by Ruth Belena

Created on: January 28, 2010

It is not necessary ever to pay for traffic to your website, provided you can follow a few effective website marketing techniques. First you need to ensure your website is optimized for search engine traffic. Then you can get more free traffic by networking and building links to your website. There is no payment involved, only your time and a little effort. When you spend even one hour each day promoting your website for free, you should see a significant amount of free traffic.

◊ Free traffic from search engines.

It is important to ensure that the majority of visitors to your website find it for themselves, when searching for something your website can provide. If you rely on any ad program to earn revenue from your website you need to target the right traffic from search engines. You do this by publishing website content people want to find from search engines, and making certain those people see ads that interest them. The same applies when you use your website to promote affiliate programs or when marketing your own business website.

Each website page is indexed individually by search engines, so keywords should appear frequently in titles, tags and text. Even if your website is filled with images, video or audio content, the titles and descriptions of your website content should be optimized for free traffic from search results. A free online keyword suggestion tool will help you find the best performance keywords to use on your website for SEO (search engine optimization).

◊ Free traffic from social networking.

Never underestimate the power of social networking for getting free traffic for your website. Friends and followers in social networks will start visiting your links when you become known and respected. Your interaction with other members is important for building trust.

You will gain nothing simply by posting links to your website and hoping people will visit them. You need to post links that are relevant to the people who follow you or find you in forums, on social sites and from your networking activities.

Social media websites, online communities and networks all have their own search boxes, and what you post on those websites can also show up in Google results, so it is really important to include at least one keyword in each of your updates.

Long-tail keywords are specific phrases people might use in a search for your type of website content, and these can be highly effective when used in your posts, comments and updates on social networks.

◊ Free traffic from blogs and other websites.

The more links there are to different pages on your website, the better it is for your page rank at Google and for getting free traffic from other websites. Posting links on traffic exchanges and at free link sites is not really going to benefit your website, but when those same links appear in articles on blogs and websites with relevant content, your website will get more quality free traffic.

You can build up a great many links for your website using free article directories. Owners of websites and blogs can also find and use those articles as free website content, provided they include the link back to your website.

SEO, networking and back-linking are all highly effective for getting free traffic for your website. All the free traffic your website gets, from these website marketing activities, really is free.   

Learn more about this author, Ruth Belena.
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