5 Quick, Free Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Local Business Website
You’re looking for ways to drive traffic to your Local Business Website…
Gotta be quick, like today…
Gotta be cheap, better yet, Free… That Works!
Well here ya go…
With a little investment of time…
Here’re five of the quickest, easiest (and Free) ways to get drive traffic to your local business website today:
1. Scout out Local Blogs. Add Value to the Conversation with Meaningful Comments
Blogs can be found on almost any subject so finding one that is interesting to your customers should be easy. For example, if your business relates to home improvement (handyman, paint store, hardware store, interior design, kitchen remodeler etc.) look for home decor or real estate related blogs. Spend a few minutes reading though the recent posts and comments to get a feel of the community.
Go to Google Blog Search: search keyword plus your geographic area. For example, “homes & gardens Lancaster,PA”
A blog with lots of comments and regular readers is the ideal place to post your comment. Remember a blog is a community, not a classified site. Offer some relevant information or contribute to the conversation. There is usually a spot for you to list your website in the same area where you enter your name and email address. Enter your website here and not in your post. Self-serving comments are usually quickly deleted, wasting your time and the blog owners. Don’t do it. If your comments are interesting people will look to your website for more information.
2. Connect with others. Check out Local Message Boards /Forums
Many communities have message boards set up for talking about local events, politics, news and businesses. Check with the site rules (usually posted at the top of most boards) to see if links are allowed in forum postings. If so use this area to provide a link to your website at the bottom of each of your posts. This is another area where it pays to check out the community and observe before jumping in to the conversation. Be respectful. Be helpful. Set up a signature link that draws people to you without being in their face.
3. Post ads on classified ad sites
There are sites, such as Craigslist, where classified ads are not only allowed they are welcomed. Write a brief, compelling ad and provide a link to your website for more information. (Even better, create a “Clickable” Craigs List Ad with a Compelling “Graphic-Designed” Message) You can repost your ad often, testing different formats and offers to find what works best. (This is also a great, low cost way to test you ad copy for direct mail or other advertising as well).
4. Exchange links or banner ads with other non-competing local businesses
Leverage the traffic of other local sites by exchanging links with a local site that caters to the same customers but is not in direct competition with you. For example, an insurance agent and a realtor.
5. Add your business to local directories
Local directories often rank high on search engines for many different terms so being listed with them can only help build your traffic. Many offer free basic listings as well as paid premium listings. Consider a premium listing if your budget allows for it. It can give you a decisive edge over your competition.
More on Driving Traffic to Your Local Business Website:
- To Get And Maintain Website Traffic You Need Unique Quality Content (ronmedlin.com)
- Backlink Building – One Of The Most Reliable Online Business Growth Strategies (ronmedlin.com)
What’s Your Number One Current Marketing Challenge?
Is it…
- Driving traffic to your local business website?
- Generating leads from your local website?
- Identifying your target market… your Ideal Client?
- Figuring out how to use Social Media Marketing… Twitter, Facebook, YouTube?
- Communicating with current clients?
- Eliminating price shoppers?
- Something else?
Please share your Marketing Challenge in the Comments Below.
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hey dude
Great stuff! i got a lot of inspiration from this post
i went through this page four times
it is very interesting ….
am learning for social work
Thanks
Walt, great ideas in here. Thank you! Do you think it is anyway detracting for a company to post to craigslist? Would it detract from people’s perspective of us as a quality brand?
Spot on advice, Walt. While your readers are following it, there may be one other tip they could try: since you already told them how to identify those top local blogs, and also suggested they set up reciprocal links, they could also offer reciprocal posts: “I’ll blog for you and you blog for me.” It’s a fun way to bridge online and offline community building.
@seminar projects Thanks for your visit. Appreciate your feedback. Hope you’re finding value you can apply to your social work.
@Matt Blank Thanks Matt. Also glad to hear you’re finding value.
On the Craigslist thing… You’re right, it’s lots of budget, bargain hunters, like the Penny Saver type weekly newspapers offline. Took a look at your website and blog. Nice, and lots of information. Perhaps what might work best for you is a two-step approach on a CraigsList or free online listing site.
