Getting Traffic to Your Site for Free
When you’re pursuing a career as an online entrepreneur in your senior years, you might be doing it on a limited budget. It can be disheartening to read about other marketers who have deep pockets and buy targeted traffic to their domain. You might ask if there is a way to get free traffic for senior marketers.
The answer is, “Yes!” What most seniors don’t realize is that organic, free traffic is not only available in abundance, but it’s easier to get than you may think.
The key is to know all of the options that are available to you, learn how each one works, and implement it as a traffic strategy that grows your views (and sales) over time. One thing you may have to do is agree to get outside of your comfort zone with a few of these methods.
There are workarounds for seniors who know about certain traffic methods, like video marketing, but who don’t want to be on camera. We’re going to dive into all of this information so that you feel confident utilizing it to unleash a flood of visitors to your URL.
Start with one method and integrate it into your weekly traffic plans and then add another technique to the mix. Make sure you’re tracking the results because you might have more success with some strategies over others.
Optimization to Get Your Site Ranked High in Search Engines
Don’t let the concept of search engine optimization (SEO) intimidate you. While there are many agencies who offer their services to clients for this purpose and expensive tools that you can use – it’s also it’s something you can quickly and easily implement yourself without any high-tech gadgets or pricey services.
Let’s start at the beginning. Whenever you are creating content or even setting up the navigation for your site, you want to be thinking in terms of keywords. This is what people will be typing into search engines to look for information that they want or need.
Different Types of Keywords
There are different types of keywords that you can target, both broad and long-tail. Longtail keywords are going to be three or more words in a phrase or sentence. Broad keywords are one to two words maximum.
Whenever you are creating content, you’ll typically be aiming to rank well for one particular keyword phrase. But you will also be using what are known as semantic keywords that are relevant to the main one and can be tied into the content easily.
You also want to be using variations of the main keyword phrase. You can use free keyword tools, or even just go to Google or Amazon and begin typing to see what auto fills in as a potential keyword phrase.
Don’t be afraid to target the longer keyword phrases, because, while they may not have as much traffic for each individual phrase, they are easier to high rank for, and combined, they will add up to substantial traffic.
The keywords that you select will be used in many different areas of your site, including the categories, titles of your blog posts, in the body of the text, and elsewhere. Make sure you are using them naturally and not trying to overuse them in an effort to rank well because that can actually backfire on you.
Don’t forget, that when you are trying to figure out which keywords to use, you also want to rank well for voice search. There are many people who are using gadgets like Siri on their smartphone or Amazon’s Alexa, and instead of using simple phrases, they are speaking in complete sentences and asking the device to find the answers for them.
Using Tags
From a technical standpoint, you can also use the keywords in your tags. You will have title tags and alt tags that help search engine bots figure out what your content is about, including images or videos, and other files that may be embedded into your content.
When you’re thinking about technical SEO, you also want to make sure you are including schema markup. You can use free tools online that will help you implement this into your content, and it basically helps search bots understand the structure of your content and possibly help you get designated as a rich snippet in the search engine results pages (SERPs), showcasing more information to prospective visitors.
User Experience
Next, you want to think in terms of user experience on your site. First and foremost, the site should load quickly and easily. Page load speed is an important factor in whether or not people bounce away from your site or stick around to see what you have to offer, so Google and other search engines take it into consideration when ranking domains.
Google has also adopted a mobile-first ranking system which means they are considering a website’s mobile-friendly nature and its ability to be responsive across many different gadgets and screen sizes.
Not only should your site appear on different devices such as smartphones and tablets, but you have to make sure that it looks correct on different browsers such as Chrome and Firefox.
Backlinks
The next thing you have to do is start thinking in terms of strategic SEO. It’s important that you try to accumulate some authority backlinks to your domain. Obviously, if you are publishing stellar content, many people are going to want to link to your site as a resource.
But if you are not seeing any traction with backlinks, there are a couple of things you can do to improve the situation. Start by keeping track of the backlinks that your site does enjoy.
You can use free tools online where you type in your URL and it will tell you all of the backlinks that are pointing to your domain. Luckily, you can also type in competitors’ URLs, and see who is linking to their sites.
