5 Big Ways to Bring Free Traffic to Your Website

For both new and existing online businesses, the bottom line is HUGE. While it would be great to have an endless amount of money for advertising and marketing, the reality is that most of us are on a tight budget, and need to spend our time and money wisely. One of the great things about the internet is that there are plenty of ways to get your name out there for little or no money. Here are ten free ways that I consider to be the most effective...

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - You may or may not be familiar with SEO, but whether you realize it or not, it defines most of your search engine choices. In a nutshell, SEO is various strategies used in order to achieve a search engine high ranking. Most SEO techniques involve optimization of meta tags and content, sitewide link themes, and link campaigns in order to obtain inbound links.

   While it is not brain surgery, a working knowledge of HTML and CSS is strongly recommended, and depending on the complexity of your site, knowledge of other languages may be necessary as well. If you are computer savvy, implementing SEO is not very difficult but can be extremely time consuming.

   The benefits of SEO far outweigh the cons. Consider these statistics: The top ten listings on Google receive 78% more traffic than those in positions 11-30. 99% of all search engine visitors do not go beyond the top 30. 92% of all search engine clicks occur on the first page of the search engine listings. Bottom line: You need to get into the top ten, or your site is practically invisible. But once you do...your traffic will skyrocket.

   Search Engine Optimization is essential for online success - optimize your site as soon as possible, or have a Search Engine Optimization Specialist do it for you. Google will show its appreciation in the form of more traffic and sales.

2. Craigslist - While there are many hoops to jump through, Craigslist is still a powerful way to advertise your business. Start regionally, then test the waters to see what is acceptable and what is not. In the long run, you may end up being confined the city nearest you, but it is free, and it is one of the most visited sites on the internet. While you are at it, hit any other free classified sites out there - the more visibility, the better.
   
3. Write an article or two - The popularity of submitting articles has exploded over the last few years. Why? The answer is twofold: the benefit of more traffic and a quality link to your site (which goes back to the importance of SEO). Write an article about your products or service and how it will benefit the reader, and submit it to any or all of the article directories out there (Go Articles, Ezine Articles, etc.). Over time, you will see more and more links pointing to your site from the various sites using your article. Not a writer? No worries - there are plenty of copywriters out there (see Craigslist for starters) that will write an article for you for a very reasonable fee (e-mail me if you need a few).

   **Don't forget to write a short bio at the end of your article with a link back to your site - this is crucial to this tactic working!

4. Signatures in your e-mails, forums, and blog postings - While this may seem like a lame idea , I have spoke to several people that have seen their signatures bring a decent amount of traffic (and more importantly sales) to their site. Get in the habit of setting up a signature for all of them and you should see some activity in your analytics program of choice. Be sure to make your link intriguing - i.e. I lost 80 pounds in 4 months - find out how .
5. YouTube - The idea of making a video or just being on camera may horrify you, but don't worry about camera presence. The goal is to do anything that will get people to check out your site (anything legal and moral, anyway). Think about the videos that rack up the huge numbers - what do most of them have in common? Notoriety. Come up with an outrageous idea, run with it, and put your website in huge letters at the end of it. If you film it, they will come...

Implement these ideas for your business, and you are sure to bring lots of free traffic to your business. Do nothing, and your odds of online survival go down drastically.