Free Ways to Drive Website Traffic in 2021

So, you had a epiphany and thought “I will start a website and sell online”.  Then the process begins, if you are lucky enough you have a name, your social media is set up and all you need to do is decide on a webhosting platform. BOOM! You got this.  You make a beautiful site and then realize you are one of billions of sites online and how will you ever drive traffic to your site?

From social media, to marketing tips and tools I can help you figure out what it really takes to learn how to increase website traffic on your store. You’ll also hear what the professionals do to increase traffic on their websites.  I will explain how to use some website traffic checker tools for you to find out how much traffic you’re getting and from where.

First things first.  If you do not understand how it all works, you should not hire someone to do it for you.  How will you know if they are doing what you need if you do not understand it? Learn first, delegate later is my motto.

Check back each week to catch 17 ways you can increase your website traffic for free.

What is website traffic?

Website traffic is the users who visit a website.  While it is important to have web traffic, it is not the only thing you should be keeping your eye on.  In addition to web traffic look at three things:

• How long users stay on the site ?
• What % of users made a purchase ?
• How much did it cost to bring in a visitor?

1. Make you website search friendly

If you have just launched your website or it is in the early stages,  concentrate on finding keywords that align with your business niche to create your blog content and store pages. To start you should concentrate on one or two main keywords per webpage. You can use SEO tools like Aherfs or Google ads key word planner to find the right keywords for your content.

In the beginning, look for keywords that have the search volume of under 10,000 searches a month. After a few months of creating blog content and optimizing product pages, you can then move on to higher volume keywords.

The key to getting website traffic is to build a strong base of relevant keywords first. Be sure to take advantage of the blog on your online store, it can have a big impact on driving organic traffic to your website.

Search engines are much better at indexing words than visual elements, but images and videos can help boost your Google ranking if they’re enhanced for viewing on mobile devices. Ensure each image includes short alt text describing the image to give the search engine a text alternative to interpret.

Trina Plamondon is the founder of Oh Canada Market, an online marketplace for small, family-owned Canadian businesses. Each week she provides creative solutions that help small business owners increase brand awareness and develop growth.