Whether you work for a multinational corporation, launching a startup from your home, or something in between, every business has one goal – gaining more customers. To do this, however, you need to create awareness of your business online, and get your products and services in front of consumers’ eyes. While paid ads drive significant traffic, oftentimes, the returns turn out to have not even been worth the initial expense.
We know that paid campaigns are important, but when you are running your paid ad campaigns, it’s important to support these efforts with alternative advertising methods that also drive traffic. There are plenty of free, organic methods of boosting web traffic, many of which require minimal creativity and effort on your part. It simply takes a little effort and creativity on your part to make it happen. Here are five ways you can drive traffic to your website without paying for ads.
Dominate on Social Media
Utilizing social media is likely already part of your traffic-building efforts. What many people don’t know is that there is much more social media success than initially meets the eye. As of October 2023, there are almost 5 billion social media users around the world, the equivalent of almost 61.5% of the global population. With eye-watering figures like these, there is no doubt that social media is a must for any business looking to drive traffic.
After creating your company’s profiles, staying active on social media profiles is a key step to creating a sense of community for those who visit the pages. Just like a group of friends you no longer speak to frequently, the relationship and interactions between your online community and your company will deteriorate if not engaged. Paid ads simply can’t provide the same sense of community that organic content can. A business that runs paid ads only with little to no engagement across their social media profiles will not attract a truly interested customer in the way free, organic traffic will. Engaging with the community you’re cultivating online will drive traffic and, at the same time, improve your reputation amongst social media users, all of whom are potential customers.
To properly tap into the entire social media user base, don’t limit yourself to just one platform. Lesser-used sites like Reddit and Pinterest can be just as useful for businesses as Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, LinkedIn, or Instagram. Each platform has its own purpose and unique selling point, but ultimately they have the same goal of connecting people and businesses all around the world.
Regardless of where your company operates, social media platforms provide a global stage from which you can reach customers all around the world. If you’re operating on a smaller scale, social media is still a key mechanism to reach customers in your local, regional, or national area. Ultimately, no matter where you are in the world, social media is crucial if you want to generate free traffic for your business.
Prioritize Mobile-Friendliness
In 2024, there is simply no justification for a website to look good on computers but fall short on mobile. As of November 2023, almost 57% of the market share for web traffic originates from a mobile device– add in the number of people who browse from tablets and you have a resounding majority of your visitors who will be using a handheld device, not a desktop or laptop, to visit your site. What this means is that over 2.5 billion social media users use a mobile phone instead of a desktop computer when using social media platforms.
When mobile users visit your profiles on social media, they will almost certainly continue to use their mobile device throughout that session, meaning that your website needs to be optimized and user-friendly for mobile visitors on a large scale that will, hopefully, remain on your site for a lengthy session.
Perhaps even more importantly, if you do not follow mobile-friendly guidelines, you will never rank too highly on Google and other search engine result pages (SERPs) and therefore you will struggle to prise potential visitors away from other, more mobile-friendly platforms. Check every page of your site using Lighthouse from Chrome, a great alternative to Google’s deprecated Mobile-Friendly Test tool, and view the site on your own devices to ensure things look good to a “real person,” too.
Blogs and Other Dynamic Content
We’ve all heard it before, but it remains demonstrably true: content is king. And when it comes to website content, there is no better place to start than a blog. A loaded, well-maintained blog is vital for any business website, and the benefits go far beyond giving visitors something to click and read in an effort to keep them on the site. A good blog is key to a successful SEO strategy, and blogging and creating other dynamic content will set you up to grab and keep the attention of people browsing the web.
Dynamic website content will drive you toward the top of SERPs, thanks to the important keywords and metadata that you will include to help search engines crawl the site. When you create website content, try to produce useful information that serves your visitors and search engines in equal measure. After all, your content needs to be positioned in front of the right eyes, and when that happens, it also needs to bring value to the readers digesting the content. Create content optimized for SEO that provides readers with useful information and, at the same time, showcases your business’ services.
Diversify your Media Portfolio
Today, the most successful websites are more than just blocks of text and an occasional picture. People are attracted to pictures, videos, and interactive media more than plain text. Are you using YouTube to share video content? Have you considered creating compact, shareable infographics that benefit the industry at large? If not, you should consider diversifying your media output to better engage your visitors.
To ensure success in this area, make sure you are creating content your audience will want to share. Any social media content posted to your pages can also be used on your website, whether it is displayed on a small feed or optimized for web use. From podcasting to eBook creation, there are many different ways to build traffic while creating something inherently informative, valuable, or otherwise useful for your target audience.
Guest Blogging
Guest blogging, or having articles or blogs you created posted on other sites, serves a dual purpose. Ideally, you will include links to your own site out there “in the wild” which can improve your search engine rankings. On top of this, you are awarded the opportunity to showcase your expertise and build authority within your industry. Guest blogging is a fantastic way to reach new visitors and give them an excellent first impression of your company, who otherwise may never have found your site.
Drive More Traffic in 2024
Increasing traffic to your website is not something that happens overnight– it is a continuous process that takes brainstorming, strategizing, and execution. Working with an agency that has experience driving traffic for clients can be a great way to develop a strategy that will show you how to build traffic today and continue your growth into the future. As a full-scale digital marketing company, inSegment can provide you with industry insight, knowledge from past experiences, a creative mindset yet strategic mindset, and access to tools and technology that may currently be out of your reach.
Contact inSegment today and get a jump start on driving traffic in 2024 so that you can generate more leads, more conversions, and more revenue.
