If you need to attract more traffic to your website or online store and can't afford the paid sources, there is no need to worry. Here is an excellent list of some free traffic sources you can use.
When it comes to traffic, no one hates to have it organically. Startups or small companies who can't afford a paid traffic source can rely on free sources to get their brands known.
Well, although free traffic sources will cost you nothing in terms of money, you still have to put in enough effort.
There are numerous sources of free traffic you can utilize. However, since everyone has access to them, they tend to offer varying levels of effectiveness.
One has to research and master multiple of them to succeed.
Today, we will explore 18 of the best free traffic sources to help you drive more traffic to your website.
At the end of the article, you will have established which source is best for you and which can help your online business to grow.
But before learning about the free traffic sources, please ask yourself if you have an effective way to convert the traffic into a qualified lead or sales.
You need to start with a Lead Gen/Sales Funnel. A sales funnel is important for a successful sales conversion from free traffic. Learn more about funnels.
Table of Contents
What are the Best Free Traffic Sources Online?
A traffic source is a place where you get visitors to your website. In other words, it is where the visitors to your website come from, which can either be free or paid for.
Therefore, free traffic sources online are platforms you can use for free to drive your target audience to your website.
List of 18 Free Traffic Sources you Need to Be Using.
Here is a list of some of the best ways to drive consistent traffic from free sources.
1. Search Engines (SEO)
Search Engine Optimization is probably the best and the largest source of free traffic. Being ranked for a great and competitive keyword will considerably affect your website or blog.
Top ranking by search engines means that your website will have more visitors, which is positive for your business.
However, to be top-ranked, you have to work hard for it. You will have to ensure that you meet all the requirements of the search engine process. Your content should be unique and high quality to rank higher on the various search engines.
One advantage of using SEO as a source of free traffic source is that the visitors are highly targeted, unlike those from ads.
For example, people visiting your site from Google are already interested in what your website offers.
See Related: How Bloggers Make Money
2. Email Marketing
Email marketing is typically the process whereby you send emails to a list of a targeted audience, intending to lead them back to your site or blog. This is one of the most effective ways of getting repeat visitors to your site.
Email marketing is a highly converting method that is among the most targeted free traffic sources.
When it comes to email marketing, it is a fast way of bringing visitors to new sites and blogs since all you need is to send emails. Any time you need traffic, simply write an email and forward it to your list of targeted customers.
Constant Contact is one of the big players in the market that offers such free services, and you definitely should check them out.
You need to offer a free lead magnet, which is pretty easy to build your email list. Watch this video from my YouTube channel about how I had a lead magnet in a few days.
See Related: Ways to Get Paid to Read Emails
3. Social Media
In the current era of people always being available on social media platforms, social media has become an excellent source of free traffic to your site. A considerable number of people spend hours and hours on social media every day.
Therefore, if you require free traffic for your blog, this is an excellent place to start. It is a perfect platform where small business owners and marketers can freely interact with their target customers.
Again, numerous social media platforms exist, like Facebook, Twitter, and more, which means you have a wide variety to choose from. However, you should concentrate on the one you know most of your target customers use.
This means that it is essential that you first understand your customer's behavior patterns to know which platform they most likely would use.
See Related: How to Make Money on Instagram: Surefire Ways
4. Direct Traffic
When analyzing the traffic sources to your site using google analytics, you might see the term direct or none. A direct/ none traffic source is where the people visiting your site do it by entering a URL or through a bookmark to access your site directly.
They don't need to go through the search engine as they already know your site or are familiar with its content.
Since they already know your site's name, they write it in their browsers and access your website directly. However, to ensure that you get direct traffic, you must have a blog name that is easy to remember by many people.
In addition, your website must offer significant value to the visitors to ensure repeat visits.
5. Guest Blogging on other Websites
Although this might sound off to some people, I assure you that it is an effective way of getting free traffic. Guest blogging means writing and posting on someone else's website or blog. This works by giving you a link to the website where your post is published.
Giving you the backlinks means that people visiting that website may also visit your blog by clicking on the links. The effect of this is more traffic to your website.
Also, the people who visit your site through the links are most probably interested in your content which might lead to more conversions.
Also, the more backlinks you have, the more chances you have to become an authority, particularly in that niche.
When you are an authority, you not only get better rankings, but you also get more audience which might, in turn, lead to more sales.
See Related: 8+ Types of Blogs that Make Money
6. YouTube
YouTube is another wonderful and valuable source of free traffic for your website or eCommerce store. It is one of the most highly frequented websites on the world internet, and internet marketers widely use it.
If you are a blogger, YouTube can be an excellent source of free traffic for your website.
Although YouTube may not be a source of instant traffic, it is a great platform to market anything for free. Moreover, people can view content from YouTube using their smartphones, which opens more opportunities for marketers and website owners.
When you consider the rate at which online video is growing, it outweighs the hassle required in preparing the video content. Therefore, online videos must be part of your brand marketing strategy.
See Related: Top Video Monetization Platforms: Best YouTube Alternatives
7. Post on Reddit
Posting on Reddit is another great way to get free traffic for your blog. Reddit can provide you with massive free website traffic if used well.