Broken Links
You can also use free tools to see if those website owners have any broken links. So if someone who owns an authority site is linking to one of your competitors and the page is broken, you can approach them and give them an alternative link to your site so that they can fix their broken link, which is damaging to their own SEO.
Another thing you can do is create content that journalists and bloggers are using as sources to back up their own content. For example, if you have data and statistics that you can publish, or you have a list that people would like to refer to, you can use that content in a reverse outreach SEO strategy to get authority sites to easily find your content and search engines and provide a backlink to it in their own pieces.
While backlinks are important, it’s also important that you provide a solid navigation strategy within your own content. When you have a newly published blog post, you want to make sure that it is linking out to other strong pages within your website so that visitors can follow the links to learn more.
The most important thing is that you keep an eye on your SEO frequently. You want to know where your site is ranking for keywords, which pages are performing well (and which aren’t), and how your competitors are doing with their SEO so that you can make sure your site remains competitive.
Content Marketing Strategies That Can Deliver Targeted Traffic
When you begin working online as a senior entrepreneur, you’re going to hear the phrase content is king periodically. That’s because content is what you will be serving up to an audience, in order to get them interested in clicking through to your website as well as purchasing your products or taking your recommendations on what to buy.
There are different things you need to know about content marketing that can help you in terms of traffic. The first is that you never just publish content and never revisited it. Google and other search engines want to see that you have freshened up old content with relevant or new information, so keep track of what you have published and keep an eye out for what you can add to it or update it with.
Different Types of Content
Let’s talk about the different types of content that can help you generate traffic to your site. First and foremost, you can push targeted traffic to your website by offering to guest blog on a competitor’s domain.
They will already have a built-in audience in the same niche topic. The reason they don’t mind you guest blogging is that you are publishing unique content on their site and helping them rank as well, but you get to enjoy the flow of traffic from the link that you add to the post.
To find good guest blogging opportunities, you want to pinpoint the blogs that are already ranking well in your niche and approach the website owner with an idea that you feel their audience would enjoy.
Make sure you write top-notch content so that they won’t hesitate to publish it and also email it out to their subscribers and share it on social media platforms as well. Never assume that the site owner will automatically provide a link to your domain, but instead include a bio or byline with the content that includes your name, a brief synopsis of who you are, and a link to your website.
You might also want to collaborate with other niche marketers to create content together, too. If you do this and it’s published on their site, make sure a link to your own domain is included.
Build a List of Subscribers
Another way you can push traffic to your domain at no cost is to build an email list of subscribers and send them a link to your blog posts whenever you publish new ones. It doesn’t cost anything to begin building a list, because most of the top autoresponder systems allow you a trial of up to a certain number of subscribers before you have to begin paying anything.
Now let’s look at how you can pull traffic to your site rather than push it there. The first place you want to start is with your blog content. Google and other search engines are putting an emphasis on ranking sites that have comprehensive information and that exhibit expertise on a topic as an authority site.
Using Pillar Posts
Look into something known as pillar blog posts. These are comprehensive articles written about a particular topic that dive deep into the subject matter in a way that satisfies the reader so that they don’t have to click out and look elsewhere for more information.
In order to achieve your goals of creating pillar posts, you’ll start with one topic, and drill down or outline it into subtopics that you can cover thoroughly. Also, look for content that they consider to be topic authorities, so the more you can include about your topic that showcases all of your knowledge about it, along with the most current and important information, the better.
Think of any and all questions the reader may have about that particular subject. You can use keyword tools to give you an idea of what people are wanting to know. And you can make a list of all of their struggles and pain points about a topic so that you can address those, along with any goals that they may have.
For example, if you were writing a pillar blog post about how to start as an Internet marketer, you would want to cover everything from content creation to social marketing, email autoresponders and list building, and more.
Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness
When you begin creating your content, keep Google’s recommendation of E-E-A-T in mind. This stands for experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. You want to share your own experiences about this topic, showcase your expertise and authority, and get readers to trust you by providing the best information and sources possible.
