a solid anchor list.

Now, let’s analyze the platform in Majestic.

What about the links? Almost all of them are blocked from indexing with the nofollow tag:

In the past, many avoided such donors, arguing that nofollow links were ignored in rankings and essentially useless for website promotion. However, there’s now a reason to reconsider. Since the fall of 2019, Google has officially acknowledged that it takes such links into account. As of March 1, 2020, nofollow links can be used for crawling, indexing, and as a ranking factor.

Studies also show that links in posts with a significant number of upvotes (starting from 5–10 «upvotes») can potentially be converted to dofollow.

This underscores the importance of approaching every post with links with extra care and precision. The higher the quality of the content, the greater the benefit it brings.

As for the site’s activity, there’s hardly a need to elaborate. A post written just a day ago can easily garner several thousand views — of course, depending on its content 🤓

Considering all of the above, I can confidently call Reddit an excellent platform for posting a link.

Typical Reddit User Profile

Reddit users are a well-educated audience with a keen interest in technology, innovation, and global events. The majority of Reddit users are male.

Reddit audience research results from the American think tank Pew Research Center:

Reddit Internal Terminology

Reddit is both a Q&A site and a large-scale social network combined. Like every major social network, Reddit has its own unique terminology. Let’s get familiar with it to make working with this platform as seamless as possible:

Alt – An alternative user account.

AMA – «Ask Me Anything».

AMAA – «Ask Me Almost Anything».

At a [0-10] – A sliding scale measuring the «high» from marijuana, where 0 means sober and 10 means completely out of it. Primarily used in subreddits like /r/trees. Example: «I wrote this with a strong mind [7]».

Benned – A playful corruption of the word «banned«, commonly used by SRS moderators. See «SRS».

Brave or So Brave – A sarcastic expression used to dismiss a comment or mockingly praise it for aligning with popular opinions.

Brony – A fan of My Little Pony.

Cakeday – The anniversary of when a user joined Reddit. Similar to a birthday, with a small icon appearing next to the username.

Circlejerk – A group of people with similar beliefs who reinforce each other’s views, suppress opposing opinions, deny the existence of alternative perspectives, or consider themselves, their opinions, or their group to be exclusive or superior.

Crosspost – Indicates that the post was also shared in another subreddit where the original poster (OP) acknowledged it.

Ctrl-F – Suggests that the user searched for a specific link or term in the thread.

DAE (Does Anyone Else) – A phrase used to appeal to shared experiences, feelings, situations, or dilemmas.

Defaults – Twenty subreddits that appear on the main page for users who are not logged in. When a new account is created, Reddit users are automatically subscribed to these subreddits, representing the most popular ones at the time.

EDIT – Indicates that a user has modified their comment after its initial posting. This is usually accompanied by additional text, responses to subsequent comments, or explanations of why the comment was edited and what was changed.

ELI5 (Explain Like I’m 5) – A request to explain something in simple, easy-to-understand terms, as if to a five-year-old.

Ent – Slang for a pot smoker. The term originates from the giant walking trees (Ents) in The Lord of the Rings.

ETA – Added to a comment (similar to an edit).

F7U12 – Short for «fuuuuuu». Often used to express frustration or anger.

Flair – Images or text that appear next to usernames in certain subreddits. Usually customizable.

[FIXED] – A remix of the original post, often attempting to make it more accurate or relevant.

Forever Alone – A term for a loner (abbreviated as SO) who often struggles with social skills.

FTA – Stands for «From the Article».

FTFY (Fixed That For You) – A slight edit of a previous comment, often changing its meaning in fundamental (and almost always humorous) ways.

IAMA (I Am A) – Also a subreddit where the community interviews famous or unique individuals. Notable guests have included Obama, Snoop Dogg, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and scientists from the Mars Curiosity Rover Mission, among others.

IMO – «In my opinion».

IMHO – «In my humble (or honest) opinion».

IIRC – «If I remember correctly».

ITT (In This Topic) – Refers to discussions within the current thread or topic.

Karma – A score designed to motivate users. The more karma you earn, the more respect you’re likely to receive from other community members. You gain karma when others «upvote» your content.

Karmawhore – A derogatory term for users who spam (frequently post links), artificially boost views, or engage in similar behavior to gain karma.

