How To Get Free Website Traffic
Getting traffic to your website is significant because it helps you rank better on the search engine results page (SERP) and generate more traffic. However, you don’t want to increase traffic alone, but also engagement. If your rate of traffic increase is high while the conversion rate is declining, you are attracting the wrong traffic to your website.
There are several things you can do to optimize your website to increase traffic and conversions, such as claiming your google my business listing, focusing on on-page SEO, improving social media marketing, and so much more.
However, the most important thing is to attract the right people to your website, and this guide is tailored to help you achieve just that. Here are ten ways to increase website traffic for your business:
Stats have shown that an optimized Google My Business listing received seven times more traffic than a listing that is not complete. Remember, your listing is connected to your website. So, this is a fire sure way to increase website traffic.
Note that Google continues to advance and evolve with results. If your listing features all the information that potential customers are looking for, they might not check out your website, but decide to visit or contact your business directly, which is your ultimate goal.
To get started, add relevant and correct information on your Google My Business account. Add your contact details, address, and, most importantly, hours of service. Keep in mind that Google displays business profiles for search in an answer form.
Pay close attention to the categories. When setting up your Google My Business account, ensure that you categorize your business correctly. This will help potential customers find you easily when looking for products or services.
2. Focus on On-Page SEO
Search Engine Optimization, also known as SEO, is an excellent strategy for generating traffic and leads to your website. On-Page SEO is a segment of SEO, where you focus on optimizing each page of your website for ranking purposes.
There are tools search as keyword research that you can use to improve your SEO and get more website traffic coming from organic search results. When a person is searching for an item, service, or information online, they usually start with Google search.
According to statistics, about 86 percent of consumers use Google to find information before making any purchase decision. People do not need to you if your company exists or not. But you can still convince them to check out your site if you practice proper SEO strategies. Once they find your website, it will be easier to convert them.
3. Publish Long-Form Content
As you may know, Google crawls website content using its web crawler Googlebot. So, how do you make sure that the Google bots index your website as soon as possible?
You can do various things like linking your website to blogs and other websites or use competitive keywords. However, writing and publishing long-form content is one of the simplest ways to increase traffic to your website.
Googlebot analyzes all the characters in your blogs, including videos, images, tags, and headlines. So, the longer the content, the higher are your chances of getting indexed. Here are things to keep in mind when creating content:
- Your content must be interactive
- Post content often
- Write content for your audience
- Your content must be relevant
4. Optimize for Mobile-First Index
Every day, more users continue to use the web through their mobile devices. Statistics have shown that the number of mobile users continues to increase, and so are mobile searches. Approximately 29 percent of mobile searches convert within sixty minutes. As such, it is crucial to optimize your website to be mobile-friendly.
It is quite easy to create a mobile version of your website. You can adopt a responsive design, or if you are using WordPress, you can install a plugin. Moreover, consider Accelerated Mobile Pages, which is a search marketing technique that is currently trending.
5. Be Active on YouTube
YouTube can help increase traffic to your website. Add annotation links to the video, and links back to your website in the description. Alternatively, you can request other YouTubers to share your content or link on their video. Making a video weekly can help drive traffic back to your site.
If you don’t have subscribers yet, approach YouTubers with huge followings and request them to become your affiliates or even pay them to get more website traffic. This is an excellent short-term strategy, but you should strive to establish your channel.
6. Publish List Posts
Before anything else, collect the right information about the list you want to create. Note this activity consumes time, and you need to spend ample time researching if you are seeking accurate results.
Secondly, organize your data once you are done with the collection stage. Rank the information in an orderly fashion- either descending or ascending, just like in this particular guide, However, facts do not need to be ranked, but if it is a top ten list kind of content, organize the data based on the method you collected it on.
Create a catchy and SEO friendly title. The search engine and the user use this to click on your landing page. Once done, develop the article by starting with the introduction- here, explain the role of your article and what you are hoping to achieve.
Once done, continue with writing your list, and after finishing, write a conclusion. Your conclusion must have a call to action, such as share the list or subscribe.
7. Guest Blog
There is more to guest posting other than getting links. The primary reason for creating a guest post to another blog or site is to get free website traffic by redirecting them to your website. A guest blog on a popular site can rank high and in turn, increase traffic to your website.
So, focus on high traffic sites that are within your niche when creating a guest blog. Research more about the editors and connect with them on social media.
Look for any other way to communicate with them, and if you can, send a pitch with your guest blog topic. Even though this is challenging, the shortest route to guest blogging could land you in trouble.
8. Get Active on Social Media
If you conducted research and discovered that your audience is active on social networks. Then its time to make content that will grab their attention. Many companies want to hack the algorithms and share content on all social networks.
But do not do that. Your brand message is more important than anything else. You want to wow your audience with your content and lure them into reading more of your content.
Your content should have the following qualities:
- Engaging
- Timely
- Accurate
- Informative
- Professionally written
9. Use Irresistible Headlines
A headline is one of the core parts of the content. Unappealing headlines won’t get your audience to read your content no matter how comprehensive it is. So, learn how to write a catchy headline.
Most reputable companies write up to 25 headlines before choosing one that will attract more readers, Upworthy and BuzzFeed are examples of companies that do this. Therefore, think about an irresistible headline before you publish your content.
10. Post Content on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is an exclusive platform. Just like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, it also as its own set of guidelines, rules, and expectations because it is designed for professionals. As such, the platform needs a different type of marketing strategy.
LinkedIn has the power to link you to other people who can take advantage of your platform and get free website traffic. Several third-party apps allow you to connect your blog to site to your LinkedIn profile and help you find activities that can help you establish your network.
LinkedIn has its advertising tools that allow you to focus your ads on a specific audience. These tools let you adjust job functions, company size, job titles, and so much more. The platform also lets you check the insights and analysis for other groups, in which you know which groups are good potential.
*Bonus* Implement Schema Microdata
Schema Microdata cannot add more traffic on your site by itself, but it is designed to help you get found by search engine bots when they are locating and indexing pages. Another great advantage of the schema is that it can lead to improved rich website snippets, which increases improve click-through rates on your website.
*Bonus* Target Long-Tail Keywords
While it is common to find shorter keywords while keyword researching, you should also take time to consider long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are specific. Therefore, they do have too much search volume, and so, they have less competition. As a result, you can easily rank higher with relevant long-tail keywords, and you can also quickly know what the searcher is looking for.
*Bonus* Include Hashtags with Your Posts
Add hashtags that can promote your blog posts and site pages to increase your network and get found by people who are looking for your products and services. The more people check out your links, the more traffic you are directing to your site.
So, there you go, a vivid and detailed guide on how to increase traffic to your website. Begin by understanding your target audience, carry out keyword research to find your ideal keywords and content topics. Lastly, create and promote your content, focusing on the strategies discussed above. Repeat!