How to get website traffic at low, or no, cost!
When you’re just starting out, thinking about driving traffic to your new website might seem daunting. As with most things, getting a plan on paper then ticking off each item as you execute is the clearest path to website traffic.
There are numerous tactics for creating website traffic and many of them are low-cost and require only a bit of time commitment to bring to fruition.
Below we’ve outlined seven ways to drive more traffic, and in turn customers, to your website. Without spending a cent, you can provide value to your customers and generate good-will.
1. Write an article
The first way to drive traffic to your website consists of writing an article, mentioning your site, and submitting it to e-zines. This tactic has two benefits. One is to create visits from curious readers, the other to bolster your website’s authority with Google.
This article can be submitted to more than one website, and you can also post it on social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, depending on where your key audience are likely to be.
2. Link exchange
Link exchange is another powerful tactic to help increase website traffic. This consists of finding friendly, related websites and offering to link to them if they will return the favour.
To find sites that may be interested in engaging with you in this way, type your keywords into a search engine and approach the sites at the top of the results.
Having some information about the amount of traffic your site currently has, and the benefit you would bring to the exchange site will help with your negotiations.
3. Participate in online forums
By participating in forums related to your website/area of expertise, people interested in those things will become aware of you and your business.
It’s a subtle form of advertising, that is effective and free, and a great way of boosting your website traffic and business!
“Driving traffic to your website doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming. By spending a little time each day, you can reap big rewards”
4. Check out some tools to help with your content creation and search engine optimisation
The internet has so many tools to help with website optimisation. Some software you could try is things like ‘Answer the Public‘ or Google’s Keyword Planner to see what people looking for businesses like yours are interested in.
Improving your website’s visibility in search engines is a key ongoing activity to guide you to success.
5. Meta descriptions matter
Once your site starts to appear in search engines, having a good meta description for the contents of the page could be the difference between someone clicking through to your site, or choosing to visit a competitor’s site instead.
A good meta description is somewhere between 50 to 160 words. It should clearly describe the contents of your page, in an exciting way that make people intrigued to read more.
Don’t mislead people about your web content as high bounce rates (people leaving after looking at only one page) can be detrimental to your search engine rankings.
6. Directory directions
Submit your site to topic-related and local directories. Links from other websites help to build traffic and domain authority.
7. Survey your audience
Using one of the previous tactics of participating in forums or on social media, you could create a survey to find out what people find useful and not useful about your site (keep it short!).
This will help direct traffic to your site, and also provide valuable feedback on improvements you can make.