Meta-sub or Meta-reddits – Subreddits where Reddit itself is the main topic of discussion.

MIC (More in the Comments) – Indicates that additional details or information can be found in the comments section.

Mod – A subreddit moderator with the authority to delete comments and posts.

MRA (Men’s Rights Activist) – A member of a social movement addressing issues of discrimination against men in areas like reproductive rights, divorce proceedings, domestic violence laws, and sexual harassment laws. Members of this group are often known for clashing with other social justice groups.

Neckbeard – A derogatory term used to describe an experienced Reddit user, often implying negative stereotypes about their behavior or personality.

NinjaEdit – Refers to the absence of an asterisk indicating an edited comment. If a comment is edited quickly enough after being posted, the asterisk will not appear, erasing evidence of the edit — hence «ninjaedit». It can also refer to comments that seem unedited but contain an asterisk, creating confusion. Such edits are frowned upon as they can disrupt the readability of threads.

Novelty Account – An account typically created for humorous purposes, often centered around a recurring joke tied to the username. For instance, the user «Shittywatercolor» paints watercolors based on various themes that arise in discussions.

NSFW (Not Safe for Work) – Indicates a warning for 18+ content. Posts can be tagged as NSFW by selecting «nsfw->yes» under the shared link.

NSFL (Not Safe for Life) – A term used to warn about content that is extremely graphic, disturbing, or upsetting.

OP (Original Poster) – The person who created the post that is being commented on.

Orangered – The color of the envelope icon that appears when you have an unread reply or message.

Power User – A Reddit user with high karma whose name is widely recognized by the community.

Pun Thread – A thread of comments that humorously use puns related to the topic of the original post.

Reddit Switcharoo – An old comedic technique on Reddit where users often offer a witty or unexpected interpretation of the original post. For example: Someone posts a photo of a dog licking a person’s face with the caption «I didn’t expect that». A «Switcharoo» could be a comment suggesting that they didn’t expect the person to react in that way.

Reddiquette – Refers to the rules of Reddit, the rules of a specific subreddit, or, less commonly, the unwritten codes of conduct that typical users follow.

Relevant Username – Used when a comment is incidentally related to the name of the account that posted it.

Repost – Publishing an image or link that has already appeared on Reddit. This typically happens when the previous post was recent and well-received.

RES – «Reddit Enhancement Suite» is a browser add-on designed to improve your experience on Reddit.

RTFA – «Read the f**king article».

Shadow-ban – A ban on Reddit access for the user, typically due to rule violations. The user is unaware of the ban because their posts will still appear to them, but no one else will see the user’s activity.

Shitpost – A post that holds no real value, often attributed to overly stupid and boring messages.

Spam filter – A system that filters out spam messages.

SJW (Social Justice Warrior) is almost always used as an insult, referring to a range of behaviors, from «a person who reacts to everything as a personal offense and uses social justice rhetoric to bully others» to simply «someone with different political views than mine».

SRD (Subreddit Drama) – Usually points to the subreddit /r/subredditdrama but can also refer to the drama itself.

SRS (Shit Reddit Says) – A meta subreddit focused on social justice issues and mocking Reddit user behavior. Its controversial opinions and moderation policies make it a focal point for drama.

Sub – An individual subreddit.

That’s the joke or thatsthejoke.jpg – Indicates that the commenter has just pointed out the humor in the joke, especially when the source is obvious.

THIS – Means you agree with or want to draw attention to the comment. Often omitted.

TIL – Today I Learned…

TL; DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) – After a long post, the commenter may include a shorter summary of what they wrote, sometimes with humor. It’s also sometimes inserted by other commenters to explain an article or previous comment.

Trees – A subreddit for smokers who call themselves «ents».

Whoooosh – Indicates that the joke went over someone’s head.

WIP – Work in progress.

X-post – Indicates something that has been posted on multiple subreddits.

For those new to Reddit, this terminology should be in your favorites so you can correctly understand other participants in the discussion and avoid misunderstandings. See the original Reddit terminology here.

How Reddit Enhancement Suite Makes It Easier to Get Links From Reddit

Reddit Enhancement Suite (RES) is a popular browser extension for users of the «old» Reddit. It simplifies the creation of posts and comments, expands images, and hides viewed and downvoted items. There is also a bookmark panel for subreddits to view and moderate them.