The platform consists of an extensive community of people seeking and sharing various pieces of information to enable them to grow their businesses.
If you find a suitable community for your niche, Reddit can bring traffic to your blog. It is one of the widely used free traffic sources for affiliate marketing. Join the community, share valuable content, grow your reputation, and drive more traffic to your website.
However, be sure not to post links, as you can easily get blocked.
See Related: How to Start a Niche Blog
8. Posting on Quora
Like Reddit, Quora is a question-and-answer platform where people share and seek information on various topics. It is a community where everyone on the platform contributes to offer value to others.
With Quora, their links somehow rank higher in search engines, guaranteeing you more traffic.
For example, Quora posts are most likely to appear on the first page whenever you type a question on Google. Join the community and take advantage of this great community to increase your website's traffic.
9. Use of Forum Marketing
Although most people are now turning to social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook, forums are still effective in driving traffic.
Forum marketing is the process by which you market your brand on forums related to your offer. For example, if you sell camping gear, you should look for communities focused on outdoor activities.
Getting the correct forum, which has enough postings, and members can significantly change the level of visitors to your website. You should choose well, as numerous online forums may sometimes prove challenging to get the right one.
At the end of your post, you can leave a link where interested people may click to follow your content.
See Related: Best Blogging Platforms to Make Money
10. Invite Guest Posters to Your Blog
Just like in guest blogging, you can also invite other bloggers in your niche to post on your website. By doing this, the bloggers will most likely share the post on social media pages, promoting your website. Also, they will probably link back to the post from their blogs.
If you get people who provide quality content, you can be sure to receive more audience to your website. If you do it well, this method can be one of your best free traffic sources.
See Related: How to Blog Anonymously and Make Money
11. Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking is where you share your content on social bookmarking sites. There are various such sites, including Digg, Pinterest, Slashdot, and Delicious.
This method can be an excellent avenue to share your content and attract traffic to your site through backlink building.
12. Write an E-book
An e-book is something that will only require your intellect and time. If you know you are good at it and can produce valuable content, then an e-book is a smart way to bring traffic to your blog for free.
Writing an e-book will cost you nothing, but it can be a long-term solution to your website's needs if done right.
One advantage of e-books is that one can easily convert the traffic they attract since most of them already like what you offer.
See Related: How to Create a Free Blog and Still Make Money
13. Referring Sites
This method offers an excellent free traffic source, but you must do enough work to get there. For people to refer traffic to your website, your content must be precious and of high quality.
In addition, you must have done a lot of networking with other websites to convince them to refer traffic to yours.
If you want people to mention you in their blogs, be sure that your content must be considered valuable. You may want to consider adding your RSS feed to directories or automated blogs that will get more eyeballs on your content.
See Related: How to Make Money with WordPress
14. Blog Commenting
Do you want a great way to network? Well, commenting on other peoples' blogs in your niche offers just that. The wider your network is, the more backlinks you will get to your website.
This is among the most favorite methods marketers and bloggers use to rank in search engines and build backlinks.
The method is popular since it's easy to start and offers an excellent avenue for free traffic.
See Related: Are Blogs Still Relevant?
15. Use Tools Like BuzzSumo
Some tools like BuzzSumo are an excellent methods through which you can use to rank your competition. These tools help you spy on what your competitors are up to and help you figure out how to beat them.
The tools offer free and paid plans, but even with the free one, you can attract considerable traffic if you use it well.
However, you must create excellent content to gain the desired traffic. You need to understand the topmost topics that have the most shares and make use of their keywords. This way, your content may rank higher.
See Related: Best Blogging Resources & Tools to Grow your Site
16. Article Marketing
What article marketing simply means is submitting your articles to various article directories. It is a division of content marketing whereby you can write articles and distribute them to multiple outlets. These outlets include newsletters, publishers, forums, and article banks.
These article directories can use, including EzineArticles.com, GoArticles.com, and SearchWarp.com, among others. And although they are no longer as popular as they were some years back, these platforms can still help you a great deal.
See Related: 10 Best Blog Fonts for Readability
17. Use of Social Influencers
Influencers can be a person, a company, or a group of people with social authority in the same niche as you. Usually, these influencers command a sizeable online following and can capture an audience's attention and easily create engagement on their sites.
Influencer marketing entails partnering with such influencers who, in turn, promote your website or online business.
In exchange for them promoting your brand, you can offer them free samples or still mention them on your platform, such as social media.
However, this has to be mutually beneficial for both parties; therefore, you must also have a certain level of influence.
See Related: How to Become an Influencer
18. Publishing a Press Release
Press releases are written communications that report brief but precise information about certain occurrences. These press releases generate traffic and provide your website with quality backlinks.
Therefore, this is a great and free way of channeling traffic to your website.
A press release could be anything unique and catchy from your business or store. It may be about the launch of a new product, promotional offers, special prices, and more.
See Related: List of 35+ Niche Ideas for Blogging
Conclusion on Free Traffic Sources
If you are new to this game or are already into it and were wondering how to bring more traffic to your site, there you have it. I hope this piece of content provides you with all you require to know about free traffic sources and how to maximize them.
Do you think free traffic sources are effective? Kindly share your comments with us by contacting us on our contact page.