16 Ways To Increase Website Traffic Without Advertising
If you own or manage a website, looking for ways to increase website traffic is always on your mind. After all, more traffic means more potential customers, leads and sales. Unfortunately, advertising can be expensive and not always effective in reaching your target audience.
Thankfully there are several ways you can increase website traffic without shelling out a lot of money for ads. You may have to invest a bit more time, effort and strategic thinking to achieve it, but if you are consistent, the results would be steady and make it worthwhile!
Read on to learn 16 different ways you can increase website traffic without (paying for) advertising.
How To Increase Website Traffic Without Advertising
Increasing website traffic without advertising can seem daunting, but with the right strategies and knowledge, it can be easily achievable. In this section, we will explore various tactics to help drive more traffic to your website without having to pay expensive ad costs.
Write Top Quality Content
SEO is the most common way to gain qualified website traffic organically. All you need to do is come up with up-to-date, relevant, well-written content that your target audience wants to know more about. Apart from reading industry news regularly, you can also use tools like Google Trends, Answer The Public and BuzzSumo to get an idea of what people are interested in, as well as topics that are trending.
Once you have identified a topic, ensure your content is of the highest quality so as to attract organic visitors who will stay longer and even return for more. This also helps to boost your search engine rankings, thus bringing in more organic website traffic.
In addition, make sure to optimize your content with keywords relevant to your industry and use headings and subheadings. Don’t forget to include secondary key phrases in the copy. You can find them with tools like Semrush (The Keyword Magic Tool), Ahrefs (Keywords Explorer) and KWFinder.
Aim for those that have low difficulty and high search volume to better your chances to rank for them. This makes it easier for search engines like Google to index your website more quickly, thereby increasing the chances of appearing higher up in SERPs.
Quora
Quora is an invaluable tool if you want to increase website traffic without paying for ads. Not only does it provide a platform for sharing knowledge and advice, but it also acts as a gateway for users to discover new topics and websites. Posting regular updates on Quora allows businesses to extend their reach and raise awareness of their brand.
Additionally, answers to questions posted by other users will help boost SEO rankings as well as direct potential customers to your website. Quora also provides an excellent way to build relationships with industry experts, allowing businesses to tap into valuable networks of influencers and resources that can be leveraged for future collaborations.
Shareable Resources
Shareable resources on your website like infographics, eBooks, courses, tutorials and other free downloads are great ways to increase website traffic without advertising. It provides an incentive for people to visit your site and share the content with others.
Creating interesting, high-quality content also helps to build a sense of trust with your customers, thus increasing the chances of them returning for more. Additionally, it gives you an opportunity to gain backlinks from other websites which, in turn, helps to boost your website’s search engine rankings.
Facebook Groups
Joining relevant Facebook Groups will help you extend your reach and engage with potential customers in a more personal way. You can publish content related to your industry, answer questions posted by other members and participate in conversations. Doing so helps to build trust among your audience and positions you as an authority on the subject matter.
Additionally, you can use Facebook Groups to network and collaborate with other professionals in the same field, which will enable you to tap into valuable resources that may lead to potential business opportunities. By taking part in these groups, you will also be able to develop relationships and establish yourself as an expert in the field, thereby increasing your brand’s visibility.
Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories has become an increasingly popular way to reach potential customers and build awareness of your brand. It allows you to post content regularly in a creative, visual format that can engage the audience on a more personal level.
You can use Instagram stories to share updates about new products or services, host live Q&A’s with industry experts, and run contests or giveaways to encourage people to follow you. Doing so helps to increase followers and website traffic, as well as direct more potential customers back to your site.
A brand that uses Instagram Stories to boost their traffic quite effectively is Airbnb. They frequently post relevant content about travel, their services and customer stories which have enabled them to increase website traffic without advertising significantly in recent times.
LinkedIn Carousel Posts
Use carousels to showcase multiple products or services at once on LinkedIn. This is an effective way to showcase what you have to offer and drive traffic back to your website or blog.
In order to create a LinkedIn carousel post, simply follow these steps:
1. Open your LinkedIn profile or page and click on “Write a Post”.
2. Select the “Carousel” option at the top of the page.
3. Upload multiple images, videos or GIFs related to the topic of your post.
4. Add a title, description and links for each of the images/videos in your carousel.
5. Once you have completed all your edits, click on “Post” to publish your content!
Release A Tool On Your Site
As recommended by Neil Patel, including a tool on your website that visitors can use for free can be a great way to increase website traffic without the need to pay for ads or be a coding pro. You can use tools like CodeCanyon and ThemeForest to create and customize tools for a small fee.
When choosing a tool to include to your website, consider testing out several options in a non-production environment first to get feedback from users, especially those who are likely to use the tool. Other factors that should be considered when selecting a tool include the cost involved in development and maintenance, the user experience it provides, and the level of security required. You can also check out reviews from past users or consult experts for their opinion.
Do Giveaways
Run giveaways or contests on social media platforms like Instagram or Twitter that incentivize people to engage with your brand and share it with their friends and followers.
Collaborate with Influencers
Partner with influencers who are already established in your industry and have a large following by doing interviews or product reviews together. This will help introduce your brand to their followers and give you access to potential customers you wouldn’t otherwise reach through traditional marketing channels.
Use HARO
Sign up for Help A Reporter Out (HARO) which connects journalists looking for sources within certain industries with those who are knowledgeable in those areas and willing to provide information that can be used in articles.
Start an Email Newsletter
Collect email addresses from people interested in hearing about new developments from you company, then send out informative emails on a regular basis which include links back to original content hosted on your website or blog. Make sure you are on top of your leads communication and reply instantly. Our tool WP-CRM can help you manage client relationships easily from your WordPress dashboard.
Publish Guest Articles
Reach out to experts within the same niche as yours who may be interested in publishing guest articles on blogs related directly or indirectly to your niche. This will not only draw traffic back towards both sites but can help remain top-of-mind when readers come across additional article choices looking for interesting topics.
Methods to find relevant websites where you can contribute content vary – from competitor backlink audit, through manually filtering results by your website’s niche on SERPs, to using Advanced Search Operators for specific phrases.
Write Expert Roundup Posts
Compile insight from multiple experts within the same topic into a single article. Having different perspectives all found within one main post makes it easier for users quickly get all sides of an issue without having to search too hard online.
Do Holiday Promotional Campaigns
Take advantage of holiday marketing campaigns using popular hashtags associated with seasonal celebrations such as Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, etc.,and promote offers available exclusively during those holidays.
You can release a limited-time offer on your products and reach out to businesses that could benefit from it. In return, you can include their own listings in a holiday roundup post like the one we did for Halloween. And even if they don’t want to make a purchase, they’d likely be happy to include your deal in their holiday posts or on social media.
Ace Your Internal Linking Game
Be sure to link to other relevant pages inside your own website. Linking to other parts of the website when it makes sense helps Google understand what topics you cover and improves your crawlability and rankings. It also improves user experience by providing more context.
Test New Formats and Strategies
Stay up-to-date by exploring new formats such as video tutorials, AI, podcasts, GIFs & memes as well as newly launched strategies. Keep in mind that not all content formats work for everyone; try and experiment with different formats to find the best one suited to your audience.
Final Thoughts
If you want to increase your website traffic without resorting to advertising, try some of the methods above. Quality content is always a good place to start, but don’t forget about other strategies like Quora and Facebook Groups. And don’t forget the power of guest blogging and expert roundup posts! Internal linking is also important for SEO purposes, so make sure you ace that game. Finally, test new formats and strategies from time to time – you never know what will work until you try it.
