Free ways to get more visitors to your web site

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 live on-line 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.

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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 a dedicated service. Howtogomo (a website by Google) has all the information you need (including information on how to go mobile).

5. Create an Android native app and publish it to the Google Play Store

Do you know that there are more than 1,300,000 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 fun of this method for getting free traffic and it works very well. Read my 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.

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.

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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.