10 Free Traffic Techniques

Here are 10 easy, free, or inexpensive, traffic techniques you can use right now.

Traffic to your website will evolve as you create and perfect each of the ten ideas below. They are not in any particular order. You can choose which one you want to focus on, but pay close attention to the sections that mention anything to do with content. One of your best marketing techniques comes with content on your website, and within email marketing.

• SEO

Search Engine Optimization involves using strategies and methods to ensure that your website is most attractive to your target audience. SEO includes everything you put on your webpage, and anything you do off your webpage to help improve your page rank and ultimately get more traffic. Technically, it includes all activities that are free and not paid advertisements. This is called, on page SEO and off page SEO.

On Page SEO

Any type of process that will improve page rank and traffic that is performed on the pages of your website, such as adding content, using specific keywords in the content, using keyword tags, titles, subtitles and more is on page SEO.

10 Tips to Improve On-Page SEO

One thing you can do today to immediately improve and drive traffic, is to improve your on page SEO. When embarking on any SEO strategy remember that what works today may not work tomorrow. It’s imperative to keep up-to-date on SEO strategy so that you can keep your websites updated and attracting the freest traffic from search engines possible.

• Improve URL Structure – If you use WordPress this is easy to do, you just have to set it up right. Choose the structure that makes your URL shorter, rather than longer, using words that describe the pages topic. If it’s a keyword, that’s even better. When you choose a URL structure, ensure that as your site grows you’ll easily be able to organize the pages.

• Optimize Page Titles, Headings – A page title is usually also the URL, although it is suggested that if a title is long, you should shorten the URL. Also, within any page you will have headings, subheadings and more that are all opportunities to use keywords and descriptive words that will help search engines find you and locate your website.

• Use Keywords Thoughtfully – When you use keywords, it’s important to understand that you don’t want to overdo it. In the old days, this was called “keyword stuffing”. On any page of your site, whether it’s a page, or a blog post, you do not want to have more than a 2 percent keyword density. That means for every 100 words, you do not want more than 2 of any one keyword for which you’re trying to rank.

• Use Images Properly – When you use an image be sure to use only images that truly bring your information to life. Also, don’t put them where H1 header information goes, which should always be text. In addition, fill out the “alt” information for the image in a descriptive format. Instead of adding “flowers”, state the name of the flowers and explain why that image is important. What does it demonstrate?

• ALT Text and Tags Still Matter – As mentioned above “alt” text serves a purpose. Many people will say they don’t really matter anymore but the truth is that they do matter, for a variety of reasons. Two reasons include the disabled people, who may come to your site, and search engines use that information to rank your website.

• Use Internal Links – Linking to other relevant information on your website under blog posts, and under any information you share is a good way to help search engines find more relevant information but it’s also a great way to keep people on your site longer, both of these things help your site rank higher.

• Blog & Add Content Often – The content you create needs to be laser focused and targeted toward your audience. It also needs to be added regularly and consistently over time so that your website is being updated often which will cause the search engines to crawl your website more often, improve your authority, and also keep your audience interested.

• Make Your Website Responsive – Starting in April of 2015 Google decided that they would rank responsive websites higher than those that are not. A responsive website works on any type of device that your audience may use to access your website such as a smart phone or tablet. If you use WordPress, you can easily use a responsive theme to accomplish this.

• Improve Your Website’s Speed – If you use a self-hosted WordPress site, you can make your page-load fast. Ensure that it loads in less than 3 seconds for the best ranking, and use by your audience. You may need to talk to your web designer to accomplish this as it’s a little more advanced.

• Secure Your Website – Setting up your website so that your URL starts in HTTPS instead of just HTTP you can immediately get a higher ranking, and offer your users a much safer experience because it’s all about security. Just realizes that the S stands for security. The way you get this is to get an SSL certificate for your website, which is something you purchase from your hosting.

You don’t have to do everything mentioned above, do the ones that you can, the ones that you understand, and save the more advanced issues for later. Remember, having a website up and done is better than waiting until everything is perfect. You can improve as you go.