How To Get Free Website Traffic: Is It Really Free?
So, you want to know how to get FREE website traffic?
Of course you do, every marketer and business online wants free website traffic, no one wants to have to buy it, right?
But is there really such a thing as free traffic?
Sort of, keep reading and we will explain..
All Website Traffic Will Cost You Something
There are many ways to increase your website traffic online by using search engines, social media, video marketing and other techniques, but they all take time, some money and consistent effort.
The internet is a powerful tool that can be used to bring more customers to your business, but just listing your business online or putting up a website in itself, will not bring you more traffic (people) to your business.
You will need to develop multiple traffic strategies that will drive visitors to your website and offerings.
In this article, we will discuss several of the most effective ways on how to get free website traffic.
First, you’ll need to have a good understanding of paid vs. organic (free) website traffic and the different strategies that may help you grow your online business without paying as much for advertising.
Because all advertising and marketing strategies will cost you in either time, money, or both.
We hope you value your time?
What Is Free Website Traffic?
The holy grail of internet marketing is getting free website traffic, now even though we are using the word free, website traffic is never 100% free.
You will either pay for it some in the beginning in some way, or spend much time and effort in getting it.
We are assuming your time and effort are worth something to you, and you do not want to spend every waking hour on the internet.
So technically speaking, ‘Free Website Traffic’ is traffic that you do not pay for with money.
You pay for it with time and effort.
However, most of the free website traffic strategies that require no knowledge or skill, are worthless, meaning they are not worth the effort for the return on your time.
In the new digital age we live in, marketing has changed and the competition is fierce.
All of your advertising strategies need to be very purposeful and laser focused for the effort or money you put in, otherwise you will make peanuts for your efforts, and spend hours glued to your computer.
So before you finish reading this article and learn what the best free website traffic methods are and implement any of them, a word of caution..
Come up with some funds, it does not have to be a lot, but some kind of budget, so you can at least use them to take a course or learn from an expert who has mastered any of these techniques.
What Is Paid Website Traffic?
Paid traffic is pretty self explanatory, your buying it, but even with paid traffic, it will take some of your time and effort, mostly in setting it up, testing and managing your paid traffic campaigns.
In the beginning it will take you more time, but once you have things running smoothly, paid traffic campaigns will run more on autopilot.
Buying traffic is leverage.
So to really explain what the difference is between paid vs. organic (free) website traffic, I will give you several examples throughout this article as I list some of the traffic strategies available to you.
Some Factors To Consider.
Before you embark on any traffic driving strategy, whether your looking to develop free organic traffic or use other free methods.
You should start by identifying your brand, website, and what types of visitors you are looking to attract and engage with.
After you’ve established what your target audience is and identify the goals you want to set for your online business, you may find that all free traffic strategies may not be right for your business type.
It is important to understand this, and as you go through the rest of this article you will be able to see clearly, which strategies are the best fit for your type of business.
The Best Ways To Get Free Website Traffic
1. SEO
The meaning of search engine optimization (SEO), is the techniques used to increase the ranking of a website or webpage in organic, un-paid search results.
In essence this means when people do searches in Google, Bing, Microsoft or Yahoo, you want your website to come up in the first page of results, or better yet, showing up in the top 3 spots on the first page results.
The reason being, this is where you will get the most actual click-thru to your site.
The further back your website is in the search results the less free organic traffic you will get from the search engines.
Free organic website traffic is the absolute highest quality and most targeted website traffic you can get.
When someone does a search for something they already know they want or is interested in, it almost always means they are ready to buy or getting ready to buy.
SEO of your website can be achieved through many different methods, but for this article we will focus on three main areas: backlinks, keywords and digital content.
Keyword Research
First you need to identify what keywords you want to rank for, and this is done by doing keyword research, you want to make sure you are using keywords, or keyword phrases in your content that people are actually doing searches for.
Through doing SEO on our own websites, we have discovered that sometimes just because we think a certain keyword phrase is searched upon, does not mean that is the most popular way it is.
