6 of the Best Free Traffic Fundamentals You MUST Get Right!
Six fundamentals you MUST get right in order to generate consistant free website traffic.
You have spent the last several weeks or longer building your website. You have followed all the ‘guru’ guides, so you know your site is solid.
The thing many of these guru types do not tell you is building the site is a small part of the process. That tired saying of “build it and they will come” (I did not see the movie, so I’m guessing on the exact words) is a bit of a lie. Well, as far as website traffic is concerned.
Whether you are or want to be an affiliate or content marketer, run an e-commerce store, or a blogger, you will need the traffic to get eyeballs on your content.
What do you mean there is no such thing as Free Traffic?
To begin with, you need to know is that there is no such thing as free traffic.
Wait, what?
The words ‘Free Traffic’ is in the title of this article!!
Yes, that is true but hear me out.
While you’ll not be paying for it as you would with ‘money-out-of-your-pocket’ paid traffic (for example, Google Adwords, Facebook, or YouTube advertising), you’ll still be paying for free traffic with your TIME… and effort. Remember, you can always make more money, but you cannot make more time. Everybody only has 24 hours in a day.
Make no mistake about that. There’s always a cost involved.
As they say, time is money. You’ll need to put in a lot of time if you’re using free methods to drive traffic to your site.
There is good news: your efforts will pay off many times over in the future, and organic traffic converts better than cold, paid traffic.
Let me say that again, so it sinks in.
Organic traffic does convert better than cold, paid traffic. And organic traffic is what shows up when you put these Free Traffic Fundamentals in place.
Now let’s look at the six fundamentals you need to master.
6 Fundamentals you must get right to generate Free Traffic
1. The value should always be at the top of the list.
Regardless of what source you are using, whether it is YouTube or Facebook Groups, or Pinterest, to build a loyal audience who likes and trusts you – you MUST deliver outstanding value.
That means creating quality content that helps your niche audience. Share your best tips and techniques with others. When you do that, your audience will believe that your product is even better than what you’re offering. They’ll also be interested in your other tips. What does that mean? It means they’ll sign up for your email list, join your Facebook group, etc. They want to be kept up to date with your latest content. So do not skimp on value. Provide them with your BEST!
2. Put out lots of content.
Posting new content every week is an excellent way to keep your audience engaged. The more content you put out there, the more people will see your videos, images, and posts. As long as your posts are well optimized for the search engines on each platform, you will eventually get organic traffic. So, aim to post daily! If, for example, you are using YouTube as your free-traffic source, then a video a day is excellent, or if that’s too much, how about two videos per week? You must be consistent and frequent.
3. On-Page SEO – Pay attention to it.
On-page optimization is important, but off-page optimization is even more important. Off-page optimization includes link building, social media marketing, and other ways to get people to notice you. You should also use keywords in your title tags and description tags. Of course, there is much more to consider when talking about on and off-page SEO, but this article is about the fundamentals and not so much of a deep dive into each.
4. Put your focus on ONLY ONE traffic source at a time.
Trying to spread your efforts across several different traffic sources will only weaken your results and could even hurt them. The key to succeeding in free traffic is to focus on one traffic method at a time.
For example, if you choose YouTube as your main traffic source, then your focus should be on making engaging videos that get views. Once you’ve mastered YouTube and you’re consistently getting good results, now you may venture into testing other traffic methods (for example, social media groups).
You should ideally be earning enough from YouTube to allow you to hire someone to help you with the next step. This should free up your time so you can focus on the next step.
The goal is to keep and grow the traffic from YouTube or whatever source you choose to master first.
The YouTube example I mentioned is just to give you an idea of how to approach it. However, the principle applies to any free traffic method regardless of which one you choose.
5. Having patience will pay off big-time.
Free traffic is a long game. Unlike paid traffic, which gives you fast feedback, free traffic requires patience. When your free traffic begins to flow and it will, it is going to snowball.
