This article is brought to you by Ecwid, providers of ecommerce technology for small business.

It orginally appeared here: https://www.ecwid.com/blog/free-ways-to-drive-website-traffic.html

As a small business owner, you might already know that traffic is everything. The more people visit your store, the higher chance you have of making a sale. But how do you get visitors to your site?

Carefully targeted ads can work like a charm. But if you’re just starting out, you’re probably on a shoestring budget, making the idea of sinking money into ads seem out of reach. Fortunately, there are lots of other ways you can get traffic to your store—for free!

Intrigued? Great! We’ll walk you through the ABCs of building traffic and share some tried and true ways to drive visitors to your online store, without breaking the bank.

Understanding Traffic

Let’s start by defining traffic (and no, we don’t mean it like getting stuck in a traffic jam on the highway).

Traffic is a blanket term for all the visitors to a website. Or to be more precise, the number of visits a website receives.

For an online business, generating traffic is vital. The more visitors your store has, the more purchases come your way. However, that’s only true if your site’s traffic is “relevant”—meaning that those visitors are actually interested in your product or services. That’s why it’s important to target the right audience with your content and offers. But more on that later…

Before You Start: Set Up Analytics for an Online Store

Before we dive into how to get free traffic to your website, we have an important thing we feel like we have to mention: analytics.

Step Zero in driving visitors to your online store is setting up some analytics to understand how potential customers are finding and using your site.

The data you collect with these analytics services can help you make informed decisions for generating traffic and converting shoppers to customers.

Let’s imagine: your store has no sales (boohoo). You think it’s maybe because your site doesn’t show off your products particularly well. So, you spend hours taking better product pictures, writing more detailed descriptions, and adding customer reviews, because these are all great ways to build trust in your store. But none of these tactics will help if your site just isn’t getting any visitors, because without eyes on your page, no one will be clicking that “Buy” button.

When you have analytics set up for your store, it’s easier to run an analysis of your traffic and identify the primary reason you’re not making sales. In the example above, you’d be able to see that there are almost no visitors in your store, and you’ll start working on generating traffic via ad campaigns as opposed to spending your time updating your product pics.

Website analytics takes the guesswork out of online selling, as it can provide information on the following:

How many people are visiting our website?
What pages are they viewing during their visit?
How many visitors complete the purchase?
How many people leave without buying from you?
And more.

One of the most popular analytics services is Google Analytics. Check out our blog post about using Google Analytics for ecommerce sites or connect it to your Ecwid store right away.

Free Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website

Now that you know what traffic is and analytics is set up for your online store, it’s time to get it in front of potential customers. Read on to learn how to drive traffic to your website for free.

Get Your Friends to Help Promote Your Store

If you wonder how to generate free traffic, don’t underestimate the power of word-of-mouth marketing. Ask your friends and family to help you get the word out about your online store. Ask them to share your business’s posts on social media, or recommend your products to their colleagues. People are more likely to take an interest in a store if it’s recommended by someone they trust.

Of course, this shouldn’t be the only way you promote your online store. But if you’re just starting out, word of mouth can help to get some visitors to your online store.

Get Started with Email Marketing

If you haven’t already started building an email list, consider this the sign you’ve been waiting for. Email marketing is a free way to build relationships with people who might be interested in buying what you’re selling. Make sure you add those people to your email list.

A few tips on how to grow your email list:

Add a subscribe form to the home page of your website.
Add a subscribe form to your social media pages.
Add an incentive or a free offer in exchange for email addresses. For example, free shipping with the first order or free download of an ebook.
Add a sign-up checkbox to your checkout to collect customers’ emails.
Encourage subscribers to recommend your newsletter on social media or forward it to their friends to subscribe.

After you grow your email list, start sending out newsletters with information about coming offers. For example, emails about your next sale or new products subscribers may like. And there you have it, free website traffic!

This email shares a free shipping offer and links to an online store

Offers shouldn’t be the only thing you send in a newsletter. Otherwise, subscribers might get bored with never-ending promotions and stop opening your emails, or worse…unsubscribe! Share content that’s popular with people who are into what you sell. If you sell clothes, create lists of trending items of the season and include products from your store as examples.

