How to Get Free Traffic to Your Web Site

Traffic is important for your Web site, but targeted hits-or hits from visitors that are looking for what you have- is even more beneficial. Here are several free ways to get targeted traffic to your Web site.

Step 1: Start with the Search Engines

If your Web site is not on the search engines yet, that is the place to begin. You can submit your site to whatever search engines you'd like. Google is a good first search engine to submit to. Once you get on one search engine, the others will pick you up from there. Search engines will bring in a large part of your target audience which means lots of hits looking for what you offer.

It is important to tweak your Web site for the search engines. This is called SEO or Search Engine Optimization. J. Walker, otherwise known as Cricket, has been offering SEO eclasses online since 2003. Her classes are self-paced and easy for all levels of knowledge and experience. Best of all, the class are free! Go to http://www.gnc-web-creations.com/website-training.htm to sign up and start the next class session.

Step 2: Pay Attention to Content

It does not matter if you have a store front Web site or an educational Web site you still need good content. The world wide Web is informational. Not only that, but the search engines look for content and it brings people in to your site with the content's keywords.

You can write all the content yourself, or you can hire freelance writers. You can also find free content that is related to the subjects or products you have on your Web site. Usually this free content is in exchange for the author's byline and link at the bottom of each article. There are hundreds of free content article sites, but some good places to find content are:

http://www.ezinearticles.com

http://www.articlecity.com/

http://www.amazines.com/

Speaking of content, if you do write content for your target market, why not submit those articles to the free content Web sites too? You can have your articles reprinted on other Web sites, ezines, and blogs. Now that is a great way to get your niche market to notice you and you'll notice the hits!

Step 3: Participate in Social Networking

Social Networks are a great place to get your Web site noticed. If you decide to use this medium, you'll need to spend some time interacting with your new friends.

Facebook offers many options for the Web site owner. First, you have to sign up for a personal account. You can have up to 5000 friends on your personal account. From there you can start a "Fan" page for your Web site and invite your friends to join. There is also a code you can copy and paste into your Web site to encourage your Web site visitors to join your fan page. Additionally, you can begin a group page for your Web site. This is different from a fan page and you can sign up for $5 a month to email your group offers or happenings on your Web site.

Twitter is a great way to network with other Web site owners and also to get the word out about what you are offering on your Web site. Sign up for an account and begin adding friends. Add Tweetdeck or Hootsuite to your computer desktop to manage your Twitter account(s) and friends. Once you add friends and begin tweeting, it is easy to send updates about your Web site-don't forget the link! A word of caution with Twitter, don't just join twitter to send out your updates and not be involved with your following. Twitter is a conversational network and you will find quickly that you'll lose your following if you send only your tweets and ignore the audience.

There are hosts of other social networking Web sites you can get involved in, but Twitter and Facebook are two good ones to start with.

Finally, don't forget about the glory of word of mouth advertising. If you offer good quality merchandise, interesting and relevant articles, and a genuine interest in your audience you will receive one of the best forms of hits, hits from your loyal visitors. Nothing is more powerful than a happy referrer.

It only takes a few minutes to get started with some of these suggestions. Start getting free hits on your Web site today!