Do you want free traffic to your website? Are there any other sources besides Google that can bring visitors to a web site? The answer is yes and these 9 methods (the 10th method is Google) describe what you need to do to get more traffic without complete reliance on Google search traffic.
1. Optimize your web site for Google
Let’s start with Google so that it gets out of our way. I am sure that you all agree that the best and hardest way to get free traffic is by optimizing your web site for Google.
Google holds more than 70% of search engine market share and a place in one of the top positions of Google search, is a great source of free traffic.
The problem is that the competition is huge so you need to have a great web site both in terms of content and SEO if you want to take a part of the pie.
What you can do? SEO Audit your web site to make sure that it is well optimized for Google and publish good quality content on a regular basis.
Ok, now that Google is out of the picture, let’s see from which other sources you can get free traffic.
2. Don’t forget about Yahoo and Bing
Yahoo and Bing may not have the market share of Google, but a top position in either Bing or Yahoo can bring in a good number of visitors.
I have web sites that rank on the first positions for popular keywords on both Google and Bing and although the traffic I get from Bing is ¼ of what I get from Google, it is still a good source of free traffic.
What you can do? The first action you need to take is register with Bing Webmaster tools and submit your website. The process is similar to Google webmaster tools; if you are not sure what to do you can read this tutorial.
Second, you need to be active in Facebook and Twitter. Bing and Yahoo take into account (in their ranking algorithm) the number of Facebook likes and Tweets so the more likes and tweets your pages have, the greater are the chances of ranking higher in Bing and Yahoo.
3. Add your web site to the Chrome web store
The chrome web store is a fantastic source of free traffic and yet many webmasters are not taking advantage of it. It is very easy to add your web site to the Chrome Store and the traffic you can get is free and continuous. If you are not familiar of the chrome web store read my previous post which also includes a case study on traffic gains.
What you can do? Simply spend 10 minutes of your time, follow the instructions in this tutorial and register your website with the Chrome web store. It’s easy and the results in terms of visitors are immediate.
4. Create a mobile version of your web site
More and more users are searching the web using their mobile phones. The numbers of mobile searches are increasing dramatically and you just can’t ignore them.
Recent studies show that 28% of mobile searches are converting within an hour so it is very important to provide for a mobile optimized version as well.
What you can do? Mobilise your web site! Creating a mobile version is not very difficult. You can either use a plugin (if you are on WordPress) or adopt a responsive design.
Also, don’t forget about Accelerated Mobile Pages, which is the new hot trend in search marketing. Read my previous article on how to make your website amp friendly.
5. Create an Android native app and publish it to the Google Play Store
Do you know that there are more than 15 million new android users per day? What does this means in terms of traffic?
You can create an android app and publish it to the Google Play store, users will download your app and some will visit your website. I am a big fan of this method for getting free traffic and it works very well.
Read my previous post mobile web site vs native app for some real case studies.
What you can do? Hire a developer or find a service (like appyet.com) to create an android application for your website and publish it to the Google Play store.
6. Create an android app and publish to the Amazon store
Amazon had great success with Kindle and they decided to create their own application store (Amazon appstore). The concept is the same as described above with publishing an application on Google Play store.
You create a free app and publish on the Amazon store. People download the app and some of those users will visit your web site to get more information.
What you can do? If you have already created your android app, you can publish on Amazon appstore as well.
7. Guest post on high traffic web sites
Many people believe that guest posting is about getting links but this shouldn’t be the case. The main reason of why you should guest post to another website is the traffic benefits and not getting a link pointing to your website.
A guest post on a trusted website may rank high as well and this will create a steady flow of free traffic to your site.
What you can do? Forget everything you know about guest posting for links and instead make a list of high traffic web sites in your niche. Find out who the editors of these web sites are and follow them on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.
Try to connect with them in every valid way you can and when the time is right pitch them with your guest post idea. I know it’s not easy but you should also know that the easy way of guest posting will get you into trouble.
8. Keep your content fresh
‘Keep it fresh and keep it relevant’, this was Google’s reply on the importance of having fresh content on your website.
New content can get you more free traffic either through more loyal visitors (people will come back to check if you have published new content), more social media mentions or more organic visits (search engines will crawl your website more often).