All of your content should be geared towards what your reader needs – not just in terms of comprehensive information being included, but also with the way that you convey your message such as the tone and style of the writing.
Keep in mind when you are creating content for your blog, that you can repurpose other content that you have used on another site. If you created a video and uploaded it onto YouTube, for example, you can repurpose that content by turning it into a text transcript that you customize for your blog.
Be Consistent
If you want your content marketing efforts to pay off in terms of traffic generation, you have to be consistent with your publications. Blog readers want to tune in on a regular basis, not revisit a site after three to four months and see that it is still lacking fresh information.
You also want to make sure that you’re not just publishing consistently, but that you are rotating your topics in a logical manner. You can keep an editorial calendar that will help you release information that makes sense at the perfect time.
After you have created and published your content, there are two things you want to do to make sure that it pays off for you in terms of traffic. The first is to share your blog post URLs on social media platforms.
When you share the links, make sure you include a strong call to action that urges people to click through and find out more about the topic. You also want to have a call to action within the blog post, even if you are just encouraging them to sign up to your list.
The second thing you want to do is make sure you engage with people who show up and comment on your blog post. Or, if you share the post on social media, such as on Facebook, and someone comments, respond to them whenever possible.
Video Marketing the Easy Way for Seniors
Video marketing is something that intimidates many senior citizens who are pursuing a career as an online entrepreneur. They either view it as too technical of a task, or they don’t want to be on camera, so they shut down the idea entirely.
Video marketing is neither a complex form of content creation nor a method where you have to put yourself out there if you’re not ready to. You can still leverage this form of traffic generation.
Video Marketing Platforms
There are two different places where video marketing is primarily used. These are YouTube and TikTok. Both of these are social media platforms, but of course, you also have the option to host your videos on a site like Vimeo and embed the video into your content online.
However, YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. So it’s beneficial to you and your organic traffic strategy to use this platform to drive traffic to your domain. Some people, especially seniors, are hesitant to even consider using TikTok, but it is an enormous platform that is growing and includes many seniors in different niches, so you may want to consider using it carefully.
Video Marketing Strategies
Let’s talk about what you need to know when it comes to video marketing strategies. You can register a YouTube channel of your own and create content for that channel that will not only drive traffic to your site from the platform but also allow you and others to embed your video into other websites.
If you are branding your business verbally and using text on screen, you will help drive more people to your site even if someone you don’t know takes your video and embeds it into their blog as additional multimedia content.
YouTube
For YouTube, you want to create some branding for your channel so that it is recognizable. You can also create what’s known as a trailer to introduce your channel and your brand to people who come across it on YouTube.
Recording for YouTube doesn’t require you to have any expensive or specialized equipment. You can use your smartphone or even some screen capture software to do the job.
There are free screen capture tools such as CamStudio where you can record your screen, allowing you to show how you do something online or record a slideshow presentation while simultaneously narrating the video.
If you want to be on camera, you can always set up any type of video recording tool, including a smartphone, and record yourself speaking to the camera so that your viewers get to know you and can develop a more loyal bond with you.
Once you upload your content to YouTube, you need to make sure that it is optimized, because you’re putting it directly into a search engine. You can optimize everything from the file name, using a relevant keyword, to the title of your video.
Make sure you also have your keywords in the description area and the tags that you are using for your video listing. You can create both an intro and an outro that brands your URL, and they also allow you to include a link to your domain in the description area.
TikTok
Now let’s talk about TikTok. This is a platform where short-form videos are ideal. That means your videos can be as little as 15 seconds long, but most are approximately 60 seconds to three minutes max.
They do allow longer videos, but most people on that platform prefer short and engaging content. You can put your link in your profile’s bio area, and just refer people to click the link in your bio whenever you have new content.
TikTok is a great place for different kinds of collaborations. Not only can you approach someone directly for a collaboration where you both go in together on content that you know the target audience will enjoy, but you can also use some of their features to benefit from the other person’s account.
For example, they may have stitching or duetting enabled, and this will allow you to create content that is based on their original video. People will often find your content, and be able to follow the link in your bio if they appreciate what you have to say.