Post to Social Media Platforms

One of the quickest and easiest free ways to drive traffic to your website is through social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, etc.

Choose a platform that suits your target audience the most and create a business profile there. For example: if you sell home accessories, Pinterest might be the best place for you. If you sell online courses, YouTube and TikTok are handy for showing your expertise through educational videos.

Daniella.io (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVA8chIuC0EUxmgPYHfRJg) creates educational videos to promote her services

Make sure you’re posting content that’s relevant for your target audience on a regular basis. This way, you’re more likely to show up in their feeds.

Remember: too many salesy posts will drive away even the most loyal followers. Instead of promotional posts, create content on topics relevant to your niche. This is much more valuable to your audience and will help you build a following.

Other ways you can generate free traffic to your store via social media:

Add relevant hashtags to your posts to make your posts discoverable on the platform.
Run contests and giveaways to increase your following and, eventually, visitors to your store.
Share time-sensitive discounts on your social media profiles.

Learn more: Social Media Strategy for Small Businesses [With Templates] https://www.ecwid.com/blog/social-media-strategy-for-small-businesses.html

Send Free Samples to Micro-Influencers for a Review

Consider sending free samples to influencers in your niche in exchange for a review that links to your store. This can be mutually beneficial, as long as you are confident of your product quality and the influencer creates quality content.

Think about what niches your product suits and reach out to respective influencers. For example, a healthy snack store can partner with fitness influencers, healthy food cooks, or bloggers that write about parenting.

An example of a product review post by a micro influencer

Instead of influencers with a huge following, reach out to micro-influencers. These are people that have niche expertise and 1,000 to 50,000 followers. Not only will it be easier to get in touch with them, but micro-influencers also often have a more engaged audience.

Their niche expertise means their followers have a higher trust in their opinions. Plus, since micro-influencers have more time to communicate with followers, they have a higher engagement rate.

More: How to Use Micro-Influencers on Instagram to Boost E-Commerce Sales

https://www.ecwid.com/blog/how-to-use-micro-influencers-on-instagram-to-boost-e-commerce-sales.html

Work on SEO to Improve Your Store’s Discoverability

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is basically ensuring your shop shows up in relevant searches.

Use keyword research tools like SEMRush, KWFinder, or Ahrefs to find the keywords relevant to your niche. That’ll give you an understanding of what people are searching online when they are thinking about buying a product like yours or when they are researching the topics in your niche.

Then use the keywords you’ve found to increase your website ranking in relevant searches:

Add keywords to your product descriptions.
Add keywords to meta titles and meta descriptions. Meta titles should give users a quick insight into the content of a page. Meta descriptions are a short, relevant summary of what the page is about. Those are attributes that determine how your page appears on a search engine results page:

Use long-tail keywords (phrases made from 3-5 words). For example, “organic coffee shops in Bristol” instead of “coffee shops.” Long-tail keywords are easier to rank for and usually get more clicks than shorter, more generic terms.
Create relevant content with appropriate keywords, for example, blog posts for your website or an FAQ section.

Keep in mind that though improving SEO is great for increasing search traffic, it shouldn’t be your main method of driving visitors to your store, as it takes lots of time to start working. Though it’s definitely worth improving your SEO, it’s just not the best option when you need to boost traffic fast.

Figuring out SEO on your own can be tricky, so read our in-depth articles about search engine optimization for e-commerce:

A Highly Effective SEO Strategy To Increase Traffic https://www.ecwid.com/blog/effective-seo-strategy-to-increase-traffic.html
Ecommerce SEO: Boost Ranking on Google with GTIN and Brand Names https://www.ecwid.com/blog/ecommerce-seo-boost-ranking-on-google-with-gtin-and-brand-names.html
Following Google SEO Recommendations https://www.ecwid.com/blog/seo-google-recommendations.html

Add Your Store to Online Directory Listings

One way to increase traffic to your website is by getting listed in free online directories and review sites such as Google My Business, Yelp, Bing Places, Yahoo Local, Yellow Pages, etc.

An example of a Yelp listing

The first step is to make a list of the top online directories that are relevant to your business, then follow their instructions on how to get listed.

