“How to get more website traffic for free?” This is probably one of the most frequently asked questions. This is indeed a real challenge to boost your online business and, above all, a strategy on the medium / long term on which you have to work every day or almost. There are of course many relatively effective techniques including online advertising (Google, Facebook, etc.). But you still need to know how to use them and have a minimum budget; which is far from the case when you start an activity or you cannot generate a lot of turnover. In this article, I want to share with you the “free” techniques to set up quickly on your website or blog to increase your traffic.

How to get more website traffic for free

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Note that I have voluntarily put the term “free” in quotation marks because even if these techniques require almost no budget, they will inevitably cost you time (a lot of time), a personal investment and the subscription to some very useful tools, accessible but not always free. The list below could of course be many (many) more consequent, but I have selected the 10 techniques that I think are the most important to put in place to start with.

# 1: Design

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Design: Happy New Year! No, I have not just been aware of the change of year, but I want to make it clear! What you have to understand is that in this new year, you cannot afford to have an “old-fashioned” website, with a design worthy of the year when the most expensive film of the time was released: “The Titanic“ (It’s been over 20 years …). Why ? For starters, because today there are many tools including CMS like WordPress (which in passing, proudly propels 1/4 of all websites in the world) that allows you to easily create a website in minutes. The design may appeal to you, and may be a bit personal, but your site is not primarily intended to please you. It is to your visitors that it must please, it is at the level of the content of course but also at the level of design. Even if you think that it has only to look “pretty”, it is still very important it looks nice. In addition, a clean, clear and professional design will better introduce your content, products or services and dramatically improve the user experience of your visitors. Note that I insist on a design that is “clean, clear and professional“, therefore there is no need to load your design too much or spend hours on Photoshop to prepare your images. Add images related to your content and feel free to use the free image bank sites (Pixabay, Visual Hunt, Stick PNG, etc.).

# 2 Responsive and “Mobile Friendly”

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In addition to the desktop version (accessible via computer) of your site, you must have a website or blog responsive design. To put it simply, your site must adapt to the various devices used to consult it (computer, smartphone, tablet, etc.). Why ?

1 / Once again, we are in a new year, and heading for the future!

And the share of mobile in our consumption of the web continues to increase and tends to exceed globally the desktop. The proof below in image with the results of the last analysis on the distribution of web traffic according to the various devices; (courtesy of wearesocial.com January 2018): Now, compare these figures for the same devices, but just 3 years earlier:   You will understand, a site not suitable for mobile or tablet is as much content that people will not consult, and therefore it is a lost traffic.

2 / Because Google penalizes you!

If you do not know yet, please note that since April 2015, Google penalizes sites that are not “Mobile Friendly” and therefore not responsive. In addition to losing traffic to a site or blog that does not display its content correctly, you will simply not appear in Google mobile search results.

If you wish to check the adaptation of your site, you can use the Google “Mobile optimization test” tool for free by clicking HERE.

# 3 Loading speed of your site

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You must also ensure that the loading speed of your site is acceptable. Being honest with yourself, you know for a fact that you will not stay on a site if it takes a long time to load. It’s the same for your visitors. We want everything and immediately, people will not wait more than 7 seconds (being very nice) for your site to load. It is therefore extremely important that you make sure that your server (web hosting) is reliable, and that the images and videos on your site are not too big.

# 4: Improve your natural indexing (SEO)

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Surely, I won’t teach you anything here, as know that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is one of the pillars of web marketing that you must absolutely integrate into your strategy. There are of course many tips and techniques to learn and put into action, which would require an entire article. Just keep in mind that you cannot ignore SEO. Learn about the techniques to put in place; or the tools that can help you (for example, add a plugin like Yoast SEO on your WordPress site). As I said at the beginning of the article, on paper, it is a “free” technique, but it requires a significant investment in terms of time! It is also a pretty frustrating technique since the SEO optimization of your site will only bear fruit in the medium or long term. If afterwards it will be a huge source of almost automatic traffic to your site, you will still have to keep an eye on the changes that Google regularly make on its algorithms, which can change everything in terms of SEO.

# 5: Content Marketing

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Content Marketing is by definition the marketing technique that consists of creating and disseminating to your visitors, fans / followers, prospects and customers, informative, fun and high value media content. Simply put, the Content Marketing will gather everything you can create; especially on the blog section of your site (hence the importance of adding a blog and add interesting articles related to your activity). Then broadcast via all your communication channels (newsletter, social networks, etc.). The goal is to create interesting content, which can take different forms (articles, videos, white papers, infographics, case studies, etc.) and that will be easily shared by your visitors or your fans / followers. Of course, Content Marketing must be part of a global digital strategy and enter into an editorial strategy built according to a calendar.

# 6: Use social networks (and preferably the most popular!)

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Social networks are of course essential! But once again, their use must be part of a digital strategy of which here are some of the main principles:

1 / Choose the social networks that suit your business

Facebook:

No matter what you do, you will need Facebook. Whether you are B2C or B2B, you must be on Facebook! First, because Facebook has today 2.2 billion active users per month (first quarter of 2018 figures). Suffice to say that almost all of your prospects are on Facebook! So it seems logical to pick them where they are all. Creating a Facebook Page is therefore essential to develop your business, increase your reputation, work on your brand image. Not to mention that the creation of a Facebook page will give you access to Facebook ads; which are terribly effective if they are well used.