There are other places you can use short-form videos if you are not interested in being on TikTok at all. For example, you can use Instagram Reels. However, it may not have as much traction as TikTok, depending on what niche you are in.
Tools You Can Use
If you are creating a slideshow for your video marketing, you can use tools like PowerPoint or, if you don’t have that, you can use Canva templates for free to create your slideshow presentation and then record it for your video.
For stock images to go into your slideshow presentation, you can use free stock photo sites instead of having to pay for images. To get ideas of what kind of content to create, you can look at your competition to see what users are engaging with the most.
For example, your target audience may respond best to step-by-step, over-the-shoulder tutorials on how to do something. Or, they may love to see unboxing videos where you receive a box of something you ordered in the mail in that niche, and you open it and narrate your thoughts on the product.
You can also create videos where you interview someone and have a split screen effect, where you are reviewing a product that you recommend to them, or you’re just delivering good information that will help them achieve their goals in that niche.
Make sure you always include a call to action, both verbally and with text in the video. You want to send people to your domain and have them do something specific, such as downloading a free gift and getting on to your list.
Tips to Get Your Videos Noticed
We’ve talked a little bit about how to optimize your videos for this particular search engine and keep in mind that Google will also show videos in their search results, too. In order to improve your SEO with this form of multimedia, you have to pay attention to the analytics and see how your audience is responding to your video content so that you can make improvements.
But there are other things you can do, too. For example, if you don’t have a good thumbnail on YouTube, it will not be optimized to get the highest volume of click-throughs possible.
Just like a book cover on Amazon, the thumbnail image is crucial to whether or not it grabs people’s attention and looks professional enough for them to want to click on the link.
As with blog publishing, you want to be consistent with your video marketing efforts. Many YouTubers will publish once a day, but you can also publish once per week if that works better for you.
Be sure to create a transcript of your video and include it with the listing so that search engines can index it and know more about what the content within the video is about. You can even create timestamps for sections of the video and label those with keyword-relevant titles, which help with your optimization and with the user experience in navigating the content.
Using Images for Increased Site Traffic
Images are another tool that seniors can use to drive traffic to their website at no cost to them. You’ve probably heard of Pinterest and Instagram. These are two social media sites where images can be used to generate organic traffic in your niche. You can use your own images or use stock photos from sites that offer them for free such as Pixabay.com
On Pinterest, you’ll want to upload images that are optimized to perform best on that social media platform. For example, vertical images stand out more than short, square images.
Just as you would with video uploads, you want to use your keywords in your titles and descriptions for your image. You can create boards that have your keywords in them and are optimized for being found on the platform, too.
Not only can you have individual boards, but there are some niche leaders who have created shared boards where you can participate and upload your pins to their board, provided you also help share other people’s uploads, too.
On Pinterest, you can have a variety of images that include the title of your blog post that you are linking to, infographics, and even social quote posters that inspire and motivate people.
When you are on Instagram, you can use those same types of image-based content ideas. The key with Instagram is to focus on creating images that stand out in the feed and are visually superior.
This is where stock photos will come in handy, but make sure you use high-quality images and that you brand the image so that if someone shares it, it includes your URL. In order to get more traffic from this platform, you want to make sure your bio has been optimized, too.
Not only should it include certain keywords in your description, but you have to have a link to your website because they don’t allow you to include your links with every upload to the platform.
This is another place where consistency is key to success. Not only should you be publishing on a consistent basis, at least once a day in most cases, but most Instagram users have a specific aesthetic or visual style that they use on each and every post.
To help optimize your Instagram content, make sure you are using hashtags, which are keywords with a # sign in front of it. You don’t want to have too many hashtags, but you don’t want to just use one, either.
Use Canva
If you need help making things like social quote posters or infographics that you feel would benefit your followers, you can use tools like Canva, where there are readymade templates that you can edit and brand.
Social quote posters and plain stock images are much easier to use than trying to create an info product. But those are not out of the realm of your skill set, either. Basically, an infographic distills complex information into a visual and easy-to-understand concept.
