Everyone is searching for the magic way to boost their blog traffic. Blog owners are all too familiar with the challenges that come with attracting and maintaining potential traffic to your regular posts. This article aims at sharing eight amazing ways to increase traffic to your blog for free.
8 Amazing Ways to Get Free Blog Traffic
There are tons of routes to take while aiming to get free blog traffic, but not all of them are worth it. I’ll cut straight to the chase eliminating all the fluff, giving you the most effective ways to get free traffic to your blog.
The most promising route to take is providing high-quality content in every post. It’s no secret that your blog posts’ quality directly affects your website’s traffic and success. You can even find this out by taking a quick peek on Wikipedia. It may help to note although the approach is promising, it will take a considerable time before you get to reap the benefits.
However, quality content is not all it takes to get free traffic to your blog. You will need to put as much effort into pulling in readers as you do into generating premium blog content. Here are eight fantastic ways to increase traffic to your blog for free.
1. Guest Post on Other Blogs
One of the most practical and effective approaches to get free blog traffic to your blog is writing guest posts for other blogs. Guest posts are posts that you write and publish on other blogs under your name or brand name. It allows you to flex your writing capabilities, gain recognition and exposure to potential clients. Also, a lot of the time, these opportunities can be cost-free and provides a magnificent conversion rate.
Not all blogs are ideal for you, however. Before deciding on which blogs on which to guest post, here are a few things, you will need to consider. The first aspect concerns the current audience the blog holds. Are they familiar with what you sell on your end? Are they within the same niche or focus on a similar audience?
Your selection needs to be closely aligned with the content you produce on your blog to avoid wasting your time and valuable content. A good example will be if you are within the health and fitness niche. It would be wise to select blogs that fall under this niche to increase your visibility, readership, and click-through rate to your blog.
It is common to receive a “do follow” link back to your site in most scenarios. Since the entire concept of guest posting is built on exposure and increasing domain authority, it would be advantageous for you to have acquired a link in exchange. You are providing free content to the blog you are guest posting on, after all. It means that most readers will find their way to your website once they click on the link in the guest post. So not only will you get a bump in traffic, but you should also get a bit of link juice from the domain your guest post is on.
Each blog features its unique set of rules for guesting posting, be wise enough to carefully go through them. Blogs with massive traffic make ideal platforms to obtain guest posts and achieve the desired conversion successfully.
2. Social Media Sharing
Social media is among the most underrated platforms in our society despite its impeccable importance in the business world. According to local research, institutions that correctly participate in social media platforms have a greater chance for success. For this reason, we find sharing posts on social media can boost traffic to a post.
There are various ways you can use social media platforms to increase your blog traffic. One of them includes paid promotions through promoted posts on Facebook or Pinterest, giving you immediate results. Another approach to utilizing these platforms consists of the regular posting of content that will redirect most readers to your website. Doing this is free and is among the most common ways to get free blog traffic.
The largest hurdle concerning social media sharing in increasing traffic to your blog is the intense competition present. There exist thousands of individuals with platforms across multiple platforms. Their engagement with friends and other businesses is also as great, meaning that you have less of a chance to become visible without having to pay someone. Algorithms are in place for ranking and prioritizing content for the best user experience and post engagement. For example, in Facebook, pages have a lower priority in searches and newsfeed.
Here are a few things to consider for the best results from social media:
- Share your posts multiple times
- Share your content across multiple social media platforms and customize each for an ideal engagement experience.
- Stay alert on new social features–
- Since the platforms are also in competition, be on the lookout for new social features. Some of these additions are explicitly tailored for business advantage.
3. Utilize Forum Marketing
Utilizing forum markets is among our 8 amazing ways to increase traffic to your blog for free. Every business person understands the difficulty that comes with locating target audiences. Forum markets are one place you can effectively poach for traffic and expect excellent results; you only need to establish your presence. They allow one to engage in conversations and give expert answers, building relationships with all those involved. Linking your profile to every content shared within the platform can do wonders for your blog.
Almost every industry has hundreds of forums for one to engage in. Joining these platforms promises one premium and access to valuable discussions that will continue to expand your knowledge on your field. By correctly using them, one can create lasting relationships with the target audience and other professional peers. Question and answer sites can act as alternatives to forums since they can help its readers build credibility, nurture relationships and get free traffic to your blog.
Caution is necessary when opting to take the forum route to increase your blog traffic. Avoid rushing through platforms; carefully vet through each option available considering their stats and activity pattern. At first, give well-thought answers before deciding to link your site to the solution. Only after the participants feel your presence can you start including your information on most of your interactions. You will find that people are more receptive to individuals with a past connection than foreign parties, positively affecting your blog’s traffic. Some forums feature strict guidelines that may get you flagged down almost instantly.
