One big challenge that people who own a website face is driving traffic to their websites. The number of visitors you have on your website translates differently depending on the aim of the website, it could be that the goal of the website is to increase sales, generate quality leads, create opportunities, promote brand awareness, generate more revenue, or reach like-minded people and build a community, the reasons are limitless.
Therefore it is vital to drive traffic to your website, you can have the most attractive website, however, if you don't have website traffic, it's just an empty shell and defeats the purpose for creating it in the first place. There are several ways to drive traffic to your website, and they include; using social media, referral sites, paid search, organic search, email newsletters, direct traffic, and others.
Traffic to any website improves visibility and engagement, and the goal is to drive quality visitors to your site that are likely going to convert into customers. In this article, we’ll focus on different effective ways to drive traffic to your website for free. Let's look at how you can get discovered by utilizing free channels:
Search Engine Optimization
Search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN are used to gain website traffic. These search engines are designed to collect information based on search queries submitted by internet users. The results presented are called SERPs (search engine results pages).
On the search engine, queries are in a line of results, usually according to ranking. While the search engine’s algorithm is unique and uses varying and complex algorithms to generate search results, a common theme of these algorithms is that they take key elements of a web page like the page title, description tag, the URL, content, and keyword density of a webpage and thus put that page where it ranks on SERPs. With hundreds of websites and new web pages being created daily, among the top two ways to drive traffic to your site is through Search Engine Optimization [SEO].
SEO is one of the prime ways to increase website traffic for free. Here are three ways you can improve your SEO ranking on any of the search engines:
(1) Keywords: The key to on-page SEO is Keyword Strategy. A keyword is a word that carries great significance. For example, if your website is about healthy living, words like fitness, wholesomeness, and regimen are keywords that should appear strategically across your website. These are placements made across the pages on your website. When there's a query, the search engine interacts with the contents on your website, and they appear as SERPs. This is why content creation is our next point.
(2) SEO Content: SEO and Content Creation go hand in hand. SEO cannot work without content, and vice versa. For example, Google's search engine algorithm has been known to focus a lot on new content, and this is why it's necessary to be consistent with the content on your websites. Here's a list of content creation methods you can use that would help you with your SEO.
- SEO Landing pages are great for several reasons. A typical landing page is a standalone webpage created for a specific reason. For example, a salesperson with a special offer promo can create a landing page to promote the offer. However, optimized SEO landing pages are for the search engine. This means that some features on the landing page appeal to search engine algorithms, which decide the value to searchers.
- Dedicated Blog: Another way to constantly create content is by maintaining a Blog. Whatever your website is about, many owners have found that having a blog feature where you regularly post relevant and new content that features keywords is one of the best ways to rank on search engines. The more content and keywords you create, the more you begin to rank on the search engines and capture visitors to your website. By sharing regular content, you can capture traffic and grow by over 100% within your first three months of creating content consistently.
- Reviews & Testimonials are another way to attract traffic to your website. They are content provided by users of your website. Gathering testimonials and reviews are a form of capturing keywords on your website and attracting new visitors. For example, "This is the top lifestyle blog, and I am glad I found it..." A review like this captures two high-ranking keywords in this market; Top lifestyle blog and Lifestyle. The algorithm also loves reviews and testimonials; therefore, the more you can gather reviews from your visitors or customers, the better.
- Site Optimization: When building a website, you should optimize the site for search engines. Using the Google search engine as an example, their algorithm priority is to show results that match or most closely match the search query. This is why there are certain critical areas you must optimize on your website and they include:
(a) Title Tags appear as a clickable headline for the
search result when displayed as a search snippet on a
search engine results page (SERP). The significance
is why it should have a focus keyword.
Here’s a look at TechCabal's title tag - “Leading
Africa’s tech conversation”
(b) Header Tags or heading tags differentiate the headings
and the subheadings on a webpage from the rest of the
page's content. They are also HTML tags that -
represent introductory content and how it should be
displayed. A header tag is crucial for navigation and
readability and is used to improve the SEO of a
webpage. They rank in order of importance, from H1 to
H6 text formatting, where H1 and H2 are the most
essential for search engines algorithm. Tech Cabals H1
also includes the keyword “Leading Africa’s tech
conversation” featured in their title tag.
