How to Drive Traffic to Your Website? 20 Best Free and Paid Practices?

8 April 2022 10 min Read
drive traffic to your website

How to Drive Traffic to Your Website? It’s a question that every blogger or website owner would love to know the answer to. While there is no single most cost-effective way of driving traffic to your website, there are ways that work better than others. You can choose between paid and freeways creating a win-win situation for everyone.

There are many paths one can take to drive more traffic consistently to their website, but not all of them will work for you. As you know, there are legions of people and businesses trying to secure ad space on Google, Facebook, Bing, and other online resources and services. This makes it difficult for anyone to advertise online, let alone someone new starting out with an internet marketing campaign. That’s why you should apply these 20 best free and paid practices in order to increase website traffic as well as other digital marketing efforts.

10 Unpaid Practices You Should opt:

You are at the right place today because we will be talking about the 20 best ways to drive traffic to your website, blog, or any online business. It is best for those also who don’t want to pay a single penny from your pocket.

1. Write Guest Blog Posts:

A great way to drive traffic to your business and to start building your brand is by writing guest blog posts. However, you don’t want to write just for the sake of writing. Take time to create informative, well-written content that will be appreciated and shared by your readers and help boost your online visibility in search engines.

2. Share Content on Instagram, Quora, Reddit:

Whether it’s a picture of a customer using your product or service, a picture of employees at work, or an inspirational quote related to your industry, Instagram is a great way to build brand awareness and connect with potential customers and clients. Meanwhile, you can use Quora and Reddit to share content. You can answer people’s questions. Create your topics and engage people. 

People will automatically try to read your stuff when you show them your work ethics and impactful content. They will visit your profile which will take them towards the website. So, there are chances of leads and good traffic in this way. 

3. Create Videos On YouTube:

YouTube has over a billion users, which means there’s no better time than now to create a channel for your business. Whether you’re creating tutorials or simply sharing fun behind-the-scenes footage, YouTube is an effective way to promote your business and reach new audiences.

4. Get Listed in Online Directories:

It can be Google Local, Yahoo! Local, and Yelp! It will help anyone that is searching for your type of business find you when they look on Google or Yahoo!. You can also add your website address and a short description of what products or services you offer.

5. Mention Your Website in All Emails and Signatures:

This is a simple way to get free exposure to potential customers when they see your emails. Make sure the link leads directly to your home page or a page where visitors can learn more about what you offer.

6. Write Articles for Industry Publications That Include Your Link in The Article:

Writing articles for publications in your industry is a great way to promote your business and provide you with some much-needed exposure. These articles should be well written and informative, so they are useful, but they don’t all have to be lengthy. 

You can write a few hundred words and include a link to your website at the end of the article, or even just include it in the article if it makes sense to do so. This will encourage readers to click on the link, which will take them directly to your website.

7. Write an Article for Your Local Newspaper or Community Magazine:

This is an easy way to get your name and the name of your business out there in the local community, and if you can find a way to make it something relevant to the community, you might be able to get some free press out of it.

If you’re a graphic designer, for example, you could offer some tips about how people who are looking for a new website can make sure that they pick one that’s well designed.

If you’re a carpenter, you could write about how people planning an extension can make sure that the work is done properly.

For this type of article, you’ll need to find a publication related to your field, but don’t focus on one that directly competes with your business. Local newspapers or community magazines are great places to look if you’re looking for places where people would learn about things like websites or home extensions.

8. Create a Blog On Your Website and Update It Weekly or Bi-Weekly with Fresh Content:

Blogs are a great way to move traffic to your website. By creating a blog and keeping it up to date with fresh content, you will be able to attract new visitors and keep them coming back for more. Blogs can also help you get ranked higher with search engines, which means more traffic.

Many people get confused about how often they should update their blogs. Some people think that one post a week is enough, but that is not the case. You should aim to post at least two or three times per week to keep your readers interested in your content.

9. Create White Papers and eBooks:

Those must include your URL and other contact information, so they get passed around virally.

For instance, let’s say you’re promoting a white paper that ranks the best social media management tools. You can accomplish this by creating a viral PDF and including links to your product of choice and other tools in the marketing space.

10. Online Communities and Forums:

Online communities and forums are the best way to promote your business. You can create a forum on the Internet and discuss important issues in your industry. You can also create a blog to write articles that the online community will share. It is very easy to find new customers. But if you want marketing strategies for online communities, try using video marketing instead of written marketing.

