Getting to the top spot on Google used to be a matter of good SEO practices, keyword targeting and building up your organic rankings for specific search terms. Now with the massive uptake of Google Ads, the top spot is often auctioned off to the highest bidder leaving the rest of us relegated to listings half way down the page.
Even though it can be hard to compete with paid advertising, getting high rankings on Google can still be achieved without having to fork out a big amount of money. Here are my top tips to help you generate more traffic to your website for free.
Building quality links
This is still a very powerful way to boost your search engine rankings as long as you don’t engage in disreputable practices or accept incoming links from dodgy sites. Link building takes time and effort but as a long term strategy it works well and doesn’t cost you anything. When you build links to your site from other sites, Google looks at each link to your site as a sign of approval and will reward you accordingly, depending on the reputation of the site you have linked from. The higher the authority of the site that’s linked to you, the more credibility it will get.
Taking time to build links from other websites is usually worth the effort and it can be done through a number of different methods. From blog commenting and guest posting to listing your business in directories and on feedback and review sites, the idea is to get links to your site from other, reputable and relevant websites.
As well as building your own backlinks, you can also keep an eye on who your competitors are linking to and getting their backlinks from. This is a bit of a sneaky tactic that can give you a bit of inside information on their strategy so you can stay one step ahead.
Create great content
If you want to build links the reputable way you usually need to have some content that other people will want to link to. This can be in the form of well written, valuable blog posts, or visual content like infographics. Infographics are a great tool for link building and improving your visibility as a whole as they are easy to share and seem to be very popular at the moment. There are some free tools you can use to create professional looking infographics even if you aren’t a graphic designer.
Engage with people
Increasing your exposure and building relationships online will help increase the amount of traffic to your site as well as creating more backlinks and authority with Google. It’s a good idea to maintain an active presence on relevant social media platforms and blogs as well as keeping an eye on any mentions of your business by setting up a Google alert.
Getting more traffic from Google doesn’t have to be expensive. If you’re prepared to invest some time and effort into link building and creating regular content you can boost your website visitors and your search engine ranking without it costing a fortune.
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About the Author:
Jo Macdermott is the Chief Marketing Consultant at Next Marketing in Melbourne. She has 15 years of marketing experience, is a Certified Practising Marketer and is a sought after marketing media commentator. Jo specialises in working with small and medium businesses. Follow her on Twitter here.
