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Nowadays, there is a seemingly endless number of websites on any subject and in any niche. While this is great, because there is more useful information to go around than ever before, it’s getting harder and harder to reach your target audience through all that noise, especially if you don’t have a large budget to spend on a marketing campaign. Things get even more complicated if you are a student which has no budget but would still to offer your product, service, or simply your knowledge to the world.
The first step would be to create a website, and fortunately, there are plenty of free options you can explore, even when it comes to picking website templates. Once you have done that, getting your audience to your website is arguably your biggest challenge. Assuming you don’t have money to spend on paid ads, let’s take a look at some of the most effective free ways in which you can increase traffic to your website.
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1. Create a Blog
The copy which you have on your website should not only inform your audience about who you are, what you do, and what you can do for them but also help with your SEO. However, you can only create so many pages on your website before it starts to get too cluttered. So how do you boost your SEO then? Easily, by creating a blog section on your website. With each of your blog posts, you can target relevant keywords or phrases and drive organic traffic to both your blog and website.
However, be prepared to stick it out, since you will need to target keywords that are more specific and have a smaller search volume (less than 10,000 searches a month) first. Once you have built a strong foundation over the course of several months, you can start going after high-traffic keywords. High-quality content is the most important SEO ranking factor of them all, and your blog is the perfect way to deliver it.
2. Use Free Keyword Tools
Keywords, along with high-quality content and relevant backlinks, are among the most important SEO signals. It’s pretty obvious that using tools such as SEMrush or Ahrefs Keywords Explorer will help you boost your SEO and drive traffic your way, but they are also not an option if you have zero dollars to spend. Fortunately, there are some useful and free keyword tools you can use as well. They may not be as effective as their paid counterparts, but you’ll still get much better results than just guessing what your target audience is looking for.
According to Essayontime.com, the following free keyword tools are the most effective:
- Google Trends – This keyword tool enables you to view the popularity of each keyword, and even makes it possible to compare two or more. Very user-friendly and easy to use.
- Ahrefs Free Keyword Generator – With this keyword tool, you can generate up to 150 different keywords based on any seed keyword. Also provides the Keyword Difficulty score for the first 10 keywords.
- Keyword Sheeter – If you need to generate a lot of keywords fast, this is the tool for you. It is able to pull thousands of keywords from Google’s autocomplete suggestions. You can even use positive and negative filters to narrow down your search.
Each of these three free tools brings something different to the table, so using all three should help you produce optimal results. You should also make use of longtail keyword opportunities. These keywords have less volume, but they are very specific and usually contain intent, which makes it easier for you to know exactly what your audience is looking for.
3. Build Backlinks on Relevant Websites
Backlinks are the third crucial component of SEO and ranking. Simply put, backlinks are links on external websites that lead back to your website or blog. They benefit your blog and website in several ways. First, backlinks signal to Google that your website is trustworthy, as long as the content of the anchor text (words which link back to your blog) is relevant.
How do you build backlinks? By reaching out to relevant blogs in your niche and offering to write a free guest post for them in an exchange for a backlink. This not only drives traffic your way but also exposes you to an entirely new audience. All the incoming traffic from reputable websites will also signal to Google that your website offers relevant and useful content.
4. Create a Strong Social Media Presence
Creating accounts on all social media platforms that are relevant to your niche won’t cost you a thing, nor will building a following on any of them. If done right, you can use social media to promote your website, gain new followers, and generate more traffic. Sharing links to your blog posts is an obvious thing to do, but you shouldn’t stop there. Use your social media to engage your audience and connect with them, instead of just promoting your work.
You can also share information that they might find helpful, and respond to their comments and feedback. Every now and then, you can throw in a call to action as well. By doing all of this and building a connection with your audience, you will come off as more genuine and personable.
5. Take a Look at What Your Competition Is Doing
While your website should be unique, it can never hurt to take a look at your competitors and what they are doing to drive more traffic their way. Take a look at their blog section. What sort of blog posts are they producing? Which topics are they covering? How often do they publish? Once you know what they are doing, you can create your own blog posts which are superior to those your competitors are producing.
For example, if they are blogging about different SEO tactics, you can cover topics that they haven’t tackled yet, or make your posts on similar subjects more detailed and in-depth by including relevant data and examples. You can also identify which social media platforms are working for them, and then focus on those yourself.
Final Thoughts
Increasing the traffic to your website can be done even if you are a student which can’t spend money on paid methods. All you need is some time and hard work so you can implement all the tips we have shared in this article. We hope that you will find them helpful and effective. Start growing your website today!