Add a link to your website to your profile on directories, and make sure to include as much information about your store as possible. Don’t forget to update your listings regularly.

Some directories are well-ranked on Google, which could help with the site ranking higher for relevant searches for your business.

Use Pinterest to Encourage Product Discovery

Pinterest is not just a social media network but also a visual search platform. People use Pinterest to find inspiration for their purchases, for example, when planning special occasions, choosing a new wardrobe, or researching new recipes.

You can also pin helpful resources to drive interest in your business

All these make Pinterest a great place for online sellers. Pinterest users are often already intent on buying something, and the platform helps them find what they need. Add your products to the platform for Pinterest folks to discover them.

Pinterest also has product pins you can use to spotlight your products. They are called Buyable pins, and they let users buy a product without leaving Pinterest.

Learn more: How to Boost Your Sales with Pinterest

https://www.ecwid.com/blog/how-to-boost-your-sales-with-pinterest.html

Optimize Your Google My Business Listing

We’ve already talked about listing your business in online directories, so what makes Google My Business worth mentioning again? Google is the world’s largest search engine, and you want to show up in searches relevant to your business and location.

To optimize your Google My Business listing:

Fill in all of the details about your store, such as your business description, hours, address, and of course, a link to your website. Update this information as soon as it changes.
Add photos of your storefront and products. Businesses with photos have 35% more click-throughs to their websites than businesses without photos.
Keep the business description short but detailed. Include relevant keywords and search phrases in your description.
Manage customer reviews and reply to them.
Share offers, events, and products directly to Google Search and Maps through posts on Google My Business.

You can also let potential shoppers get in touch with you from the listing via special buttons like “Message” or “Website.” The ability to interact with your business right from your listing increases the chances of getting new customers.

Customers will be directed to the restaurant’s site when they click this link

Here’s how to get started with your Google My Business listing:

https://support.google.com/business/answer/2911778?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop

Create Relevant Content

Blog posts, videos, podcasts—all these types of content can help with getting visitors to your site.

You can post content relevant to your niche on your website or on other blogs or sites. For instance, you can post an article about “Best Practices for Learning a New Language” to get people interested in your online courses.

Make sure that each piece of content you publish on other websites links to your store. Also make sure your content is easy to share. Add share buttons to your blog posts or podcasts to ensure maximum exposure for each post.

Join Discussions in Your Industry

Participating in discussions relevant to your industry helps to build trust with your business and can help with driving traffic too.

Join Facebook groups, answer questions on Reddit, Quora, or forums popular in your industry. You can link back to your site in your answer, but make sure it actually adds value. Salesy and spam comments will harm your business rather than encourage people to check it out.

Members of a Facebook group for restaurant owners recommend useful tools to each other

Remember that the primary goal of this method is to develop trust and credibility with your company while getting website traffic is secondary.

Use Social Bookmarking Sites

We’ve already talked about creating content relevant to your potential customers. To improve the discoverability of your such content, share it on social bookmarking sites.

Social bookmarking sites let users store and share links they found interesting with other members of the community. They can also act like free traffic sources to your site. For business owners, posting to social bookmarking sites helps improve brand awareness and traffic by providing users access to useful content.

There are various social bookmarking sites, for example, Digg, Slashdot, Delicious, Technorati, Alltop, Bloglines, Netvibes. Research which ones make sense to your business and start posting your content there.

Show Products in Free Listings on Google Shopping

Google Shopping is a service that lets customers search for, view, and compare products.

When a customer uses Google to search for a product, products listed in Google Shopping are displayed on the main results page or under the shopping tab.

Right now, showing products in free listings on Google’s Shopping tab is available to US sellers only. If your business is located in the US, that’s a great way to get free targeted website traffic.

To get started, you need to sign up for Google Merchant Center: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/188924

Driving traffic to your online store is one of the most important aspects of running a successful ecommerce business. It doesn’t need to be expensive or complicated and (as we showed you in this article) it can even be free!

About the author

Anastasia Prokofieva is a content writer at Ecwid. She writes about online marketing and promotion to make entrepreneurs’ daily routine easier and more rewarding. She also has a soft spot for cats, chocolate, and making kombucha at home.

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