If you’re wondering how to drive traffic to your website on a budget, you’re in the right place.
It can get pricey to pay for advertising, sponsor influencers, and invest in other tactics that cost hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. When you have a new business especially, it’s essential to cut costs where possible and adopt strategies that save money. So, how can you drive traffic to your website for free?
You don’t have to spend an arm and a leg to gather visitors to your website. Here are six ways to get started without spending a dime.
1. Promote Your Site Before Launch
Did you know you can work before your website launches to capture leads and build brand awareness? You don’t have to wait until you have tons of content to start driving traffic to your site. You can set up a coming soon page with information about your brand, its content, and how it benefits your audience.
You need to choose the best coming soon plugin for you. That means it helps you achieve your marketing goals, and since the main one is driving traffic to your website, you can create a strategy that accomplishes that.
Your coming soon page might look something like this:
The best way to continue engagement after users visit your coming soon page is to collect their information. You already got them to visit your website prior to launch. Now, all you have to do is keep in contact.
2. Write Guest Posts
There are several benefits to writing guest posts for other blogs. It builds recognition for your brand, positions you as a leader in your industry, and, of course, drives referral traffic to your website.
Guest blogging is also valuable as a marketing tactic because it helps you create connections with other leaders in your industry. It’s crucial to write for websites and publications in your niche so readers feel compelled to check out your site next.
To find guest posting opportunities, use Google to search your niche + “write for us.”
3. Use Internal Linking
Without an internal linking structure, visitors don’t know where to navigate to next or how to find relevant content on your website. It’s an easy way to prolong user engagement and move them down the conversion funnel as they learn to trust and invest in your brand. It also shows them that your site provides a smooth UX, which makes them want to revisit.
Go through your existing content and see where you can build internal links. This helps your on-page
4. Create A Contest
What better way to build buzz for your brand and bring traffic to your website than to host a contest? Contests are great for both brands and their participants because there are benefits on each side. Users get the chance to win something awesome while businesses grow their brand and promote their content. It’s a win-win for everyone involved.
Create rules for your contest that help you reach your campaign goals. If your main goal is to drive traffic to your website, have users fill out a form on your site. That way, people go to your website and you collect their information in one fell swoop.
Make sure you come up with good prizes to give away that entice users to enter. If they aren’t interested in what you’re offering, you won’t garner as many participants and, therefore, won’t lead as much traffic to your site.
5. Promote Your Content Everywhere
It may sound like a no-brainer, but not enough marketers and business owners work to promote their brand. Some may think that creating one social media post or sending one email is enough to rack up views and encourage engagement. Realistically, however, that’s not nearly enough. With so much existing competition, you need to work extra hard to put your content in front of your target market and show them the benefits of your products and services.
Take advantage of all the channels and methods you can use to promote your content so you build a substantial following.
Quora is a useful resource for positioning yourself as a thought leader in your industry and gaining recognition based on your expertise:
LinkedIn Publisher puts your content in front of like-minded professionals. Email marketing is a direct line of communication between your brand and its subscribers.
Whatever channels you use to distribute your content, make sure you do so with a strategy in place. You can’t post on a Facebook group once a month and expect website visits to trail in. So, it’s essential to promote consistently and regularly.
6. Use Responsive Design
Have you ever visited a website that lagged, froze, or didn’t respond when you tried to navigate it? Poor website design is far too common and one of the easiest ways to increase your bounce rate and lose conversions. No one wants to deal with a site that’s frustrating to navigate, so it’s vital to create a website with responsive design.
People spend nearly four hours per day on their mobile devices browsing the web. You’re neglecting a massive percentage of visitors if your website isn’t mobile-friendly. It’s essential to optimize all areas of your marketing for mobile so you cater to every single visitor and grow your brand organically.
Compress image files to reduce lag time on your website. Use responsive contact forms with fewer form fields so it’s easy for users to fill out and you see higher completion rates.
Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to determine what tweaks you need to make if your site isn’t compatible with mobile users.
Conclusion
You don’t have to go bankrupt to get your website off the ground and see the visits trickle in. With a proper conversion strategy, you’ll soon find out that it’s easy to drive traffic to your site for free.