Advertise a Free Download Report, such as “The Top 9 Money-Sucking Mistakes Smart Homeowners Make When Hiring a Home Improvement Pro”. You already have this info in your blog. Simply package it together in a download report. When prospects request it, you’ve generated a lead. You can follow-up automatically with your newsletter and periodic Special Offers, and through your materials somewhat have these leads self-qualify.
If you go for promoting Free Estimates on a Craigslist, you’ll probably generate price-shopper calls. But, if you’re staffed to handle calls and you have a good phone qualification process, maybe that’s ok for your business.
Every business is different. It depends upon what type of action you want prospects to take, the market you’re trying to target, and your current marketing and sales processes.
What’s great about Craigslist is it’s free. The site gets lots of traffic. Your ad will index fast in Google. (good to use keywords) Try to use an anchor text link in your ad, for example “Lancaster County,PA-Free Remodeling Tips and Tricks Report” to help your Google search rankings. (Caution: Sometimes the Craigslist community will vote down these links)
One more thing on protecting your brand on a Craigslist or any free or low-cost media. You can choose to use a keyword domain, such as “lancastercountyremodeltips.com” to drive traffic to your free report.
Use your free report to educate and tell your brand story. Put in testimonials, links to photos of projects, type of projects you do, your process.
Use the free site to “sell” the information, the free report. Use your free report to sell your free “In-Home 25 Point Home Value Preservation Inspection”
On any of these free classified sites, what’s great is it doesn’t cost you anything to test and tweak your ads.
@Kai Thanks for your visit and adding a marketing tip to the mix.
I agree… once you built a relationship with a local blog, got links going back and forth… hey, why not exchange posts?
Makes sense… I’m sure a guy like Matt, a Home Improvement Pro, could add value with his information to a local realtor’s blog.
Walt, I really appreciate the info! I have actually teamed up with a few realtors already with guest blogs, but am always looking for new blogs, ideas, approaches, etc. Thank you for taking the time to respond.
Thanks for a great blog post! I have looked for blogs before but never really considered looking for local blogs. I like the banner ads idea. I really don’t know much about them so that is something I will have to look into.
@ Matt Blank Look forward to seeing your contributions on the local blogs!
@Wendy A. Hey Wendy, Welcome! Thanks for hoping on over from Twitter!
Wow, you should sure should have lots of local blogging opportunities to explore about the Lancaster County Tourist scene.
Links, especially keyword anchor links, you can sweet talk or earn from other sites are probably better than Banner Ads, unless you can get a great “above the fold” Banner Ad on a high traffic site.
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by waltgoshert: 5 Quick, Free Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Local Business Website http://shar.es/mWwft...
Great blog. Well said, brief and concise. I will share this to friends of mine. Thanks
Hi there. This is an awesome posts. Thanks for sharing the idea. I also knew a tool that effectively markets you website and drives traffic well. That is offline advertising. Yes it is. For example, I’ve had great luck with postcards, display ads, classified ads and recently radio advertising, which I am finding very interesting for driving qualified leads to my business.
lol I love the image used at the top. Great info. I have found printed offline media formats to be useful too, especially when your audience is local.
Ray@Small Business Advertising´s last blog ..Affordable Business Advertising and Social Media Content Creation
KeywordLuv has helped grow my blog. Readers should give it a try. It helps build traffic and give a little love back to your readers.
http://www.foxads.co.uk provides free listing of your classified ad in UK. Local free submission of your classified ad provides a simple avenue for the sale of your items, products or services. Registration is easy through direct registration page or through facebook or twitter accounts. You can make your ad premium by payment of nominal fee of £3-00 and increase the chances of your sale.
great ideas, its making our business good..in social works..thanks for this post.
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WARNING: Before you leave a comment on this post, please read Number 1, and add some freaking value to the conversation here.
I’ve let the last several comments slide, only as an example of what NOT to do.