Related: Tips to Increase Your Website Traffic for Making More Sales

Effective Paid Yet Cost Friendly Practices

It is no secret that the Internet has changed the way we do business. Billions of people are connected to the web and have access to valuable information about services and products. With a well-thought-out marketing strategy, you can use this to your advantage. Below are the 10 most effective ways to get traffic to your business:

11. Social Media Marketing:

Social media is one of the best ways to connect with your customers, build a community around your brand, and increase sales. In fact, it has been shown that social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing. If you’re not engaging in social media marketing, you’re missing out on more customers than you might realize.

12. Content Marketing:

Brands can’t rely on traditional advertising anymore. Instead of interrupting your audience with content, they don’t want to see or read, you need to be creating content that people want. The biggest mistake brands make is creating content for content’s sake instead of for their audience.

It’s important to create a content strategy based on what your audience wants and needs from you – not what you think they want or need from you. To understand what your audience wants, ask them questions in order to bring back good services to them.

13. Search Engine Optimization:

Along with content, search engine optimization is one of the most important tools for driving traffic to your website. The main aim of SEO is to give a high rank to your websites on search engines like Google and Bing so that it becomes easier for people to find it when they search for something related to your business or industry. You can also use SEO to promote specific pages on your site, which may help increase conversions.

14. Affiliate Marketing:

This could be one of the easiest ways to drive traffic online if done right. Affiliate marketing refers to promoting someone else’s products on your website and earning a commission when someone makes a purchase through your site/link. This is different from creating your own products and selling them via your own platform. The affiliates are usually those who have already tried the products they promote and have had good results with them.

One of the biggest advantages of affiliate marketing is that it helps you build authority faster by promoting products that are already trusted by others in the market. Also, since there are tons of brands out there, you can pick an affiliate product that aligns with your current product or service.

15. Email Marketing:

Email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to reach customers and prospects online — if you have their permission. It’s one of the best ways to ensure that customers remember you and what you offer. The key is to make sure that each email you send is valuable, relevant, and interesting. This can be a great way for companies to introduce new products and services in their emails. 

16. Paid Guest Blogging:

Paid guest blogging can be an effective way for companies looking for high-quality links from authority websites. Companies must have something interesting and valuable to say for their post to be accepted by these authority websites.

17. Viral Marketing: 

Viral marketing is one of the most effective yet low-cost marketing strategies. This marketing activity facilitates and encourages people to voluntarily convey the brand motto.

Viral marketing works because people trust recommendations from friends and influencers more than they trust advertising. When you first start creating your online presence, it may seem easier to buy traffic from someone else than to build your website and gain traffic organically.

18. Video Marketing:

If online communities and forums are easy to build, so are video marketing strategies. You need only a camera or webcam, editing software, and training. The first step is to shoot everything in real-time: conversations with customers, demonstrations of your product or service, the entire process of making your product or service look good. If you have good educational videos like how to make bread, then it will be easier for others to understand how things work.

The most important thing is that people need more than one video marketing strategy. They often want a video showing how they can use your product or service and another video showing how they can use it better than other people do. So, add more videos when you create them and update them regularly.

19. Build Your Social Media Presence:

We’ve always recommended to our clients to build your social media presence early on. Social media is free as well as paid if you want to run ads. There are so many platforms available for you to use. Whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google My Business (which actually may not be as free anymore), etc., it’s important to create accounts and start networking with like-minded individuals who are relevant to your field of work. Who knows? You might even find some new customers or business partners through social media!

20. Create Partnerships and Leverage Other Channels:

Partnering with a complimentary brand or resource is a great way to amplify your reach and showcase your business to new audiences. By leveraging the power of other established channels, you can reach out to new audiences who might be interested in doing business with you.

Conclusion:

This post offers you some of the best strategies to drive traffic to your business. With more and more businesses sprouting up online and offline, reaching your audience has become even more challenging. Yet, there are ways and means with which you can drive traffic to your website or blog. Use this checklist to set aside everything one by one and see which methods work for you.

The Author

Pearl Holland is an analytical essay writer and freelance journalist. In a luxurious tone, she will explain how to organize your analytical essay and use correct diction when writing it. She will also tell you what are the most common mistakes students make when writing essays and how to avoid them.