Some handy RES features:

• RES settings can be saved and restored after reinstalling the extension;
• RES simplifies switching between accounts for users with multiple profiles;
• the r/all filter allows you to remove NSFW content (see the terminology section above for details), filter link posts by keywords or domains, and exclude specific subreddits or filter their content using stop words;
• the «endless feed» feature automatically loads the next page of posts as you scroll to the bottom of the page;
• if you subscribe to many subreddits, the tag-setting function helps organize visible posts, including filtering with stop words;
• pop-up help windows display available information about subreddits, users, and other fillable fields accessible through links on Reddit;
• you can reset a subreddit’s style to the default one if its flashy design becomes irritating.

In essence, it is a framework for working with Reddit’s vast information arrays.

A few more tools for a smoother Reddit experience:

• Notifier. This app helps you set up alerts for mentions on Reddit. Get notified whenever someone mentions your brand name or product-related terms. Once alerted, you can quickly join the conversation and shape how Redditors perceive your brand.
• RedditMetis. A Reddit user analysis tool. It allows you to analyze statistics for your Reddit accounts, including top posts and activity levels.
• Redditlist. A tool designed to help you find the best subreddits for your business, based on recent activity, subscriber count, and 24-hour growth trends.

Together, these tools simplify your Reddit experience.

How to Work with Reddit: Basic Principles

We’ve already explored what Reddit is and why it cannot be considered just a regular Q&A site. Reddit is a unique «ecosystem» with its own terminology and rules. To promote your brand on Reddit, having a well-developed account and the ability to write decent comments is not enough. A thoughtful and careful approach is essential.

If you ignore the basic rules for using Reddit and crafting quality posts, moderators can easily place you in a «shadow ban».

In other words, you will still be able to write posts freely, but other Reddit users simply won’t see them.

To make posting a link on Reddit as safe as possible for your business’s reputation, here are some helpful tips:

1. Become a Genuine User: Don’t treat Reddit solely as a link-sharing platform. Engage with it authentically — browse interesting posts, subscribe to relevant subreddits, and participate actively.
2. Use Extensions: Install the RES (Reddit Enhancement Suite) extension for smoother and more efficient interaction with the platform.
3. Maintain Multiple Accounts: Create one primary account and several backup accounts. This reduces the risk of damaging your brand’s reputation and ensures the continuity of your strategy in case your main account gets blocked.
4. Build Your Reputation Systematically: Avoid posting promotional content with links or trying to advertise your resource when you have zero karma. Progress steadily and naturally, without making abrupt or overly promotional posts.
5. Use the AMA Section: If you’re a confident expert with deep knowledge of your niche, don’t hesitate to participate in the AMA (Ask Me Anything) section. Your insights could help thousands of people better understand the topic.
6. Limit Links in Comments: Once you’ve built up your karma, avoid immediately posting overly promotional comments filled with links. Instead, write thoughtful, detailed responses that address the discussion participants’ concerns. Include a link naturally only if it truly adds value to the conversation.
7. Follow the Rules: Each subreddit has its own set of rules, typically listed in the side menu. Don’t violate these rules, or you risk being banned. Avoid liking your posts using other accounts. If your posts consistently receive upvotes from the same users, it can raise suspicion and lead to a ban. Similarly, constantly liking posts from just one user can have the same effect.
8. Avoid Shortened Links: Steer clear of using link shorteners like Bitly or u.t. Instead, use full non-anchor links without UTM parameters or generic phrases like «here», «via link», or «source». Otherwise, your posts are likely to be flagged for moderation.
9. Quick Karma Boost: To quickly earn karma for your profile, participate in discussions and comment on posts in the /r/AskReddit subreddit.
10. Handle Downvotes: If your post gets a significant number of downvotes, delete it immediately. Don’t risk damaging your reputation.
11. Use Reddit Advertising: Reddit offers excellent targeting options. While community members remain anonymous, a significant amount of information is still available about them, allowing for segmented targeting. I recommend creating engaging, creative ads to reach your target audience effectively.
12. Dofollow Links: The more upvotes your post with a link receives, the higher the likelihood that the link will be treated as dofollow. If your post is genuinely useful, 5–10 upvotes may be enough. However, liking your posts using other accounts is strictly prohibited.