Hey, just because this post is a PR2 with Comment Luv and link follow, doesn’t mean it’s smart marketing to get a cheap irrelevant link to your unrelated site.
Plus, the last two most recent look like comments from an ad agency on behalf of a link building campaign for a client? Wow… does the client know you’re doing this? I’ve looked at the sites… no way this backlink is really gonna help to rank a homepage for MEANINGFUL BUYING KEYWORDS for your client without keyword anchor links. Without that, it’s a wasted link.
If you don’t “get” where I’m coming from, read my “About” page… watch the video.
“Hey, Lama… how ’bout a little something, you know for the effort?”
Hey Commenters… how ’bout you actually MAKE a little effort for something?
LUV,
WG
Love the graphic, this in itself is a great way for local business to be different and get more business.Mobile is an up and coming method ,a cheap simple site,no slow loading graphics, with a connection to the business telephone number,works like gangbusters for restaurants.
Norman@internet Marketing Services´s last blog ..Four Methods of Internet Promotion That Benefit Your Business
this is a great stuff! that how to get good traffic on your local business website and promote your site
thanks.
hehehe!
very catchy slogan.
thanks for sharing it.
Jenny@ MS Small Business Resources´s last blog ..Jul 12- Small Business Plan Outline
These are some good tipes..finding free high value local directories can be a challenge though. Contriubting to local blogs is a great idea.
Thanks for sharing such great tips. Traffic is really important to a business website. It’s like free marketing.
I’ve used local directories before and I can say that they are really helpful in driving traffic to my site because these pages are really index by search engines.
Business Website´s last blog ..Variable Data Printing- A New Twist to an Old Method
Thanks a lot for such a lovely post.It definitely helps webmasters like us.
Bookmarked this post !!!
ArticlesColumn´s last blog ..The Importance of Fiber In A Colon Cleansing Diet
I say that paid linking is good for building your site, but you have to be smart about it. You can always do it the old fashion way by commenting on blogs and forums, but very time consuming.
The main reason for building a website or creating a blog is in hopes of either making money or getting people to read what you have to say.
In order to do either we need website visitors. And not all website visitors are equal. It’s best if a high percentage of your website visitors are people interested in the subject of your site, not people who wind up there by accident.
Message boards and discussion forums are places where you can link to your site either through your signature or links placed within your messages. This is however a labor-intensive process. Message boards have become far too common, and you have to target some targeted niche boards to have an impact. Also, you have to earn your trust on the boards, and that is a long process as well. If you already have such a position on a web-board, you might be able to use it to your advantage – otherwise, you should undertake this route after careful consideration of all other methods for generating free traffic.
There is a lot of good information here. It is always good to get more traffic in free ways. If you add high quality posts to a blog then people will more likely go to your site and see what it’s about.
Don’t forget to use social media marketing tools like facebook,youtube,twitter,,,etc .If you use these tools wisely you can increase the amount of traffic to your website.Make some videos about your product or your business ,if possible,and post these videos on youtube .You can use twitter to tweet launch of a new product or announcing a discount ,,etc etc.
Yahoo! Answers is a very effective method of driving traffic to your business website. You can scour the site for people asking for help with just about anything. if you’re a plumber with a business website, you can look up plumbing topics and help people out with their problems. You are not allowed to openly market yourself on Yahoo! Answers, but if you are adding value to the site by providing valuable information, then naming your website as the source of your answer is generally accepted.
I don’t know about local blogs. It doesn’t really matter if a blog is local or worldwide, I am sure they get visitors from all over the world. The rest of the tips are very useful though. However, IMHO, the best way for a local business to get traffic would be to advertise on facebook. They can target the exact geographic location and even though it costs some money, the business will get great returns on the investment.
Kevin@How To Get My Ex Back´s last blog ..5 Signs Your Ex Wants You Back
A lot of ways to have a good rate of traffic for your business,some of it requires you to submit ads and they will be the ones to direct it through sites.Some of it are time consuming but worth the wait.
Thanks for the effort you took to expand upon this post so thoroughly.