We have found that it is extremely important to use a keyword research tool, like Semrush.
Not only will SEMrush show you relevant keywords and phrases but will also suggest content ideas to help you obtain more rankings and much more.
Content
After you have done some keyword research, now it’s time to put those to good use.
When you are writing content for your website or blog post articles, pick relevant topics and follow best practices like internal linking, keyword use throughout, and usage of images and alt tags to maximize your efforts.
Read also: How To Write SEO Articles
The primary function of alt tags is for describing images to users who can’t see them.
This includes visitors using browsers or screen readers that block web images, but more importantly, alt tags allow the visually impaired to identify the contents of images.
Properly tagged images can also generate free website traffic for your business. An alt tag, is also known as “alt attribute” and “alt description.”
Make sure and also utilize captivating headlines with your main keyword phrases in them, all the while grabbing your reader’s attention.
Ensure you are centered around the purpose of your website or blog post, all the while writing engaging content that is of high quality.
When creating content for your website, always keep in mind the over all UX design and navigation of it, you want your visitors to stay on your website, and actually read your content.
Break up long text sections with images when appropriate.
Make sure you have a clean and easy to find navigation menu, like the one you will see on the top of our website you are on now.
You want your content to be valuable to your readers and subscribers, be easy to read and easy to find, so that it inspires your visitors to engage further with you and your businesses offerings.
Backlinks
Backlinks are links from other websites to yours.
Backlinks are crucial in order for your website to rank higher in search engine results, because it shows that others have found your content useful, interesting and of good quality.
They are a signal to search engines, that your content must be good, so the more backlinks you have from other relevant websites, the more search engines see your site as an importance, and will rank you higher because of it.
Will SEO Really Provide You With Free Website Traffic?
The answer is yes, when done correctly, and like I pointed out earlier, it is the best traffic you can get. It has the highest conversion potential.
But, it is not going to happen haphazardly or by accident.
You are either going to need to learn it on your own (NOT Recommended), by doing research and watching how to videos, and I mean a lot of research, there are many ins and outs to SEO.
Or you will need to pay for a course and learn it in a structured manner (highly recommended).
SEO takes time and will not happen overnight either.
When you learn it your self, or take a course on it, you will still need professional SEO tools like Semrush, there is no way around it.
See this is one of those examples that I talked about much earlier in this article, where I pointed out as well, that Free Website traffic is never 100% free, it will either cost you something upfront, or you will spend hours and hours learning it on your own.
Trial and error can be very painstaking, and really cost you even more. Some people never rank their content high enough for it to even matter when they try doing it completely on their own.
Because SEO has the highest conversions of any other form of marketing, there is HUGE competition for businesses and website owners to get high rankings.
There are many websites online and professional bloggers that get over 50,000 plus FREE organic website visitors monthly, and even some that get millions, all from doing SEO.
Do you know how much you would pay directly for 50,000 visitors if you had to buy them through PPC (Pay Per Click), like through Facebook ads or Google?
Some where in the neighborhood of $25,000.00 monthly up to hundreds of thousand of dollars monthly depending on your niche you are in, and how expensive the keywords you are going after are.
This is one of the those marketing strategies that a person should truly pay for expert guidance and help in some way, because it is so worth it in the long run.
A few very well crafted pieces of content can bring you in free website visitors for years. The trade-off is priceless!
What Business Types Would Want To Use An SEO Strategy?
All types, we can not think of one single type of online business that would not benefit from having a website and doing SEO.
There are billions of searches done every single day, on just about anything you can think of.
Why not learn how and get set up to get a piece of all that free organic website traffic?
See that’s the thing, no matter what you are promoting and selling or trying to build an audience for, every entrepreneur, marketer, freelancer, and business owner should have their own website and presence online.
You need to have a hub, a central marketing point, otherwise you are missing tons of opportunity to further build sales and income.
If you do not have a website for your business, SEO is not really going to help you.
2. Social Media
Social media has grown in popularity over the years due to the increased use of smartphones and tablets which allow for easy and instant access no matter where someone is.
