How To Generate Free Traffic

How To Generate Free Traffic

Go talk to any blogger, marketer, or content creator about what they want to see more of in their work-life, and they’re probably going to say, “More clientele/visitors/subscribers.” The good news is that we have rounded up some awesome ways for you to generate free traffic.

These five methods will keep you busy for hours as you use them to come up with more and more visitors coming your way each and every day.

Read on to discover how you can use Facebook, SEO, and other popular sites to your advantage and get the traffic you want and need.

Best 5 Free Traffic Methods (So Far)

Now it's time to get into what you came for - the best five free ways you can increase traffic to your website.

SEO

Getting your SEO or search engine optimization on point will require a little homework on your part, but it will be worth it once you see the traffic beginning to flow.

For starters, you want to make sure your writings, such as blog posts, site copy, and more are varied in format and length. This is going to help you appeal to a bigger audience. You can mingle shorter posts of industry news, for example, with your longer content. You'll also want to include other stuff such as infographics and video, but that stuff usually comes at a premium unless you are a graphic designer/video editor and can do your own stuff.

You also have to channel your inner newspaper reporter (or clickbait author) and write compelling titles to your blog posts. Yes, clickbait is cheesy, but it works. Unless you get those visitors to make that click, your blog posts go untouched, gathering virtual cobwebs.

Remember, the best writers don't just rattle stuff off and say, "Hey, looks good, we're done." They will often write a dozen or so headlines, let it simmer on their brain, and then choose the most compelling one. So don't just hit "publish" all willy-nilly - take your time.

And lastly, long-tail keywords are your friend. They are specific keyword phrases that are longer, and visitors tend to use them when they are searching with their voices or trying to buy something. For instance, if you are a clothing store, you won't show up on a search for simply "clothes" because there's so much competition out there.

Meanwhile, if somebody’s looking for a “women’s dress with leopard print and pockets” a keyword like such will yield the result the consumer is looking for. The visitor clicks, buys and spreads the word about your great service.

Why does this writing stuff even matter? Well, it gets you noticed on search engines. All the copy matters, from image alt text to meta descriptions. Just a few moments of extra thinking about how to create compelling copy can make or break your traffic.

And it’s gonna be worth it for you to become friends with the website BuzzSumo, because this is a site that aggregates the social performance of various sites and their content to show you a quick view of what’s hot among readers and what’s popping on social media. Once you learn what everybody’s talking and posting about, you can post such content on your site and watch the traffic flow.

Social Media Sites

The goal of social media is to connect with others and bring them together. Use it wisely to create a feeling of community among your followers. People are there at your site because they like what you’re selling. They feel passionate about it.

So, start letting folks weigh in. You can do this via social media. Utilise Facebook comments to do this for free, but do make sure you implement some sort of monitoring system so that civility is maintained.

Set up your profile to funnel people towards offers or your email list, be it Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, a well optimised profile can start to generate you leads and sales without needing to spend money on traffic. 

You also have to be active in your community, too. If you have a Twitter account, for example, it’s time to join in discussions using hashtags that are value-add. Answer those Facebook queries people are dropping. Interaction is everything, and you will be surprised whose day you can make by responding to them directly with a thoughtful reply.

LinkedIn is another valuable resource we think many folks overlook, therefore you should get active. This is a great place to publish content, so post content over there regularly. This can bring in some serious traffic to your site, plus increase your visibility within your niche/industry.

Videos, Videos, and More Videos

Text-centric content is the bread and butter of traffic, but video content is a huge asset when it comes to bringing in visitors and increasing site engagement.

For folks who don’t have time to read but can listen while driving or working, it’s a great way to get the word out. We retain more from videos than we do from text anyway. So, use your phone to create videos as best you can. It’s a great way to capture and hold an audience’s attention plus increase those traffic numbers.

TikTok is a fun way to do this as much of the content there is not professionally produced but attracts tons of viewers anyway. Check out the Legendary Marketer guide on how to generate leads on TiKTok!

Webinars are a great video-based service as well, but they cost money to produce. Even though it’s a big project and costs money, we figured we’d mention it anyway so that when you have the budget, you know the benefits. These help you connect with your audience who want to learn from you, and they are great for promoting on social media.

Email Marketing (Yes, Freemium Options Exist)

There are 2.5 billion email users out there, and it’s actually more effective than social media when acquiring new consumers. It’s also very easy to do, and not expensive at all (we found a few free options you may want to check out). It’s a much easier method of advertising than creating TV ads or radio ads, and much cheaper than a professionally produced video about your company.

Plus, everyone has an email- even folks who are not digital natives. That sweet older lady on your block probably isn’t on TikTok, but she probably gets emails from her family each day along with companies trying to sell things.

It’s no secret why despite all the advances in reaching consumers, we keep returning to the power of email.

It’s easy to customize it, too- excellent for fostering that sense of belonging we spoke about earlier. You will be breaking down your email list into segments, and sending those smaller lists a tailor-made email that speaks to them and offers them something they want or need.

Think about this: when you make a Facebook post, you’re speaking to everybody as if it was the same person. Meanwhile, a good email marketing service will let you use names, offer up exciting topics that audience member cares about, and increase those clicks. Plus, using a person’s name is a great way to get them to click as it feels personal.

So what sites are ideal for email marketing that really sticks? Well, plenty of freemium options are out there, but we decided to talk about Aweber just as an example. For free, you can have around 500 contacts, and send unlimited emails. Great for starters, not so much for people who already have a decent following).

The free service includes a drag ‘n drop email editing tool, autoresponder tools, and easy integration with Shopify and Intercom. You even get a great WordPress plugin that helps you manage everything right from your WP dashboard, among other good stuff.

Site Layout: Yes, It Matters

Your site has to be on point to keep that sweet, sweet traffic flowing. You have mere seconds to grab the attention of your audience, and if your site takes more than two seconds to load, it’s not going to do very well.

Be sure your pages are optimized as best they can be, especially when considering third-party plugins, the structure of the page, and how it loads.  Keep bounce rates low when your page load time is low, too. Use a sensible, clean, and timeless theme from WordPress.

Keep in mind also that most searches are done via mobile phone. If your visitors are pinching and retracting fingers to figure out where stuff is, the site isn’t going to be as good as you think. Be sure your site is optimized for mobile devices, especially smartphones and tablets.

Wrap-Up

A few tweaks could be all it takes to get your website up to speed and bringing in new people every day. This stuff isn’t easy to do- for example, you won’t become an SEO expert overnight, but you will notice improvements when you take care to make your SEO great, and your social media posts great, and your emails great…

And yes, you can do it. Which of these traffic-generating techniques are you most looking forward to trying for your website? Which one sounds hard? Let us know and best of luck!