What you can do? First you need to create a publishing schedule and stick to it and second try to publish good content that will make your readers to come back again and again.
9. Engage with Social media (Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Stumbleupon, YouTube, LinkedIn)
Social media platforms are getting popular day by day and if you don’t have a clear strategy of what you want to achieve, you many end up losing your time without having a real benefit.
In my opinion the best social media platforms in terms of traffic are Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Stumbleupon, YouTube and LinkedIn.
What you can do? If you don’t have a presence in ALL the above channels, make sure that you start using them. You many need to spend some time figuring out how each platform works but they are proven ways to get free visitors to your website.
Read these 2 posts for more information: How to promote your blog posts and how to SEO you social media profiles.
10. Post a presentation on slideshare.net
Have you heard of slideshare.net? If not go and check it out. Basically it is a website where you can upload and share a presentation. The good news about Slideshare is that it has a lot of traffic so if you make a good presentation it will be seen by thousands of people and some of them will visit your website as well.
What you can do? Create a free account with Slideshare and create an interesting and appealing presentation.
Don’t get disappointed if you don’t succeed from the beginning. You may have to try a couple of times before you create a presentation that will get many views.
Other sources of free traffic
I describe a few more sources of traffic in my post, how to increase web site traffic, but the bottom line in all methods is the same. You need to find out where your potential users hangout online and give them a few good reasons to visit your web site.
Try to think outside the box and beyond Facebook and Twitter and I am sure you can find even more free ways to get more visitors to your web site.
Great tips to start with. I am gonna start making an Apps for android soon, inspired by your awesome article
Tanvir Hi
Glad I could inspire you! An android app is a great way to make a few extra money from ads and also to gain new traffic
Thanks
Alex
great information for me that is google crome store in fact i don’t know about this.
Excellent website for more gather knowledge of about website. Informative article as well as helpful for people who want’s to know about website or blog.
Zafar Hi
Thank you very much for your comment and nice words. Glad your found it useful.
Alex
Hello Alex,
It is refreshing to see in a world focussed on only sharing knowledge for payment someone who willingly gives such detailed advice. We are just building our site to promote our educational maths and english online learning material for the overseas market. I will try to digest your advice maybe you can help us with this massive task.
Thanks George
Thanks about your great info.
Hi Alex,
First of all: thank you bery much for your excellent website and really excellent and useful tips! I found your site yesterday and believe me I spend half night reading your articles 🙂
If I could, I have 2 questions to an expert: I’ve got a fashion online magazine and nfortunately, most of the publications are press releases. I realize that probably the same informations goes to hundreds of pages, so there is no original content 🙁 What is your advice: change content (articles text) or even decide to not to use press releases?
And second problem. Our corporate website is the website of the fashion PR agency. What kind of publication for such site is better: about marketing, pr or fashion and art? I admit that I still have a problem with the question: what is my target?
Apologize for so many specific questions, but … as you wrote in one of your articles: do not be afraid to ask for help;)
All the best
Andrzej
I appreciate your work !
The factors you told are all really helpful to get visitor to your website but the fresh and great piece of content always gives you the better position is SERP’s. So one should make content useful and fresh. As content is king but links are queens. So don’t forget to have some high quality links. By the way thanks Alex
Anna Hi
I agree with you, posting high quality content on a frequent basis is also important. If you do that consistently over time this will attract natural links as well, which is the perfect formula!
Thank you as well
thanks for this info, i will to try on my new blog…
Thanks a lot foro your info alex I’ll keep visiting
thanks for sharing very informative article i am a newbie in seo and how to get traffic for my website it was a big big challenge for me,after reading your tips i hope i could get some decent traffic for my webiste…
Thank you very much for full informative article. Really I enjoy reading. Get to know about adding website on Chrome web store.
Yes Google Chrome app work for me 🙂
Great Article !!
Thanks for great information for beginners like me…it is really helpful to me
great information to get more visitors thanks .
Great article thanks for posting. Really i like this post. For seo beginners this article will help . Thanks for valuable time & good information.
Thanks for these awesome tips on getting free traffic. I get most of my traffic from social media.
Thanks for sharing .I’m going to try these as a new blogger. .
Great Article very interesting and helpful thank you so much!
