Top 5 Free Strategies To Grow your Traffic Organically

I spend a pretty penny on various tools and services that I use to help with growing and sustaining my business, but let’s not forget all of the free ways that have helped me drive traffic to my business organically over the years.

Strategy #1: Stay Focused On One Platform

You can’t always do it all and sometimes you have to choose just one or two platforms if you want them to be successful. If you try to do everything, you might not be giving each platform the full effort needed to be successful. My suggestion? Focus on one or two until you have mastered them and only when you feel comfortable (or have the time) add another one into the mix.

Here is the problem. A lot of folks getting started with their online business want to see quick success, so they try doing all of the things they see successful businesses doing, but the only reason these businesses are able to do that much is that they are already successful. I bet if you asked any big creator or online business how they got started, the answer will be one thing. Maybe YouTube or blogging, or Instagram or a Podcast - only once they started to find success did they probably add on another platform or strategy.

Strategy #2: Start a YouTube Channel

If you listened to my podcast last week, all about why you need to start a YouTube channel, you had to know this one was coming. Video is everything right now. You have seen that in TikTok, Reels, YouTube ... and it’s not just on Social Media, it’s how we communicate now too - like FaceTiming and Zoom Meetings. I understand not everyone is at the point where they might feel comfortable showing their face on camera and I also understand the amount of learning that is required to have a successful YouTube channel, but it’s worth it.

Don’t believe me, listen to last week's podcast to learn about how starting a YouTube channel can help you become an authority in your niche, reach new audiences, build more revenue streams, and more.

Strategy #3: Start using Pinterest

Pinterest has over 444 million monthly users and reaches a wide variety of people. Incorporating Pinterest into your marketing strategy will help attract potential customers or viewers to any platform of your choice. You can have the pin lead to your YouTube video, your blog post, your website, or your email list.

Now more than ever, Pinterest is optimized for businesses and they even offer a Pinterest Business account that you can create for free. You can link your company blog or website to your business account and it offers a variety of tools to track and analyze your brand’s progress and performance.

If you are having trouble with staying on top of your Pinterest Pins, you can use a scheduling tool like Later or Tailwind to schedule your pins to your various boards. Want to learn more about Pinterest, let me know and I can create more content around this in the future.

Strategy #4: Learn about SEO

Yes, a strategy in itself is just mastering Search Engine Optimization, because believe me when I say it matters. If you are unfamiliar with the meaning of SEO, it means the process of improving your copy; like blogs, titles, descriptions, website, etc. to increase its visibility when people search for topics related to your content in Google, YouTube, and other search engines. If you can become an SEO expert, you will be able to optimize all of your platforms to make sure people are finding you. Here are a few tips:

Use SEO Tools: Depending on the platform you are trying to optimize, there are many different tools out there that can help you find searchable keywords or phrases that you should include in your copy. For example, if you listened to strategy number 2 and decide to start a YouTube channel, I recommend using TubeBuddy. It helps me determine which videos will have more potential to be successful and makes finding SEO-rich keywords a breeze. Another great tool you can use to find YouTube ideas and ideas for blogs, products, and more is answerthepublic.com. AnswerThePublic listens to autocomplete data from search engines like Google then quickly cranks out every useful phrase and question people are asking around your keyword. Keywords Everywhere is another great tool to use. These tools are completely free with the option to upgrade, so while you’re starting out, you can take advantage of them without spending a dime. Depending on your platform, just do some digging on what tools are available and utilize them if you can!

Review Your Analytics: Most platforms have some form of analytics or insights that you can review. Using YouTube as another example, if you have a video that is performing really well, you can dive into the analytics and see what keywords folks are searching that are leading them to your video. Sometimes this might inspire another idea and will give you the main keyword you need to make sure your next video is optimized too. The same really goes for all social media platforms and websites. You can always dig into the analytics to find what keywords are driving the most traffic, which will lead you to use those SEO-rich keywords in future content.

Create Timely & Relevant Content: The SEO experts at OptinMonster shared that 72% of marketers say that relevant content creation is the single most effective SEO tactic - which means if you create content that is relevant to your audience AND it is released at the best time - this is one of the best ways to dominate SEO.

Strategy #5: Start with Long-Form Content

As I mentioned earlier in this podcast, it’s not necessary to be on all platforms when you’re just starting out - but if you decide to start your journey using longer-form content; like YouTube, a Blog, or a Podcast - it will be a lot easier for you to start adding more platforms to your strategy as time goes on. Here are two reasons your main platform should be a longer-form piece of content.

Repurposing: Me, talking about repurposing content? Big surprise. If you have not integrated repurposing content into your strategy, you’re truly missing out on saving a lot of time and allowing yourself to be on multiple platforms with less work. I have said this many times, but I will say it again. Though video, podcasts, and even blogs are a big-time commitment in your content creation process - it is so worth it to invest in because it will allow you the opportunity to repurpose on social media. Some examples would be making a graphic carousel, story, photo, or reel highlighting the biggest takeaways from your content. You could create a tweet graphic, quoting a memorable section of your content, or create a meme that references a relatable problem you mentioned. You could even create Pinterest Pins, a Tweet, or a TikTok based on the same long-form content.

Searchability: If you have been involved with social media for a while, you know that posts on platforms like Instagram live and die within a few hours but long-form content can generate results for weeks, months, even years to come. This is why I love YouTube so much. Think of your long-form content like a resource library that can be consumed long after being created and is more searchable than something organized chronologically like social media.

How to know what strategy is right for you?

Now what? How do you know which strategy would work best for you? If it were me and I were just starting out, I would select a long-form piece of content (ya’ll know I recommend YouTube) and then I would put my focus on learning about SEO, so that I can optimize the heck out of my new YouTube channel. Once I started to get into a comfortable routine, I would probably start repurposing my content for a blog and a traffic-driven social media platform, like Pinterest - both of which I would use to drive traffic to my YouTube videos. I would use Instagram as a platform to get to know my community on a more personal level, but my main focus would still be YouTube.

Also, just a bonus tip and something I have learned over the years, even though you don’t have a huge audience yet, make sure you set yourself up for success now. In each of your video descriptions, blogs, show notes, etc. include affiliate, product, and freebie links - that way WHEN all of your hard work pays off, your content is already set up to help you build an income and build your email list. You can always update these in the future, but by setting this up now, you will be saving your future self a lot of work. 😉

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There are so many ways to grow your traffic organically but remember, you don’t need them all at once - just start with what you feel comfortable with and give it your best! I can’t wait to see what you create!