How To Increase Organic Traffic When You Have A Limited Budget

Many business owners are aware that paid advertising can instantly drive traffic to their website and, more specifically with the advances in technology, it has become increasingly effective at directly targeting your ideal customers. However, “buying traffic” is not always a feasible strategy for small business owners and start-ups that are restricted by a small budget.

It’s also not in everybody’s wheelhouse to know how to run paid ads, so if you don’t know what you’re doing, you could just end up wasting your money. So, if you don’t have the financial resources to run paid ads, you need to implore tactics that will increase your organic traffic.

Luckily, paid advertising is not the end all and be all when it comes to web traffic. In the digital marketing industry, there are different traffic sources. Organic traffic refers to the visitors that land on your website because of unpaid search results – it is earned.

It is also the primary channel of traffic that inbound marketing strives to increase, and it is driven by Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In other words, you “earn” it by creating content optimized for search that utilizes competitive keywords to position in the high-ranking pages.

Organic traffic is underestimated by many, but it has significant benefits that will last for years without spending a dime on paid traffic. There’s a reason it’s overlooked, though. It requires content, a lot of content.

And so we circle back to the topic of budget, because content requires money… right? Well, no, not necessarily. While there are professionals that can do these tasks for you, when you’re on a tight budget then your biggest asset is your time.

Here’s a list of five suggested tactics you can easily do that won’t cost you money and is guaranteed to increase your site’s visitors in the long haul.

1. Revamp Your Website Content

Take a look at your current content and give it a good review. Perhaps some articles have incorrect formatting, or some blog posts are not properly optimized for keywords. There could be some outdated or updated information that requires your attention, and you might even be just a couple of edits away from improving your searching engine result ranking. Just by going over what you already have!

It’s likely that you have to spend more time optimizing all your copy and blog posts, as this has an effect on the search ranking – so investigate the performance of your current content.

There are softwares that help ensure your content is competitively ranking for a particular keyword.

2. Spend Time Nurturing Your Social Media Channels

Social media marketing. It’s one of the most obvious ways to reach people, and yet it can seem the most daunting to business owners. The fact is that you don’t have to worry about getting thousands of followers or likes, those metrics won’t serve you well if you are struggling to generate quality leads from them.

Spend time creating engaging and valuable content that serves your audience, and don’t be shy to deviate from the usual platforms. Try something new, whether that be Instagram Reels or even TikTok. Get creative and find inspiration from other accounts.

There are many opportunities to go viral on social media, but you want to make sure that you have a solid strategy for sending traffic to your site. Take a look at your bio and ensure all your links are visible and working, and

3. Answer Questions On Quora

Beyond Google, do you know where your customers get their questions answered? There are niche sites such as Quora.com and Reddit that are heavily underrated sources for generating traffic for your site.

All it takes is a couple of minutes every day to answer some questions and provide value to the users on the forums. You’ll create a free account and list your business in your profile, which is great for (free) brand awareness.

You can also subtly reference your own business or product in your answer, just do it in a way that doesn’t come across overly self-promotional. And if you don’t find any suitable questions for you to lend an answer to, then you can always pose a question and start a conversation yourself. Nothing stops you from engaging with prospects and doing some informal market research!

4. Try Your Hand at Guest Blogging

Writing guest posts increases the chances to increase web traffic to both participants’ sites (blog owner and guest blogger). You might not be the best writer or a professional blogger, but you can create a blog post and get it published on a blog that isn’t yours.

Getting published on another blogger’s site gives you extra credibility and authority as you can present yourself as an expert in your field – simply because others are willing to associate with your work. You’ll want to pick blogs that have a viewership relevant to your business, and that those bloggers are trustworthy too.

Here are some tips to improve the value of your blog post before pitching it:

  • Write compelling headlines
  • Start your introduction with a bold statement
  • Add charts, screenshots, and images
  • Reference authoritative sources that are relevant to your topic
  • Promote the guest post across your social media channels

The purpose of pitching an article idea is to give value to a new audience. Keep it classy and don’t ask for anything in return.

5. Become an Affiliate Partner

Now this might seem odd, to promote another product while trying to sell your own, but there are benefits to doing so. The first and most obvious benefit is that you will generate a commission from sales, earning you some money to then put back into your marketing efforts. But another benefit is that you will get exposure by being associated with that brand.

Many companies are looking to leverage the audience of micro influencers, people who have a 1,000-10,000 niche following. If you post affiliate links to that product on your website or on your social media channels, there’s a strong possibility that the brand will point people to your page by resharing the content, or the content will be found through organic search when people look up that product.

Reviews are a great way to promote an affiliate partnership in a way that feels authentic to your own brand, and you always want to align yourself with products and companies that make sense for your audience. Make sure you can access the affiliate link analytics to track how much traffic you are sending and what content is performing best.

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Organic traffic is valuable for businesses with a limited budget but are wanting to increase traffic to their website. Without the option of paid ads, these tactics are highly effective at driving organic traffic as the next best option. But you have to put a working system in place and consistently stick with it.

So, while it is a strategy that requires long-term investment and consistency, it is beneficial overall to your website’s visibility and increasing your search engine rankings for years to come – so it’s well worth the time and effort. The very reason why search engines exist is because thousands of people are searching for information every second, and you want to ensure your online presence is visible and ready to grab their attention so they can find you.