We basically all walk around now with a computer in our pockets.
Anytime one is with a gathering of people it is not uncommon for the majority to be constantly scanning their phones, scrolling through one or more social media sites.
These social media sites like, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, etc, have turned into billion dollar advertising companies because of the growth they have had.
The problem is, when using them to get free website traffic for ones business, their algorithms can be a difficult nut to crack, but when done with the right strategy, you can generate all kinds of free website traffic.
Many of these social media sites limit the amount of exposure you get when you share content.
This is because they have advertisers paying them handsomely for ads, so marketers and businesses trying to use social networks to get free exposure are heavily limited to the number of people that will actually see their content.
Until you figure out the right strategy to get past their limitations.
Engage Your Audience
Meaning your going to have to work it, engagement with others on social media is an absolute must, you must be interacting with other peoples content and post, liking, commenting, sharing, etc, before you will gain traction with yours.
Not all social media networks are the same, they each favor one type of content over the next, so make sure you know which social media site that will best suite your business type and reach the largest numbers of your target audience.
Although there are few that really work well for all business types, depending on how you approach the content you are syndicating.
Will Social Media Really Provide You With Free Website Traffic?
Yes, if you are already great at spending lots of time in social media, and have already built up a cult like following, because you are truly great with engaging with others, and are getting lots of likes, comments, and re-sharing of your own content.
Then yes, you can just add your business into the mix, and you will get free website traffic.
Otherwise there is a strategy to it, and again, it is best to learn from someone who has already mastered it, and has put out a social media course on how to do it.
There are certain post types, headlines, and actions you can take that will increase your followers engagement with you and your business immensely, when you know what you are doing.
Top Social Media Marketing Courses
1. Facebook
2. Youtube
3. Instagram
4. Linkedin
5. TikTok
6. Pinterest
7. Reddit
8. Twitter
What Business Types Would Want To Use A Social Media Strategy?
All types would want to, just remember depending on your target audience, some are better for certain demographics of people and the type of content being distributed.
So make sure and identify which social media platform is best for your business and where more of your ideal customers are most likely to be reached the fastest.
You only want to focus on one social media network at a time, until you get it right, otherwise you will not get the engagement you are after, because you are spreading your self too thin, and will never have time to spend on all of them.
3. Free Local Business Listing Sites
One easy and effective way to get free website traffic if you have a more local business, is to list it on local business listing sites like Yelp For Business, Google My Business, Yellow Pages, Bing Places For Business and Foursquare For Business.
These sites will give you an enhanced listing and offer an easy way for consumers to find out about your products or services.
Listing your product or service with these sites will increase the traffic to your website and attract new customers. You can list your business on these sites for free.
Online search engines rank these sites higher in the search results because they are trustworthy.
If you are new to this concept, it is fairly simple. You can list your business for free on these websites and post information with images about your company.
Here are the 5 Best Local Business Listing Sites.
Will Free Local Business Listing Sites Really Provide You With Free Website Traffic?
Absolutely, just go to the link provided above for more details on how to set these up, there is nothing to learn, just your time in listing your business information.
What Business Types Would Want To Use A Free Local Business Listing Sites Strategy?
Local businesses or national businesses that have actual offline locations that serve clients and customers locally.
If your an marketer with an affiliate website or trying to promote a business opportunity or marketing coaching program, this strategy will most likely not be right for you.
Unless you actually have an office you serve people out of in a certain local geographical area, and have created a licensed business name and entity.
4. Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is an excellent way to build your online presence and increase your brand awareness.
Guest blogging involves writing articles for other websites, usually in exchange for a link back to yours.
There are many benefits associated with guest blogging, such as: It will help you grow your site’s audience, establish credibility as an industry leader, grow your backlinks, and allow you to reach new audiences with each post.
To get started you would want to search out websites/blogs that have a decent domain authority that share a similar niche or industry to your own and you can offer your guest blogging services too.
Semrush offers tools that will help you with this process, and you will be able to check the domain authority for any site you are interested in guest posting at.