(c) Page Copy is the same as a website copy on your
website's top-level pages like the home page and about
us page. When creating content across these pages,
ensure to use your keywords moderately. Your copy
should be attractive and should be able to keep the
user hooked to the page.
(d) URL structurecontains a domain name, protocol, and
path.
It is an address on the internet and should be as simple as
possible. Your URL also serves as an opportunity to
highlight keywords and should be written in lower case with
defined keywords separated by hyphens.
Here's a sample of a page from the tech cabal website:
(e) Images also count when you think of improving your SEO.
It is important to use an alternative text(Alt text) on
every picture you upload to your site. This is what
appears when an image does not load, letting the user know
what the image is. These tags help to give context when
you use the image search on Google.
Also, on search engines, you can search using images and videos. This is another reason to always label them correctly.
(f) Meta Description provides a summary of a webpage. This
HTML element is displayed as a part of the search engine
results page (SERP) snippet and is used to give a user
some context as to how the page relates to their query.
Meta descriptions are the two lines of text that appear
below a clickable link. Look at tech cabals, Meta
description:
SEO always seems like work at first. However, with little time and effort, your website traffic would leap once you optimize your website for SEO, use keywords and create regular content. To track progress, you can benchmark organic traffic and keywords on your website before implementing these SEO strategies. You can check back between 2-4 months of traffic growth from your SEO efforts.
Google My Business
This product from Google is a free business listing that allows you to provide your business details. It is free to create your business profile on this service, as this web tool's goal is to help local businesses attain higher visibility on the google search engine.
Apart from listing your business on the Google my business tool, you can easily connect with your target audience, not just on search but through Google Maps. This way, when people search for terms related to the product or service you offer, your details show up on the right side of Google’s search engine. But what about your website? And how does this tool help drive traffic?
- The listing shows visitors how to visit your website with a link to your website included.
- It improves your website search and also improves your local SEO.
- Listing for a local business is more likely to appear when people search for a nearby business using Google Maps; this is beneficial if you run a small business.
An optimized Google My Business website will help your business. However, the key to getting good results is to complete your profile and make sure it is fully optimized.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is a type of direct marketing that involves sending out specific messages to a list of already existing subscribers or potential clients. It uses personalized mass emails to promote special offers, share new product releases, or build relationships with subscribers to create interest. The potential of email marketing is limitless, and driving traffic to your website is also a part of it. If you have been collecting email addresses through contact forms, pop-up forms, sign-up forms, or any other medium, sending out newsletters is a great place to start.
You can also share other events or news about your product or service. You should always make sure that the call to action remains “visit our website.” Also, remember that email marketing should be moderate because people can easily unsubscribe from your emails.
Email marketing is still one of the best ways to reach clients and potential clients. Some examples of email marketing companies that run a free package are Mailchimp, Hubspot, and Omnisend.
Guest Posting
Among the best Search Engine Optimization practices is Guest Posting also referred to as guest blogging. Blog posts live perpetually on the web and remain relevant as long as the content is still relevant and searchable, especially the evergreen content.
Guest posting is contributing a post to another personal blog or website to build backlinks, exposure, and authority. Backlinks are significant as pages with several backlinks tend to have a higher organic search. For context, backlinks are links from one website to another website and have proven to be a surefire way to improve your search ranking and boost conversations about your website.
When guest posting, you should pay attention to articles that allow you to target the keywords your users are searching for, which drives more traffic to your website.
Mobile Optimization
A 2021 statistic stated that mobile devices generated 54.8% of global website traffic. The process of visitors accessing your website from mobile devices to have an engaging experience is known as Mobile Search Engine Optimization [Mobile SEO].
Mobile optimization is a process that involves redesigning a website to improve responsiveness. Most website visitors use their mobile phones to access the web and this is why mobile optimization has become an integral part of driving traffic to any website. The key features of an optimized site include; compressed images for faster load times, no pop-ups or at least easy to close pop-ups, simple, uncluttered, and responsive design.
Mobile SEO always considers the user’s experience of navigating the website. Google search engine takes mobile optimization seriously and may not rank you on the first page of the search results if your website is not mobile optimized.
Conclusion
The ways outlined above are different strategies you can apply to websites today to help you increase traffic at no additional cost. If you are currently in the middle of building a website or already have one but struggle to get traffic to your website, following these recommended steps will considerably help you drive traffic to your website.
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