And finally, never ask other users for upvotes on your posts. Doing so often leads to your account being banned.

All rules on Reddit are enforced through a combination of:

• Manual subreddit moderation
• Automation: Moderator «bots» flag posts or comments that violate predefined rules
• Community Enforcement: Subreddit members contribute by downvoting and reporting inappropriate content.

These are the fundamentals of promoting on Reddit. They will be helpful if you plan to manage your activities independently. However, keep in mind that any user can view your entire post and comment history at any time.

How to Create a Subreddit: A Quick Guide

Creating a subreddit is straightforward, but your account must meet certain requirements:

1. The account must be at least 30 days old.
2. You need a minimum of 500 karma.

Let’s get started.

Step 1: Log into Your Account

Step 2: Locate «Home» and Click «Create Community»

On the main page, find the «Home» column and click on «Create Community». Alternatively, you can find «Home» next to the logo, where it appears as a drop-down menu.

Step 3: Create Your Subreddit

Enter the name of your subreddit, a short URL, the title, and a brief description of the subreddit’s purpose. Add an image, then click «Create».

Done! You can now upload a cover image, assign moderators, and write your first post. 🙂

How to Write a Top-Performing Post on Reddit

Getting your post to the top on Reddit takes strategy. To make sure your content stands out, follow these tips:

1. Add a Relevant Visual: Include an illustration (image, photo, map, screenshot, or GIF) to establish a visual connection with users.
2. Leverage Storytelling: Storytelling is a powerful tool for any type of content. Share everything as a personal experience — it resonates better.
3. Write in the First Person: Avoid «we», «our team», or «our company» when talking about a project. Speak from a personal perspective, using «I».
4. Format Your Text: Use lists, bold text (avoid italics and underlining), and structure your content into clear paragraphs — one thought per paragraph.
5. Aim for a Minimum of 300 Words: Posts should have substance. Avoid short, vague content; always explore the topic, but don’t turn it into an essay.
6. Simplify Complexity: Use the ELI5 principle — «Explain it like I’m five». Simplify complex ideas for easy understanding.

There are five main types of content you can create on Reddit (though some subreddits may limit themselves to one or two):

• Post: Write an article-style post that you can format and include links to encourage discussion.
• Image: Share photos with captions to convey your message visually.
• Link: Direct users to a specific webpage or content with a clickable link.
• Poll: Gather opinions on any topic and invite Redditors to vote.
• Discussion: Host live events, AMAs, video hangouts, or interact with others through live audio chats.

Large-Scale Link Building Strategy on Reddit

Implementing a link-building strategy on Reddit requires more than just one or two accounts. These accounts must originate from different IP addresses and have equally high activity and karma levels.

Executing link building alone on a platform like Reddit is not just challenging — it’s nearly impossible. While you can enlist freelancers, you’ll need to train them thoroughly on Reddit’s unique rules and practices. Additionally, you’ll need to create comprehensive documentation and tracking systems, such as tables, to measure the strategy’s efficiency.

Important Reminder: Poorly executed link building can significantly damage your website and harm your company’s reputation as a whole.

The best option in this situation is to outsource link placement. So, where to buy links on Reddit? Consider Brandcitations. With us, you will receive:

1. Comprehensive link-building strategies, including links from Reddit.
2. A dedicated personal manager to assist with any issues related to strategy implementation.
3. Experienced professionals with well-established accounts, ensuring skillful and effective link placement.
4. Volume bonuses and a profitable affiliate program for additional benefits.

Bonus for Those Who Made It to the End of the Article: An Intriguing Fact About Reddit Promotion

One of the most effective ways to earn upvotes and make it to the front page of Reddit is, surprisingly, reposting someone else’s content. Simply sharing another user’s comment can often garner more success than creating original content. While undeniably unethical, it proves highly effective.

In 2013, a study uncovered a startling fact: during 17 days, over 52% of the content that reached Reddit’s front page had already been posted on the platform before — most of it within the same 17 days rather than years prior.

I don’t recommend doing this. Try to complement someone else’s post or rewrite it from your point of view. But simply copying and pasting is bad.

That’s all. I hope this article was helpful to you.

In the future, I will be monitoring promotion changes on Reddit to keep you updated. Therefore, I recommend adding the material to your bookmarks, as it will be updated.