5 Simple, Free Ways to Direct More Traffic to Your Website (Without Working Harder!)
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As a creative business owner, you know how important it is to direct traffic to your website — and how it’s even more important to generate quality leads that are actually interested in your business and your services.
One of the easiest ways to direct more quality, organic traffic to your website is to capitalize on the platforms where you’re already showing up and connecting with your people.
What is Organic Website Traffic?
Organic traffic is the lifeblood of any website. It is the unending stream of visitors who come to your site without you having to pay for them. They show up because they want to know more about you and your services specifically, and if you’re lucky, they might even stay for a while, return a time or two, and book your services or a discovery call to learn more about how to work with you.
So how can you get more organic website traffic?
There are two main ways: by optimizing your site for search engines and by promoting your content on social media. In this article, we’re going to focus on 5 easy wins you can accomplish in the next 30 minutes to better promote your website on the social media platforms where you’re already showing up.
To be clear, this is not an article about creating content for social media; this is a checklist of tasks to make sure you are linking your website in all the places you’re showing up online, so that when you show up you’re giving potential clients easy access to your website and other relevant content.
As a note, if you don’t yet have a website, you can replace “website” with a Linktree link, your email address, a DotCal link, or wherever you are currently directing traffic to get in contact with you.
One: Link to your Website in your Instagram Bio
I’m listing this one first because I hope you get an easy win and can check this tip off your list without having to lift a finger. Because this is such an obvious first step, I won’t spend too much time explaining it.
Suffice it to say, if you haven’t already added a link to your website in your Instagram bio — you’re missing out on valuable organic traffic.
The people you’re connected with on IG decided to follow you for a reason, and as much as IG wants us to stay on their platform, linking out to your own website is a valuable feature, and a great way to let your Instagram followers know where they can learn more about, and take the next steps with, your business.
If you’re not familiar with setting this up, you’ll want to follow these steps to add your link to your IG bio:
- Open the Instagram app on your phone.
- Navigate to your profile by clicking the circle with your photo on the bottom right hand corner of the app.
- Choose “Edit Profile” in the top-middle, right side of the screen.
- Click “Links”
- Add your URL and a title if one applies
- Click the blue check mark in the top right corner.
- Navigate back to your profile and make sure everything looks correct.
- You’re all set!
Two: Link to your Website in your Facebook Profile(s)
While adding a link to your IG bio seems like a no brainer these days, many people forget that Facebook also allows you to link to your website — plus there are a few sneaky ways you can add links to your Facebook page(s) that will direct people to the links you want them to view.
Linking to your Website from your Personal or Business Facebook Page
1. Under “Edit Profile” you can add one or more links to your Facebook bio on either page. I suggest adding as many relevant links as you have (website, socials, whatsapp, etc)
2. Add a link to your website with a call to action to the descriptions of both your profile and cover images — this tip also works on either page. Bonus tip: use your cover image as a Call to Action to visit your site.
3. Share your business and a relevant link every once in a while on Facebook — you never know when someone you know is going to need your services and you want to stay top of mind!
Three: Add a Link to your Website in all Email Communication
You show up in the inboxes of potential clients all day long. Sure, many of the people you’re communicating with are already clients, but many of those with whom you interact are businesses and individuals in industries adjacent to your own who could become, or might know, a potential client for you — and chances are you have content on your blog that even your existing clients would benefit from reading.
In order to best direct traffic from your emails to your website, add your website URL to your email signature, so that your website is always readily available to those with whom you’re communicating.
Need to create a simple email signature that works in both Google and Dubsado? Try out this template!
In addition, if you’re emailing an active email list using software like ConvertKit, Flodesk, Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign, you’re going to want to include a link to your email in every single email you send out.
Typically you’ll want your email marketing to have a specific Call to Action — for example, “Book a Call” with a link to your contact page — but even if you’re not sending a sales email, you’ll want to include your website as a link at the top or bottom of the email in case someone who’s been lurking on your list is finally read to take the plunge to learn more and book with you.
Four: Set up a Google My Business Profile
A Google My Business profile is a free listing that allows businesses to control how their business is represented on Google. It includes information such as your business’s name, address, phone number, hours of operation and, you guessed it, a link directly to your website.
It might seem intimidating to dive into this tool but my best advice is to get the bare minimum set up ASAP — including claiming your business, adding a few photos, and filling in all your details.
The biggest benefit of a Google My Business profile?
Validating your business in the online space.
Everyone knows Google is THE place to search on the internet, and when someone searches for your business name, you want them to see that Google recognizes you as a legitimate business — and with that trust factor already in their mind, potential clients can click through to your website right from your profile.
Five: Use a QR code that Links to your Website on Printed Materials
While most of us consider “social media” to be online based — there is in fact still a real world out there where people show up to be social in person. At these events, you’ll typically bring some sort of printed materials (signs, brochures, business cards, etc), aka the “media”.
Despite being at an in-person event, many times it makes sense to direct potential clients back to your digital world because it’s where you have the most available information about you and your business.
In order to place your website easily in the hands of in-person potential clients, you can add a QR code to your printed materials that links to your website. In this way they’ll be able to hover over your QR code with their phone, and click a link that sends them to a website or page of your choosing.
This works especially well if you want attendees and potential clients to follow a specific action after they meet you, like sign up for your mailing list or book a call with you.
Looking for a free and easy way to create a QR code for your printed materials? Check out this article on how to create a QR code for free using Canva!
Bonus Tip: Share your Existing Content to Pinterest
In this article we focused on easy wins that don’t require you to have anything other than a link or website to which you want to drive traffic.
While I don’t want to discourage anyone who doesn’t yet have a website or articles, I want to include one last quick tip for those of you who are already effectively creating content on your sites.
If you’re creating blog content I know how hard you’re working on it — and I know how much you want to get it in front of the eyes of your ideal clients. To do this, posting on your website alone isn’t enough.
This is your reminder to get your content out there on Pinterest once you’ve published it to your website — when you share your blog articles on Pinterest, they have the potential to be seen by anyone who comes across them. With over 300 million monthly active users, Pinterest is a powerful tool that can help you drive traffic to your website and grow your business — and it’s one I highly recommend utilizing to get your content in front of even more qualified leads each month.
It’s time to implement!
The list above is intended to be full of easy wins and it should take you fewer than 30 minutes to accomplish all five of the tasks.
Once you’re done you’ll not only feel super accomplished, you’ll know that you are putting your best (digital) foot forward everywhere you are showing up, in order to direct quality, organic traffic to your website.
Dive Deeper:
I’m Christina Marie Anderson, owner of Wandersoul Co — a web development studio packed with personality.
I make investing in a WordPress website fast, simple and approachable for confident creative business owners, alongside offering white-label development services to brand designers and creative studios who are tired of building websites in-house.
Learn more about Wandersoul Co at wandersoulco.com and learn all about using Elementor to build WordPress websites @wandersoulwebdesign