Thanks Alex i have got new information from your article
Hi, would you suggest an android app that requires no programming? It’s a great idea to make one. I am just not the programming type.
Hi Alex
Thanks for the 10 tips you shared. I notice that a lot of people ignore Bing and Yahoo, thus only focusing on Google. This is a problem since Bing and Yahoo (as well as other search engines) can bring in lots of high quality, targeted traffic. Thanks for pointing this important overlooked element out!
Very interesting an informative article glad i found new advice’s on this page.I have submitted my site to google,yahoo and bing and with this 10 tips i hope it goes well . Thank You Sir.
This is very helpful for me i will try these tips thanks
I’m still working to get my first visitor into my blog, thank’s for your tips
very useful article. thank you Sir..
Very informative and helpful. Thank you.
Great techniques for getting new visitors to our blogs. Thank you for sharing!
Hi Alex.
First of all thank you for your post. Second, I have tried to look like this post from long time ago and I see you did it right.
Regarding (Post a presentation on slideshare.net) can I just post like 5 slides about funny videos or where can people find real fitness food?.
What do you recommend?
Thank you
John.
Hi John
To have any benefit from slideshare or any other platform, you should post something really good that people on the particular platform will like and share. Your goal with slideshare is to get to the Top or Featured slideshares, otherwise the traffic benefits will not be significant.
Thank you
Alex
How guest posting on other websites will increase visitors ? I am asking this because the owner of a website will not allow to add post links of my website. Then how will it increase my visitors?
Hi Amit
If you are not allowed to add links (either follow or nofollow), then you better find some other website to publish your guest posts.
Thanks
Alex
Optimizing your website is definitely a key in how successful your online or e-commerce business will be. I am very impressed with the quality of your blog content; as a content writer I often find marketing blogs lacking, but yours is so well-written that I am learning a lot, so thanks.
Achieving traffic from guest posting is another great suggestion for website owners who are looking to increase their numbers. There is excellent advice in this post for anyone looking to get more visitors to their website.
Alex,
This is really useful Article.. I’am gonna follow above tips to increase my traffic..
Love your tips – organic marketing is not dead! I work several of the methods you mentioned and they are working well.
Great article! Straight-forward, clear & concise. You should write more often, especially on subjects that require someone to cut through the fat & get to the meat. Really appreciate it. Thanks so much.
Thanks, Alex once again to sharing a great information to get more visitor on blog it’s really helpful techniques to increase my blog traffic
This is one amazing post Alex. I’ll follow the steps you have wrote.
Will update you with the results soon.
Hi Danish
Thanks! Try it and let us know if they helped in increasing your traffic.
All the best
Alex
Hello Alex,
Just want to say thank you for such an informative post. I also appreciate the fact that you link back to some of your earlier posts so that some of us late bloomers can catch up.
Thanks again
Thanks very much for these awesome ideas. I have applied AMP and registered for Bing. The others were a bit too technical for me.
I have spended a lot of time on blogging but today i enjoyed reading ur post and happy to know about adding website on chrome store
Blog commenting is one of the best ways to increase website traffic, you can also use social profiles for huge traffic. thanks ALEX CHRIS for this amazing guide 🙂
This is actually a really, really good blog post. I read quite a few blogs on generating traffic organically and this post was very easy to understand and it just made good sense. Great job on breaking down what can seem like a daunting task. Keep up the good work!
Hi Alex,
This is something new which I never read anywhere. Thank you for providing info about chrome web store.
Thanks
Really informative.
You have explained each and everything related to driving traffic in depth with these 10 ways.
Thanks for this wonderful post.
Great article. I’m gonna try to use some of these strategies to boost my website.
Thank you very much for full informative article. Really I enjoy reading. Get to know about adding website on Chrome web store.
Excellent information on your blog, thank you for taking the time to share with us.
Really it’s a great information i like it thanks.
Hi there.
Excellent article with great information. How can I find the article with the Google chrome tutorial? Every time I try to go on the link provided, it send me to the home page.
I really learnt alot from this,was really helpful…guess I have to put in more efforts by applying those rules and await the result.
I read a lot of blogs on generating traffic organically and this post was very easy to understand and it just made sense. Thanks for sharing.