12 Quick Free Traffic Hacks Guide

“Today it’s not about ‘get the traffic’ – it’s about ‘get the targeted and relevant traffic.” – Adam Audette, SVP of SEO, Merkle.

Definitely the days of relying solely on that elusive Page 1 ranking on Google are long gone, but fortunately there are many tried and tested strategies that you can use to attract these extra visitors, turn them into leads, and ultimately into sales.

12 Quick Free Traffic Hacks Guide

Traffic Hack #1 – A “Top 10” Flattering Blog Post

So, what’s a flattering blog post? For the most part it’s where you list your Top 10 people, products, or services based on your own research/reviews.

After all we all have weakness for flattery. As a result, getting recognition by others for our work, products or services is something most people can’t resist showing off about.

Some of the people, products or services you list in your blog will want their followers to see others have recommended them.

This is a simple, fast, highly effective way to get traffic via shares, Likes and followers.

When you write your blog make sure to tell the people you’re writing about via tags, email, and so on and ask them to share it.

For example: Top 10 Kindle Conversion Tools For Authors.

Take some time to write down 5 x Top 10 Blog Post ideas for your own business/niche.

• Share posts to all your Social Media Channels.
• Tag all of the people/businesses in your post.
• Tweet each person, product or service that features to let them know they’ve been selected.
• Follow-up with an email informing them of the blog post and ask them to share it with their followers.

Traffic Hack #2 – Guest Blogging

Contact other sites in your niche or area. If you’re an expert in a particular niche offer to do a unique post for them on their site. Create something that’s exceptional value. In exchange you’d get a backlink to your own site which then generates traffic. From an SEO standpoint you must be careful not to put your blogs on low ranking sites or low-domain authority sites.

Why would you do this? It’s a highly effective, yet simple way of getting more traffic from 3rd party authority sites.

Guest Blogging Steps:-

• Create a high-quality blog post in your niche that’s a minimum of 2000 words. Send it to them in PDF format.
• Include images which will help with engagement and the quality of your post. Ensure you have the rights to use the images you include.
• Draw up a list of high authority websites you want to target. Use the free Moz Chrome Toolbar to assess a website’s domain authority level. Look for sites with low spam scores and a higher domain authority than your own site.
• Contact the list of sites to target via email to offer your blog post in exchange for a link back to your website.

When contacting the webmaster include the following:-

• Brief details of why you’re contacting them (a mutually beneficial JV).
• Short description of your experience in the niche/sector.
• Details of your blog post and reasons why you believe it would benefit their readers.
• A sample of your post in the email or PDF attachment.
• A time frame for them to respond. Give them 3 days.
• How they can get in touch should they wish to proceed with a JV (include telephone no.).

Top Tip – Look for blog posts on high authority websites that are out of date. Offer to write a fresh, more up-to-date post in exchange for a backlink.

Result – They get fresh content, and you have an old blog post you can adjust and improve upon. Remember Google loves fresh content.

Traffic Hack #3 – Submit Voucher Codes

This works well for people selling products. You can submit voucher codes to top voucher code websites. These are highly searched terms. People are always looking for discounts!

How it works – If you have a website that sells a product or service, and you have the facility to generate coupon/discount codes submit them to various voucher code websites that are out there.

Traffic Hack #4 – Huffington Post Blog Pitch

This is the largest journalistic/blog website and the 69th most visited in world. Pitch a blog submission to them because it’s definitely worth a try! Tie your post into something relevant and interesting. Be current. It would be good to get a backlink from this high authority site.

Find out how to pitch your submission at https://www.huffpost.com/static/how-to-pitch-huffpost.

Traffic Hack #5 – Send an “Oops! I forgot the link” Email

In your autoresponder follow-up emails try incorporating a “human error” in your sequence. Send an email that’s missing a link or a file. Then, automate a follow-up email straight away sending the missing info that should have been in the first email.

Your email rates will skyrocket when you send this email because it has a human element attached to it! Always include a p.s. in your emails too.

Traffic Hack #6 – Engage on Forums Relevant to Your Niche

Step 1 – find forums in your niche. Type [YOUR NICHE] FORUMS into Google.

Step 2 – Sign up to be a member and start interacting on other’s posts. In time you’ll be recognised as a useful contributor. People will start to connect with you and visit your site.

This method is also effective on LinkedIn but it does take work. It’s quick to set up but requires you to be consistent and engaged over a prolonged period. Only choose forums where you’re able to provide a link to your own website on your profile page. Don’t sell or promote anything in your posts or responses to people’s threads. Instead offer expert advice and opinions to build up trust and credibility.