Other social platforms:

Then, carefully choose other social networks to share your business on, and create accounts / pages. Depending on your industry, some social networks will be more suitable than others. This is where studying the competition can be useful. It is useless to be present on all social networks, especially if they do not constitute a lever for your Marketing Strategy. To animate your pages / accounts on social networks takes time. You must be sure to have enough time to animate and to get your community interested. Note that being present on all networks and never posting anything on some of them is counterproductive. This will be useless to you. Would you like to follow a Twitter account that has not posted anything since 2015? No, and in addition it strongly affects the credibility of your company / brand.

2 / Post content regularly

You must regularly post content on the social networks you have joined. Hence the importance of this focus on networks that will bring you something and have an effective content marketing strategy. Set a publication schedule in advance with the content type and frequency of your publications and stick to it! There are many tools for pre-scheduling social media postings, some of which are free of charge to up to three social networks like Hootsuite for example.

3 / Respond to comments and messages

This will allow you to build a relationship with visitors; and to share additional content with them to provide answers and manage traffic to your site. For example, you can share old articles to go further.

# 7: Do not forget about e-mail marketing (newsletter)!

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You probably understand the importance of e-mail marketing to generate traffic AND business. As a reminder, only 6% of your Facebook fans actually see your posts since Facebook wants to logically push you to use its (paid) advertising solutions. On the other hand, the average rate of opening an e-mail is around 23%. This rate can of course be improved by respecting the important techniques of email marketing (responsive, hard-hitting object, list of qualified leads, etc.). The newsletter is surely the best way to boost your traffic on a regular basis. Send a newsletter once a week for example; with your latest articles and offers to your list can generate traffic with your prospects, social sharing by these same prospects and thus generate additional traffic through the networks of your prospects. For this to be effective, there are also some rules to follow:

1 / Still and again the design must be responsive!

In the same way as for your website or blog, your newsletter must be clean, clear, readable and professional. You must choose or create a design that meets these criteria and is responsive; adapted to mobile since 56% of emails are now open on mobile (phones and tablets).

2 / Know how to present and sell your content

In your newsletter, present the introduction of your article in a simple and concise way (the goal is to send them to your site; not to give them all the article by e-mail). Sell ​​your article as if it were a product to make your prospects want to read the article on your site / blog and share it.

3 / Add a call-to-action (call to action button)

At the end of your recap / intro, add a clear call-to-action button to push to click.

4 / Have a consistent and qualified list of prospects

Finally, and this is probably the most important point, it will only be effective if you have a list of prospects on the one hand, and that it is quite consistent and qualified on the other hand. Generating qualified leads via your website is therefore essential. If you want to generate more leads, do not hesitate to sign up for a free LeadsLeap account.

# 8: Track your links to identify effective traffic sources!

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Use Google’s utm_ tags to track your links and identify what works.

How it works ?

The utm_ tags from Google are elements that you will for example add at the end of the link (URL) of the article you want to share. These tags will allow you to “track” your sources of traffic acquisition much more accurately than via Google Analytics.

Why use them?

Simply because by adding these tags to all your links, you will be able to identify and define the traffic sources that are really effective in order to focus more on and perhaps eventually unlock the budget for a particular source of ‘acquisition.

# 9: Create or join Facebook or LinkedIn groups and forums that are useful for you.

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Often used little or badly, the groups proposed by some social networks are yet an incredible source of traffic and prospects. For example, joining Facebook groups related to your activity will allow you to participate in many discussions and allow you to discreetly (or not) place links to your website or blog. Of course, it must be related to the problems of other members so that your link appears as the solution sought. Never over-publish your links in the form of a self-promotion which at best will only make you exclude from a group; and at worst you will be flagged as a spammer, which will not help with your reputation. Same thing for the forums, they can, if they are correctly used, be a source of additional traffic. Feel free to visit forums related to your activity and comment on publications by providing an answer or solution via one of your blog posts for example.

# 10: Identify and contact influencers

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Although lengthy and tedious, this technique will take some time to bear its fruits. These influencers will have to answer you first. And then find the right balance for a win / win strategy, especially if you do not have a budget. On the other hand, once set up, it can be a very good source of additional traffic. Influencers are, in general, much more followed than you will ever be and position themselves as “experts” in your field. Being able to talk about you even just once in one of their articles or on their social networks can be enough to get traffic off your site. You will benefit from their notoriety AND their referencing which is often advanced.

# 11: Create partnerships

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In the same way as with influencers, you can build partnerships with other players in your industry. Choose partners who will have a analogy with what you are proposing. For example, you can do “Guest Blogging” by publishing one of your articles on their blog or and one of their articles on your blog; or simply by an exchange of visibility on your respective sites / blogs or on your social profiles. If you wish to learn more about starting your own online business from home, click on the banner below … You might also like to read the below articles that I have selected for you:

• How To Create A Niche Website ?
• Where To Find Ideas To Write About In A Blog
• Why Is Self Motivation Important – Believe In Yourself

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Thanks for reading

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I hope that you now understand how to get more website traffic for free article.  If you have any experience on the subject we would love to hear from you. And, if you have any questions, please use the box below and I will respond as soon as possible. If you enjoyed this article please share it socially and leave a comment below, I will highly appreciate it! I am a Premium Member of Wealthy Affiliate, where I have learned how to share my passions. I am inviting you to join my team and learn how to become successful in business and retire early. It is 100% FREE to join, learn and earn! Click the button below and I’ll see you on the other side.  Easy to Retire – Copyright © since 2017 to date!