4. Employ the use of Additional Publishing Platforms
Uploading posts to additional publishing platforms can make an excellent and effective way to get free traffic to your blog. These sites allow you to republish your articles, either under your name or pseudo and make them available to their readers. Unlike forums, these platforms may deal with various topics, and individuals read content according to their interests and reading behaviors.
LinkedIn and Medium are an example of such platforms. Both of the platforms are free to use, and you only require to open an account. Opening an account gives you access to publish your articles and also get to read other posts. One can also invite readers from other platforms to view your content by hitting the share button and following the correct procedure. You do not need an account to read and comment on an article, but one is necessary to post content.
Although this approach is effective in traffic conversion, we advise you not to invest in this activity hugely. Publishing content only on these platforms is not recommended as you will lose the opportunity to pull interested readers directly to your blog.
Every referral will be to the publishing platform rather than your platform, leading to slow organic growth. If you only operate with this strategy, it might take an eternity to see tangible positive effects on your blog. Try posting on your site, then republishing it to the additional publishing sites.
5. Focus on SEO
Keyword research is vital before and during the creation of content. It is through these keywords that search engines can optimize and ranks posts per search. Using the right keywords, you can attract users who are interested in your content, need your products or services, resulting in a traffic boost for your blog. There many free tools that exist that have fantastic data that will be very useful for keyword research.
Some great free keyword reasearch tools are:
Some of the most common keyword research tools that are NOT free are Ahrefs, SEMrush, Ubersuggest, and more. Start with the free options and then as your site begins to take off, consider looking into these tools as well.
Another option that hinds in plain sight is on Google. Google’s auto-suggest engine is very powerful and will give you an excellent idea of what keywords and topics people are searching for.
To take advantage of this auto-suggest feature, first, type in your primary keyword. Then start typing in one letter of the alphabet afterward, one at a time. You’ll get TONS of keywords that might be useful. The only caveat here is, you won’t know what kind of competition you’re dealing with.
For example, if you want to target popular keywords around keyboards. You’ll type in “keyboards”. Then you’ll type in the letter “a,” then “b” and “c”, and so on. This is also a great way to get blog post ideas when brainstorming. Check out the image below to get an idea of what we mean.
Each post requires SEO optimization to rank highly in related searches. If you find that using a tool is not the best approach, one can employ an SEO specialist to handle all your optimization needs. Ensure your target keywords appear naturally through the entire piece to expect pleasing results. Long-tail keywords are best for blog posts since they are more specific to questions people ask. For example, “how to increase traffic to your blog for free.”
The Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress is a fantastic tool to use for your SEO needs. It shows the ranking for keywords and where your post stands. Besides, it also informs the user of potential companies that pose a threat to the keyword chosen and improve its performance. You get a lot of functionality out of this plugin for free.
6. Make Use of Video Integration
Taking advantage of integrating videos into your blog posts has excellent benefits to get free blog traffic. YouTube is one tool that runs on this system, and one can use it to their blog’s advantage. One can create valuable content to encourage their audience to click the link by creating video tutorials related to the topic in question. Video content is dynamic and engaging; integrating it into your blog will increase its general appeal and increase traffic.
YouTube integration also gives you a competitive advantage in user searches. Your video content will get to rank in another search engine, increasing your visibility ratio to potential target audiences. In google, some searches prioritize videos over written content. Once one watches the video, they will get the urge to pay your blog a visit, sending additional traffic to your blog.
7. Publish Frequently
Consistency is necessary for the becoming of successful blogs. The next step after getting to know how to create quality and engaging content is to maintain frequent and regular publishing. In every field, consistency is vital yet the most difficult to maintain. When you have a defined posting schedule, your audience will know when to visit your page for content.
Current content also ranks higher in most search engines since they want to feed their users with up-to-date information. It means that your posts will most likely rank highly if you regularly update your website. To increase your chances, set realistic schedules that will not put you under intense pressure to catch the deadlines. It would also help prepare posts two weeks earlier to give you enough preparation time for the consecutive projects.
8. Build An Email List
What better way than to have readers who are interested in your content, and find value in what you are offering come back for more with a simple email? Building an email list can be daunting at first but once you set it up and establish a routine for how to maintain your list you’re locking in reoccurring traffic back to your site. Best of all, it’s free to get started.
You can use a free tool like Mail Chimp to get started and as your list grows then you can think about expanding on their options and services. Not to mention that there are other powerful tools out there that could really make a huge difference down the line like Convert Kit for instance. But starting with the free option is the most economical way to get started.
Conclusion
Every good blogger understands that maintaining consistency is not a downhill task and will require loads of patience and effort. On the other hand, a successful blog paves the way to numerous business opportunities and make money. It is the decisions you make that determine the state of your blog.
All of the approaches covered in this post are methods that we have personally used to get free blog traffic for several of our niche blog sites. We assure you that if you take your time, either method you decide to undertake will lead to great results on your blog. When you remain patient and consistent, your work hard will become more and more apparent as time goes on. Eventually, you will reap the benefits of increasing your monthly traffic.