Traffic Hack #7 – 1st Page of Google Blog Hack

Some of the most clicked through and read blogs incorporate numbers in the blog title and page description. Because when people search for tips and advice on how to do something they prefer to read posts that are broken down by “numbers” or “steps”. This makes it easier to digest for readers and easier to format for creators.

Who is it that dictates what goes on the 1st page of Google? The searchers – how long they spend on a page, the CTR (Click Through Rate) on the title of a page, what action they take on the page, etc. Google ultimately decides but takes all this info into consideration, like bounce rate, social interaction, and so on.

Traffic Hack #8 – Offer Podcast Interviews

Offer yourself up as an expert. This is a great way to spread your message, product or service and get traffic and recognition for very little work.

Arrange for a podcast owner to interview you in exchange for either a link back to your site or a promotion of your product or service.

Draw up list of podcast websites where you believe you can add value. Google [YOUR NICHE PODCAST]. iTunes is a great place to source podcasts.

Send them the following details:

• Your name
• Email and mobile number
• Website
• Your title
• Credentials, experience & qualifications
• Your proposed podcast subject matter
• Experience within the proposed podcast subject
• Awards & nominations

Always request a copy of the interview questions so you can prepare.

This is a great opportunity for plenty of backlinks in addition to plugging your product or service.

Traffic Hack #9 – Google My Business

Great for building trust and getting traffic to your website. An absolute must for instantly getting on the 1st page of Google. This should be one of the very first things you set up for your own business!

People are looking to see if you actually exist and are looking for trust. This verifies your website or business. If you’re a local business, it allows you to attract local clients.

You’ll get a link from Google back to your site, but it’s more effective for search and map results, therefore increasing your business exposure and traffic.

Also fantastic for getting reviews on your business that feature on the 1st page of Google. You can also use TrustPilot but this costs and takes time. Google My Business is instant.

You can send people to the page to write reviews. People will then see the orange schema review stars.

Get started here. Submit your website and they’ll mail you a postcard with your verification code which takes about a week. Log back in and upload all of your business details.

Traffic Hack #10 – Slideshare.net

If you’re creating a video of slides for YouTube or PowerPoint slides upload them to Slideshare which is owned by LinkedIn. It’s a high domain authority website.

So why would you share all your content? Well, because you can put links on them and turn them into PDF documents with clickable links. You can also have a link back to your own website as well. You can share infographics, action plans, any type of document with the wider Internet community. Great if you’ve got a website that’s generating leads, with a pop-up. You can also do affiliate stuff.

Example – 24 Books You’ve Never Heard Of – But Will Change Your Life – 845,131 views!

How are they making money from this? Well, they’ve put an affiliate link to Amazon on each book that they recommend. Absolutely brilliant idea.

Tips for getting the most from Slideshare.net:-

• Create an engaging title for your slide. This will help your CTR (Click Through Rate).
• Make sure your first slide looks great!
• Put your web address on the bottom of each slide.
• Consider sharing infographics as they are generally more engaging than slides. You can get them done on Canva.

Make sure you add an active link to pages within your slides. Some people do this on EVERY slide! Create them in PP and then convert them to a PDF to make the links active. You can upload PDFs to Slideshare.

Use an eye-catching title, include a link in your description, select your category and set to public. Add lots of relevant tags based on what people are searching for around your subject. Keep a check on the Discoverability Score (starts orange but moves to green as you add your description and tags).

Traffic Hack #11 – Transcribe Video Content for Blogs using Speechpad.com (best one for accuracy and speed)

A great way to write books quickly. Record content on your phone and save it. Then email it to yourself and upload it. They transcribe it for you and then you can edit it.

Create videos for blogs and then get it transcribed. You can put the content below the video so people can read it.

Benefit – you get lots of fresh content/text on your blog and have more chance of generating traffic.

Again, remember Google loves fresh content.

Traffic Hack #12 – Link eBooks with Web Links on Kindle

Using Amazon’s “Look Inside” facility (first 8% or 10% of book), you’re able to create active links within eBooks that you’re either selling or giving away for free. You can see how I’ve done that with my own books at https://www.amazon.com/author/debikirk.

You have to upload a PDF for a paperback edition which can take a few weeks, but Kindle is automatic.

On page 2 you can offer free things using live links to a page giving people a free bonus.

However, you’re not trying to sell through this link but gather a lead for future selling.

To Your Success!