The content you create is one of the most important aspects when starting a blog, new website or business online. However at the end of the day promoting your content and getting traffic to your site is the most crucial element to convert your visitors to customers.

With over a billion active websites in the internet today the competition is fierce and is basically a numbers game. Meaning the more traffic you have the better your chances of surviving and thriving online.

In order to compete in this field you need to create better content, provide more value compared to your competition and finally make sure your audience finds your content by having a clear marketing strategy. Focusing on great content alone will not lead you anywhere.

However blowing through a massive budget each month to get traffic flowing to a site is not something that everyone can afford. Luckily people can increase exposure, increase backlinks and increase traffic for free using a variety of methods.

However most people have said that it is impossible to do. Furthermore very few people have the correct answer to this impossible quiz.

12 different internet entrepreneurs from the YEC community were asked questions on how to increase traffic without a budget and these are some of their tips.

1. Up Your Social Media Game.

Over recent years social media has come to play a pivotal role when it comes to branding and marketing. Furthermore if you have spent any amount of time on the internet you will notice that big businesses have embraced it, small and medium enterprises have embraced it and so have entrepreneurs.

It is essential that you take advantage of the audience reach that comes from social media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ are some of the social media channels that you should really focus on. They provide a platform to engage and interact with your customers as well as share the latest content with them and increase traffic without a budget.

How to Promote Website Content on Social Media.

Ensure that your follow buttons are visible somewhere on your site. This will also to make it easy for people to follow your company. This is a great way to keep in touch with your customers and find out their behavior as well as their needs.

Make sure to post often and be consistent by making personalized high quality images. Furthermore ask your clients to share the content so as to increase the reach. This can be enhanced by adding a share button. A chain reaction can be started by sharing your content online and can be used to kick off an organic campaign that might even go viral.

Follow the One-in-Seven Rule.

This rule has been applied by several companies over time and still holds true even though it sounds as a cliche. This rule states that one in seven posts should be a promotional post. The rest of the six posts should focus on value content and aim to inform your audience about your niche.

Get Your Customers’ Opinions.

It has been proved that most people like to talk about themselves, whether they like to admitting it or not.You can use this fact to your advantage by having your audience voice their opinions about your products. You should seek to make the questions engaging and interesting. This will enable you to identify the market needs and preferences. This will help you gear your content towards providing solutions the these needs.

Say “No” to Syndicated Status Updates.

Using synchronize and timed posting software may cause your audience to lose interest in your content since they think it lacks authenticity. This is because your clients vary from platform to platform and you should not use generic content to appeal to all of them. The clients may in the long term move to a different platform and end up ditching you when they find out you are not genuine.

2. Respond to comments.

Engaging with customers and website readers is important but most companies more often than not ignore this. This is because the lack of interaction between the clients and the company will lead to clients ignoring the blog posts and most social media updates. Responding to comments will lead to more people posting on your blog and hence increasing your blog’s or websites standing as a trusted and authoritative source of valuable content.

3. Create a Blog.

According to a HubSpot survey 60% of businesses that have blogs bring in more customers compared to those that do not have blogs. A blog enables your clients to see the human side of your business and connect with you on a human level. This will help to also boost your ranking in search engines due to the volume of indexed pages.

4. Learn SEO.

Learn search engine optimization so as to boost the ranking of your site on search engines. This is because a majority of people use search engines to look for services that they may require. This is why you should take search engine optimization seriously.

The basics of SEO.

Always use keywords appropriately but avoid stuffing them all over your post. This because when people are searching for something online they usually type in the keywords.Tools like Google Keyword Planner or Long tail Pro maybe used to help you use keywords appropriately. However Google will flag your site as spammy if you use too much keywords within your content.

Always update your content because sites with fresh content always to rank higher compared to sites with older posts.

Earn quality links by having your website’s URL on other credible sites. This will make search engines identify your site as an authoritative site. This will lead to your site getting bumped up and appearing higher on the search engines results. To get these links you should provide great contents as well as freebies and also asking for link back from people who have used your product.

5. Have a Quality Website.

Nowadays you can get a professionally looking website without spending a fortune which was not possible in the past. Squarespace and WordPress provide amazing templates and themes that can be used to make your site compete with professionally designed custom websites.

An informative ‘about page’ is essential so as to guide anyone who stumbles upon your page. This will boost chances of conversion.

The use of testimonials may also increase trust among users who are new to your website. Make sure your site is easy to navigate through since users are usually turned off by a site that has a difficult interface.

Final Thoughts

As you continue to search for ways to increase traffic without a budget make sure to use the above information consistently, you may learn some more as you move along. The above tips can be used as a reference point when formulating your strategy. Remember to update your content consistently and soon you will be an expert.