Usually in the footer or main navigation menu of a site, there will be a method of contact you can use to do outreach for the sites you are interested in guest posting at.
You may need to reach out to several at a time, to find a few that will be interested in your guest posting offer.
Do not get discouraged if at first you get some that are not interested, keep asking and you will find the ones that are.
Will Guest Blogging Really Provide You With Free Website Traffic?
Yes, guest blogging can be a fantastic way to generate free website traffic immediately, especially if you can find some well established sites that already have a lot of organic traffic.
This will also help boost your own sites rankings in the search engines, which will get you even more traffic.
There are tools like Semrush that can aide you with this entire process, but you can do it all on your own as well, as you just need to take the time to do the outreach and write the articles.
Just as I have pointed out with the other strategies, money always helps facilitate much quicker results, and saves you oodles of your time.
See if you have a budget for your business, you could easily go to Fiverr and pay someone to write the articles for you.
10 really well written articles on 10 well established websites, could bring you in a whole lot of free website traffic.
What Business Types Would Want To Use A Guest Blogging Strategy?
Every type of business should, no matter if you are an affiliate marketer, blogger, musician, network marketer, consultant, marketing coach, freelancer, local business, or into business opportunities, does not matter, any business can benefit from this strategy and get more free website traffic to their own website through guest blogging.
But that’s the key, you need to have your own business website.
5. Press Releases
What Are Press Releases?
Press releases are articles in which the author (You) shares information about their business or organization, in order to get media coverage in online outlets.
They are traditionally used when announcing new products or services, events or when formally introducing a new company to the public when it has launched.
A tip sheet is the other kind of article content that a press release service will publish, aside from an actual traditional press release described above.
As an example – write a tip sheet or have one wrote for you with a subject line like, “6 Fast Weight Loss Tips For Summer” and make sure it is a VERY high quality article.
Press Releases can give you a much needed free website traffic boost, and give you some good backlinks for your website.
There are many sites dedicated to distributing your press release to multiple online sources for you.
Press Release Websites
Here are a few press release sites below to get you started, these ones allowed at least one free submission at the time of writing this.
Do not make your press release super long, around 500 to 1000 words is plenty, be concise and too the point.
Some have word limits as well.
1. PRLog.org
3. www.pr.com/
Will Press Releases Really Provide You With Free Website Traffic?
Yes they will, and get you more backlinks for your website, which will in turn help your rankings for even more traffic.
There are many more press release sites you can find, one only needs to do a search.
Many allow a free submission, others do not.
The free submission will be a reduced syndication as well, for more expanded coverage one would need to pay a small fee to reach the services full distribution network.
What Business Types Would Want To Use A Press Release Strategy?
All, it is as simple as that, a press release can help any business, influencer, freelancer, professional or online marketer expand their reach and increase their website visitors.
Analyze Your Results
Now that you have some free traffic methods to implement, make sure and connect Google Analytics with your website, as well as Google Search Console.
These are two free tools, that are extremely important for you to review and analyze your website traffic on a regular basis, so you know where your traffic is coming from, and how effective it is.
This will enable you to see the strategies that are working the best for your business, and where to put more of your time, energy and resources.
You do not want to be guessing on what’s working.
These two tools will give you great insight into where your visitors are coming from, what keywords are driving them there and what referring websites are driving traffic to your website.
In Conclusion
There are many ways to get free website traffic, sometimes it will cost you a bit upfront, sometimes it will be through nothing but time and effort.
Either way you are truly spending something to achieve it.
Having and creating a business website should be at the core of your business, this is always a tipping point for almost every free website traffic strategy online.
Marketing online is not a sprint, it’s a marathon that requires strategic planning and dedication. While you may not see success overnight, you will see some significant gains when you start being consistent and doing what works.
Everything we have outlined in this article are some of the best ways on how to get free website traffic, these strategies should all take center stage in helping you build a much more profitable business.
We really hope this article has been extremely helpful to you.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post them in the comments section below or just say hello.
Sincerely,
Your Friends And Partners
Richard And John Weberg