I see many beginners that give up after 1 or 2 months because they think that what they have been doing is not working. They just need to give it at least eight to twelve months. That’s way too long? Well, Rome was not built in a day, but they were laying bricks every hour.
With each new piece of content you post, you’ll be building up your online brand and empire. It is going to take a bit of time and effort, but nothing worthwhile comes easy. Keep working on it.
6. Always be yourself
Most platforms, such as Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, etc., are now very sophisticated and even intuitive. The algorithms can spot people who are trying to game the system from miles away. So, avoid taking those shortcuts by posting multiple duplicate videos on YouTube with different titles (to get more free traffic). Instead, point your focus to creating high-quality content that will attract organic views. You might just end up getting your channel shut down.
The same applies to most platforms. Always be ‘natural’ and avoid keyword stuffing. Think like the people who use the platform. Don’t think like a marketer.
People like watching new and interesting videos on YouTube. Give that to them, and you will see success. Similarly, Instagram and Pinterest users tend to be attracted to beautiful images. You can gain lots of likes and repins by giving people what they want. It’s all about providing the right content at the right time and in the right place. The platform’s algorithm will reward you for your effort with more reach and favorable social metrics.
Since you read this far…
Here are two bonus tips and fundamentals for free traffic generation.
1. Interact, Engage & Join In
Yea, yea yea, I know they all mean the same thing but the point is to communicate with your subscribers. When using a Facebook group to drive traffic, engage with the people in your group. It’s called social media for a reason. You have to be social for this to work.
If you’re posting videos on YouTube, you need to reply to those comments on your videos, and do not forget to thank the people who engage with your video content. Doing this is how you build goodwill and loyalty. Think of how you feel when you comment on someone else’s videos, and they reply directly to you. That is the feeling you want your followers to have.
While you may not have to reply to all the comments you receive on your YouTube videos, just replying to the first five or so will show that you are present and listening to your audience.
2. Begin to or continue to build your email list.
Repeat after me – “I will NOT build my house on rented land!”
There are several high-traffic platforms you can use to pull traffic from, but you need to be careful when using them. It is smart to understand you are playing with someone else’s ball and glove (or whatever that saying is), and breaking the rules they put in place will get your account shut down pretty quick – aka, they will take their ball and glove and go home.
This kind of thing is a very real situation that has happened to many many marketers. Some of these are big-name marketers, so it can happen to anyone.
This happens all too often, so if that ball drops on your head, having an email list will lessen the feel of that gut punch. One of the best ways to prevent this from happening will be to have links in the various social media services you are using, pointing viewers/readers to one of your landing pages. This way, you can capture their emails in an autoresponder service you use. Services like Aweber, MailChimp, or ConvertKit work great for this.
The email list you build is just that – yours! It is one of your most valuable assets.
Make sure your people coming from your free traffic sources have multiple avenues to get on your list. One of the best’ avenues’ I use is an exit-intent popup. Combine that with a free offer in exchange for their best email address, and you are on the right track.
Not only will you be able to begin and build a relationship with them, but if that social media platform you are using shuts you down, you’ll still have your growing subscriber list. So all is not lost. The power of your email list lets you continue marketing to your list while you rebuild. While this may sound tough, it is just the way things work in this online business world.
Also, do regular backups of the content you are putting into these other platforms. So if that service drops you, then you still have your content that you can put back on the same platform under a different account (as long as that is allowed) or post to a different platform altogether.
Keep these free fundamentals and tips in mind while you are working on getting that free traffic. These tips and techniques may come across as simple and almost obvious at a glance, but you would be surprised just how many marketers either flat out ignore or simply do not do them.
So let us put a bow on this and wrap things up. For you to get free traffic using social media platforms, you need to develop your profile and create intriguing and valuable content. It doesn’t take a room of rocket scientists to figure that out, but it does take hard work and consistent effort. The rewards are worth the effort, and your investment in time and energy will pay off over the long term.