You can show how something flows in terms of order, or you can give them several facts to absorb on your infographic. Not only can you use data visuals, but you can also use icons and emojis that help people understand from a glance what you are trying to get across to them.
Take Advantage of Audio to Send Traffic to Your Domain
Let’s not neglect the other media format, audio, when it comes to generating free traffic to your website. Audio is a very easy format for seniors to use, and it isn’t intimidating or complex for those who use that as an excuse not to do something.
There are a couple of different ways you can use audio for traffic generation. One of them will require you to be consistent with your audio, and the other can be a one-time effort.
Podcasts
Consistent publishing of audio is known as podcasting. This is when you will take your niche topic and create an interesting show that is put out in episodes. These can be anywhere from minutes long up to an hour or more.
Typically, you want to aim for approximately 20-minute episodes. Recording a podcast isn’t difficult. You don’t need specialized equipment in the beginning. You can record on your smartphone if you want to.
Then, you will upload it to a platform, such as Anchor.fm, where it’s free to host your podcast, and they will even syndicate it out to other platforms on your behalf at no extra cost.
Your audience is going to want to know when to tune in for the next episode. Some people publish every single day, but you may want to publish once a week. Make sure you are branding your URL verbally and also in the show notes, which is the description area so that you can enjoy the traffic that stems from these efforts.
Take time to listen to other podcasts within your niche so that you can see what kinds of things that people are talking about, what the audience responds best to, and how you can set yourself apart.
Anytime you can recruit a guest to be on your show, this will help generate more traffic for you because they will tell their followers and subscribers to tune into the podcast and hear them deliver their expertise.
You can even make arrangements for guest appearances on other people’s podcasts as an expert where they will mention your URL and send their listeners to your site just for you showing up and taking time to help them create their episode.
Where to Start
If you’re intimidated by the thought of creating a podcast, start with a single episode and expand from there. You can outline your content so that you know what to talk about in a logical order.
Make sure you have any kind of details written down if you need to refer to them, such as any type of data that will support your point of view. It’s best if you don’t read from a script, but some people are good at this, so you’re for you to try your hand at it.
When recording, make sure you are recording in a quiet environment. You don’t want barking dogs or crying children in the background if you happen to be babysitting your grandchildren, for instance.
There are audio editing tools that you can use if you need to record over a certain part or if you need to extract and delete any type of dead air where you are gathering your thoughts and not speaking.
In the beginning, you may want to listen back to your episode to make sure that it sounds good to your audience. You don’t have to be a perfectionist with a podcast, and you can learn from your mistakes whenever you listen to the recordings.
Once you are finished, create your show notes for the description area and make sure you are using your keywords and URL in that space. Most podcasts are listed in a directory, so you need some sort of artwork that will represent it in the listing.
If you want to engage your audience, you can also set up a phone number for listeners to call or have people submit their questions and comments via email so you can read and address them on the next show.
Audiobooks
The other option for using audio for traffic generation is to create audiobooks. These can even be listed on Amazon, but there are other directories as well. This is a one-time recording rather than an episodic series.
You don’t have to outsource the narration to a specialist if you want to record it yourself, but you do want the quality to be high if people are purchasing an audiobook and listening to your information in that manner.
Regardless of what type of audio you are using in your business, always be sure to share the link to it on social media and whenever possible, embed it on your site or allow others to embed it on theirs.
Additional Social Marketing Methods That Generate Free Traffic for Seniors
We’ve talked about many different social media platforms already, including YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and TikTok. But there are others you can use to generate free traffic as a senior marketer as well.
Online Forums
For example, you can start by creating a signature file and participating in online niche forums or communities where your target audience is active. The signature file is a bit of text that you can hyperlink to your domain that appears below each comment that you make in a forum.
Not every community allows this, so if they don’t, you can also put a link to your website in your bio or profile. This will allow people who appreciate your advice in the community to click on your profile and follow the link from that point.
If you go this route, make sure you are not spamming the community, but instead are offering solid guidance to those who are asking questions period the goal is for you to showcase your expertise and make people naturally want to learn more from you.
