Startups can be a bit tricky, especially given the fact that you are just starting. There are so many things to put into consideration for your website to gain traffic. As the business owner, your main goal is to convert the clicks into new customers. This is not easy without the right strategies and approaches. It requires experience and knowledge. The thing is, as hard as it may sound, it may still be pretty easy getting real traffic to your website. With minimum budget, you may still be able to draw people to your site. There are various ways of converting these clicks into customers. This having been said, here are some ways startups can drive traffic to their websites for free.
1. Organic SEO
Before we get to it, it’s very important to first and foremost familiarize ourselves with what SEO is about. In a nutshell, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and involves the use of various ways to improve the search results. The fact that the search engines are getting smarter by the day requires that you target the right keywords and phrases in your efforts to making this a reality. Before it all began, we used the shorter keywords in search engines. Now that competition is on the rise, it’s a good idea if you use longer keywords and phrases. For instance, when a user wants to search for a vacation spot in Columbia, they will search in “the best vacation spots in Columbia”. As you can see these are six words as opposed to “vacation in Columbia”. This gives the user a better chance of finding what they want, not forgetting that the longer phrase can reach out to a wider target audience or market. The best way to approach this is to use long tail keywords.
The best way to approach this is by putting yourself in the shoes of the target audience. In doing this, you’ll have a clue of the words to use for your clients to find your website. Now, once you have a solid SEO strategy in play, you’ll be able to increase traffic to your website.
2. Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is still very effective when it comes to increasing traffic to your website. Landing on a guest post isn’t as hard as you may think. However, you’ll be required to pass the standards and qualifications. Guest blogging will help to position you as a well-known name in the game, expose your website, and improve your website’s backlinks. Try and find out the best prolific bloggers in your area of interest and involve them in your agenda.
Alternatively, there are so many gaming sites on the internet. To make the deal even better, most of them are free. To get this going, you may need to find a game that aligns with your interests and drop your link. One thing to note is that these sites are visited by millions of people across the globe. Sites such as Kerching where you can play Cleopatra and other stunning games can be an awesome sources of back link. When used right and when superior content is provided, establishing links with gaming and gambling sites can be an effective way to increase your site’s traffic.
3. Diversify Your Content
As most would have you believe, content marketing is not rocket science. All you require is to have some sort of variety in your content. This means that you mix things up a bit. Include appealing content, infographics, visuals, news updates, and entertaining blogs. When data driven items are included in your content, it’ll give your site a maximum impact.
4. The Use of Social Media
The number of social media users is increasing by the minute. Social media has been found to be an effective communication tool as well as a great platform to utilize in your marketing strategy. Ask some of the most successful companies out there, and they’ll tell you that you need to have a strong social media campaign with the aim of driving traffic to your site. There are various ways of making this effective.
- Include your site URL in your social media profile
- Allow users to use and share your content
- Regularly post on your social sites
The best thing about social media is that it’s free unless when it comes to paid advertisement. But you still need to have a good plan and a sound strategy.
5. Email Marketing
If you thought that it doesn’t work, well, maybe you haven’t tried it yet. More often than not, people tend to put all their efforts in attracting new clients and making money that they forget traditional marketing approaches. Though it might seem a bit outdated, email marketing is still an effective and powerful marketing tool that if used properly, will help to drive a considerable amount of traffic to your website. This involves including a pop email or newsletter reminding your potential clients of your various products and services.
6. Invest In a Responsive Website
Nothing sucks more than having to wait more than 30 seconds for a website page to load. This is aggravating and given the fact that we are in an era where technology is affecting our patience skills. First and foremost, it’s very important for your website loading speeds to be inspected. Secondly, you need to make sure that your website is mobile friendly.
It’s been found that nearly 60% of internet users are using their mobile devices to search for products and services. This is a huge population and you should ensure that you have upgraded your website to improve user experience. In a way, this is an inexpensive way of increasing traffic to your website.
7. Take Advantage of Aggregator Sites
It pays when you submit your content to aggregator sites such as Reddit. Most people don’t see the need for genuine aggregator sites to help improve traffic. Sites such as Reddit have massive communities waiting for well-organized content. They may be a bit savvy especially when it comes to spam content. But if you think that you are legit, go ahead and wait for the results.
8. Attend Relevant Conferences
It may cost you at the entrance but hey, the results will surprise you. There will always be some convention that aligns with your niche. In these conferences, you’ll find influential people who are relevant to your business. Mingle with them, talking about relevant issues as pertaining to your line of work. This will help to establish your brand as well as in helping gain a significant amount of traffic. Not bad, right?
As a business owner, you by now know the importance of having traffic flowing to your website. This is eventually converted into leads and then profits. There is a great need for website and business owners investing in means and ways of boosting traffic to their websites. But if on a tight budget, the above pointers will help you to achieve this and much more.