We should join a discussion forums with a chat room, because we need information. The best benefits about using a forum or chat room is that you can talk about any problem you have and ask any questions you might have in your mind.
Forum Buddy´s last blog ..Home &38 Garden • Virginia Creeper- a fall color vine
nice checklist i agree with this. there is something i would like to add Please do not forget to add your business site to google news
Your web-site about Local SEO looks very useful and challenging! I identified your internet site by way of Yahoo and your articles definitely captured my attention. I have viewed a lot of many so-called sites and these blogs have been far from perfect quality.Your web site has all the essential elements to drawing site visitors.
Another important one of the free ways to increase traffic on your web site is to use facebook. Don’t overlook this important feature. Facebook has a lot of power, even Google is starting to post some facebook status updates on the top of the search engines for certain keywords. Targeting your market with a fan or group page is imperative these days. And writing a facebook note and linking it to your website or other content will really help.
With a blog, you’re in control of your updates and adding information to your website- you’re no longer held hostage to your web designer charging you for every little update. A local business blog is great for your SEO effort, and along with Social Media promotion, is the tool to position you as the “go-to” business in your community.
Thanks for the tips Walt. I just learned about the Google Blog Search feature. In fact I was not aware about that search engine. In my opinion, banner exchange does not work as it supposed to work,
Jesica´s last blog ..Bar Stools
Video marketing is largely an untapped avenue for local businesses. With an inexpensive “instant” video camera, it’s simple and easy to record videos and upload them to YouTube and other video sharing sites. Many local businesses shy away from video thinking it’s too complex and that it requires professional quality. Not so. Make your videos real and authentic and you’ll be surprised how your prospects and customers will share them online.
Nice clear and concise article,and useful suggestions. Thanks
Craigslist has been kind of a disappointment to me personally. It’s filled with too many scam artists and poor listings. If it works for you though I say go for it.
Jared,
Thanks for the visit and your comment.
I agree… 95% of the stuff on Craigs List is crap. But Google loves it as an authority site, so any keyword rich ads you post are indexed immediately. The key is to get people OFF Craigs List to your site, or get them to call you just added the link in the post yesterday on a special online report and service I’m launching next week on how to do Craigs List (and all online classified ad sites effectively)
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Great tips, however Social Media Marketing such as twitter, youtube and facebook are understimed by most companies. For myself i can see a huge traffic/income difference with/without using social medias.
Another way to generate a large amount of backlinks is using social media, for example take facebook.
You start a serious competition targetting blog users, let say you have a “Home energy saving device” – Help save energy and our world.
And you say we give out, gift cards/free products to users that helps saving our world and lowering energy usage.
You submit your “free giveaway competition” to sites that lists free products and giveaways.
To compete in this competition: You need to state that they need to write a blog post/twitter message how they save the environment, what changes they have done.
You will then get a 100% relvenant target backlink, and loads of backlinks.. You can spin this thing loads of time and… *wink wink* tax reduction.
I agree… once you built a relationship with a local blog, got links going back and forth… hey, why not exchange posts?
thanks you are sharing a post
Hi,
There are a lot of factors to follow and rules to respect. stand out from the crowd, it is one of the best ways to increase traffic, think of it like this: why would anyone visit my website upon a competitor of mine on the same niche ? What’s so special and unique about my website ? Why should I deserve more traffic upon one of my competitors ? Those are great questions that you must answer yourself being sincerely, answer the questions then start working harder and better, try to focus more on your work and don’t think non-stop about the money, keep the passion for your work on. Thank you very much for sharing this excellent article, keep up the good work !
Best regards,
DJ Trinity´s last blog ..New Top Rap Songs 2011
A very interesting article. There is so much of our brains that we don’t use, and yet all is so vital. If anything, the worst thing we can do to ourselves and brain is not continue learning, don’t you think?
Can someone explain to me about automated tools for building links. An SEO company said they could use them for me, but then a friend said to not use them because they might get my website banned.
Any thoughts on this please?
ty
Steve
Steve´s last blog ..preparing for an emergency situation