Another social media platform you’ll want to consider is Facebook. Here, they have pages and groups that you can create where you can share content with your target audience and showcase your links to followers so that they are driven back to your site.
This is a good way to also have your content go viral because people can share it as long as you enable that option for your followers. Another social media platform you may want to use is Twitter.
Depending on the niche, you may be able to employ the use of hashtags so that your content is discovered by a target audience who will appreciate the topic you are blogging about.
Other Platforms
Some people even publish their blog content on LinkedIn, but this is not a good platform for every niche. You’ll have to look to see if people are engaging with content on that topic and whether or not it would be worthwhile for traffic purposes for you to begin using.
There are other platforms that allow you to share content. These include things like Medium or Quora. You might be uploading some sort of content or even just participating by answering questions or engaging with other users.
Consider the Power of Leveraging Live Streams for Traffic
One of the most intimidating options, but one that will benefit you greatly in terms of traffic, is using live streams to send people to your website. A live stream is just as it sounds – you are going live in front of your audience and delivering your information and engaging with them if they post any comments to you.
As with YouTube, you can conduct a live stream on or off camera, depending on what you are discussing. For example, if you don’t want to be on screen, you can always record the space around you, such as a hiking trail if you are in the fitness niche and only want to have the audience hear, not see you.
You can live stream from many different places, including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Some platforms will have a minimum requirement, such as 1000 followers before you can begin live streaming.
Tips for Live Streaming
If you want to get the best reaction for your stream, you will announce it ahead of time so that people know when they can tune in to see the entire presentation or get to engage with you directly and ask questions.
Have a Moderator
You may also want to see if someone who is a follower will be willing to act as moderator so that they can filter out any negative comments and also help get the right questions to you so that you are not having to speak and watch the stream of comments come in at the same time.
If you want to try your hand at live streaming, prepare for it the same way you would a podcast. Select a topic that you want to discuss and research it so that you know what points you want to make.
Prepare Your Space
Have your equipment ready and a good space for the live stream to take place, and schedule it ahead of time so that you have an audience. This might be a one-time event, or you may want to do it on a regular basis at a specific time each week.
You might want to engage with your audience throughout the entire live stream, or deliver a presentation and take questions at the end. Make sure you are not only branding your domain name during the presentation but also including a call to action for your viewers to go to the website to download something or get on your list.
When you’re on a live stream, make sure you are looking at the camera lens and not at yourself on the screen. If you’re looking at the camera lens, viewers will see that as you looking directly at them.
If you are looking at yourself on the screen, they will see it as you looking off to the side, which is awkward. Make sure the space around you is clean and inviting and that you are dressed and ready just as you would for a presentation in person.
Try not to be nervous, but if you are just be genuine about it and allow yourself to slow down and take your time so that you don’t rush through your presentation. You want to put the viewer at ease, and your nervousness will make them antsy to escape.
Keep in mind you also don’t have to record anything in your surroundings if you don’t want to. There are live streams where you are using screen sharing tools and showing something on your computer such as a slide show presentation while you narrate it.
Keep it Moving
Make sure you keep the stream going so that viewers are not having to sit and listen to you greet each person that hops on. There’s nothing more annoying than watching a live stream and the host keeps saying, “Oh, hi so-and-so!”
Remember that the viewer wants you to respect their time as well, so you want to make sure you deliver all of the information first and then incorporate the engagement with your followers after so that those who need to leave can do so feeling satisfied.
If you are extremely nervous about conducting a live stream, you might want to bring on a cohost or guest speaker for the first one using a split screen approach so that you’re not alone your very first time.
When you are finished with your live stream, if you’ve been able to record it, you can use that as content at a later date to help drive traffic back to your site. For example, if you record a Facebook live stream, you can upload that to YouTube and send traffic from that search engine and social media platform back to your website.
Generating free traffic for senior marketers may take a little more effort and a little more time than for those who can afford to hire an ad agency to run paid ads for them. However, if you use the above strategies effectively, giving ample value to your audience, you will have a fiercely loyal audience that converts much better for you than if you went broke trying to pay for strangers to land on your domain.
